“A little.”
“Yeah, this recipe needs workshopping,” Macon said with a nod while grabbing another cookie. “Sorry, kids, gotta run but keep up the good work.”
I sighed because I’d had such high hopes.
“Maybe soak the beans next time. Might make them a little softer,” Cipher suggested. He grabbed a few more and tucked them into his leather bag.
“What are you doing with those?” I asked.
“Saving them for later.”
“You don’t have to eat them if they taste bad,” I said.
“I didn’t say that. The texture is a little strange, but they’re weirdly satisfying.”
“There is a lot of shortening in them,” I admitted.
“I’m going to do a perimeter check on the fence. Don’t give up on your baking dreams just yet, okay? Either of you.” He nodded at Teresa too.
“We won’t,” she said jovially and waved him goodbye.
“I think we have a problem,” I said, looking at the rest of our pile.
“Maybe we could call them something else,” she suggested. “Biscuits?”
“Yeah, I think with some jam and tea they wouldn’t be so bad.” I mulled it over while nibbling at the edge of the “biscuit.” Definitely more savory than sweet. Maybe I added too much salt?
“If Selena likes them, I’ll tell her I made them, but if she doesn’t, I’ll tell her you made them,” Teresa said.
I shook my head at her ridiculousness, though it was sweet that she wanted to impress her new friend. “I’ll take the hit for you, I suppose, but you should know it’s the thought that counts. You and Selena get along good, huh?”
“She’s very cool. Also nice and pretty. And fun to be around.”
“I’m glad that you made a new friend.”
“You’re not jealous?” she asked.
“Should I be?”
“Well, youweremy best friend for a while.”
“Were?” I asked and pretended to be offended at her teasing.
“Yeah, you’ve got some competition now,” she said slyly. “You’re going to have to up your game, Kitten.”
“I definitely need to figure out a better sugar cookie recipe. Thank God Selena didn’t come with a cat or you’d have forgotten all about me by now. Here,” I handed her a few flowers that I’d picked earlier to add to her housewarming basket. “That will make up for it if she doesn’t like the cookies. Cipher said he’d build me a beehive, and then we can go looking for a wild swarm. Imagine having jars and jars of honey around whenever we wanted it?”
“So delicious,” she said with a wistful sigh. Teresa shared my obsession over baked goods, dairy, and sweets. Cheese made life worth living. She gathered up her covered basket to share with the B-holes while I headed over to our garage to get Gizmo and Wylie’s opinion.
“What are they?” Gizmo asked, inspecting my tray of delights.
“We’re calling them biscuits. They’re really good for you,” I said, figuring I’d better sell it. They each took a biscuit in hand and gave them a try.
“Not what I expected,” Wylie said. “But not bad either.”
I glanced around the garage, admiring the progress they’d made on the CCTV system. We’d scavenged the neighborhood for cameras and out of the dozen or so we’d found, our techies got six of them working. We’d also had to bring back all the cable we could find to link them up. The wires were all over the place due to the cameras being spread out around the compound. Gizmo and Wylie were explaining to me how it all worked, something about a closed loop, getting more excited as they went along. Regardless, their setup was impressive.
They’d stacked the monitors on a metal grid so that we could see multiple views at once: our front gate, the back half of ourproperty facing the woods, the yard where our chickens and ducks were kept, our field of crops, and the magnolia tree where Cipher and I liked to picnic. The videos were black and white and a little grainy, but I could easily make out Macon and Artemis underneath that same magnolia tree, dancing together. Macon twirled Artemis and she laughed. Then he dipped her slightly like a gentleman in one of those old-timey movies. My heart warmed at the sight of them.
