SEVEN
STELLA
“What the hell, Stella!” Luna’s voice yelled from the back door of the bakery. “Why didn’t you call me back last night?”
Luna had called me twice and texted about seventy—only a slight exaggeration—times after I had gone to the bar to meet Axel.
I sent her a text as I left the bar, letting her know that Axel and Vince had gone to talk to Braden in person and the message they’d sent was crystal clear. He shouldn’t be a threat anymore, but she would have to wait until tomorrow for all the details since I was tired and had to be up early since Isabel was out today.
I put my phone on silent when I got home and promptly went to bed, where I proceeded to dream naughty thoughts about Axel all night long.
“Hi Luna,” I called back to her in an overly chipper voice.
“Don’t you give me that saccharin voice, hoping to avoid the question,” she shot back, coming to stand across from me at the giant stainless steel prep table. Her position made it virtually impossible not to see her, which was likely her plan.
Clearly, Luna was not happy she’d had to wait.
“I didn’t call you back because Isabel is off today so I had to get my butt here at six in the morning to start baking—which you knew,” I pointed out to her as I piped in the cream filling for thesemlabuns.
“Yes, but this is kind of important, so talk,” Luna demanded. “And don’t skimp on the details.”
I regurgitated every detail that Axel had told me about the interaction with Braden. What his reactions were to the questions they’d asked, including how he tried to act like I had been the one to flirt with him, not the other way around.
“What a little shit-wad,” Luna grumbled.
“Oh, and the best part,” I said, leaving the sentence hanging a little bit before I gave her the rest.
“What?” she asked impatiently.
“Axel told Braden that I had a man, implying thathewas that man, andhewould not be happy if Braden kept bothering me,” I told her, smiling as I told her the story.
Luna’s jaw dropped open, and then her lips slowly turned into the biggest smile. “Eeeeeek! That is so cute!”
“Luna, he did it so that Braden would take a hint and leave me alone, not because he actually wants to date me,” I told her, though I wasn’t entirely sure about that.
“What’s this? You’re dating someone who knows that Braden loser?” Milo’s voice chimed from the back door.
“What are you doing here?” I asked him, shocked that he was here so early. “You know your shift doesn’t start for another four hours.”
“I left my credit card here last night by accident,” he said pointing to something over by the computer. “I came here to grab it before I run errands, and then I’ll come back. But first you need to answer my question about dating someone who knows the weirdo.”
“It’s not what you think,” I started to tell him, but Luna interrupted.
“Axel and Vince from the security company went to visit Braden yesterday and scared the shit out of him,” she told him animatedly, hands moving wildly. “They told Braden that Stella had a man now, and he would be pissed if he kept bothering her. Adding in the dating someone part was genius, especially coming from those guys, because they are big and scary-looking dudes.”
“I see how it is,” Milo said, shaking his head at Luna. “If I come up with the idea, it’s lame, but if the bulky security guys say it’s a good idea, then you love it.”
“What are you talking about?” Luna asked him.
“I suggested this same idea to you and Stella over a month ago so Braden would back off,” Milo reminded me. “Some guys get territorial like that. I told Stella to tell him that she was dating Drake or me.”
“Drake is like eighteen years old. No one would believe that,” Luna pointed out.
“Actually, I’m twenty-one,” Drake interrupted as he walked in carrying a tray of dirty dishes.
“Whatever. You get the point, though,” Milo said.
“I guess I just didn’t think it was that big of a deal at the time,” I told him honestly. “You’re right, though, I should have tried that.”
