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The women stare at him.
He chews, swallows, and nods toward the table beside ours. “You lot should be more worried about those beige pucks. Kids could break their teeth on one of those.”
He takes another bite. “Meanwhile, she’s already raised more money in ten minutes than this whole wall will all afternoon.”
“That isn’t the point,” Jean says tightly.
“I thought raising money was the entire point,” Levi says around a mouthful of brownie.
The two women look to Jean, waiting for her to respond.
“Children function better without sugar—” Jean starts.
“Lady, if your kid chooses a brick of sawdust over this, you’ve got bigger problems to worry about.”
Jean’s face reddens.
“This is completely against the rules,” she snaps. “I’m going to have to report this to Principal Grover.”
“I don’t give a fuck,” Levi says flatly. “Tell her.”
I wince. The three women just stare at him. I bite my lip, torn between mortification and an inappropriate urge to laugh.
“Oh my god,” one of them mutters. They all walk off in a huff.
I turn to tell him he shouldn’t have said that—and definitely shouldn’t have cursed—but the words die on my tongue. He’s shoved the rest of the brownie into his mouth, smearing chocolate on his lip.
“I’m so sorry,” I say instead. “I didn’t know things were this…weird these days.”
“They should be grateful,” he says. “Look how much cash you raised. These are good. And I’m not even big on sweets.”
I can’t help but laugh. For a man who claims he’s not big on sweets, he’s already reaching for his fifth brownie.
“Stop it,” I say, with no real heat as he grabs another.
“Hey, I’m a paying customer.” He pulls out his wallet and hands me a fifty-dollar bill.
“You owe me ten.”
“Keep it,” he says, taking another bite. “It’s for the community, right?”
“The community,” I repeat, amused.
Before we can even unpack the last of the containers, a woman in a tight black blazer comes storming over. I’m guessing she’s the principal.
“Mr. James.” Her gaze settles on the brownie in his hand. “We have guidelines—”
“Yeah. Heard.”
“And yet you chose to ignore them.”
“No. Didn’t read them.”
Her mouth tightens. “That is not better.”
Levi gestures at the overflowing money tin. “You want money or not? Beats the twelve collective cents everyone else has raised.”
Her mouth pulls into a tight line.
