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Days turn into weeks.

When they finally confess to their ten-thousand-dollar bet, I don’t know whether to laugh or throw a whisk at them. I do both. Then I make sure it pays out. Cole and Marcus each owe Gabe ten grand for fulfilling my wish first. Gabe adds ten of his own, and thirty grand goes to Wayward Hills.

Marcus delivers the check himself. When he comes back, he mentions that one of the boys wants to know if he takes summer help.

“What’d you tell him?” I ask.

“Told him to call me.”

I kiss him like he’s just handed me the thirty grand instead.

After much discussion, I let Cole buy me a new car. Nothing fancy. A minivan so I can haul my pastries.

There’s room for a car seat, too. That thought stays with me longer than I expect.

We can’t spend all our time at Gabe’s, but when we’re not all together, it feels strange. I have alone time with each of them throughout the week, but on the weekends, I’m all of theirs.

It takes some figuring out. Who’s working late. Who’s picking up dinner. Whether I actually want help or just want to complain while someone rubs my feet.

They’re getting better at asking.

I’m getting better at letting them.

The third week, Cole closes on a large house in the middle of Garland Falls. It’s close to his office, close to Marcus’s apartment. Gabe has a bit of a drive, but he says he doesn’t mind.

I move out of my apartment and into the house, and they meet me there as often as work allows.

I give them each a drawer. Marcus fills his the same night. Gabe brings clothes and three pans he insists are better than the ones Cole bought.

Cole leaves a shirt, then another, until I open his drawer and raise an eyebrow.

“You planning on staying, Hayes?”

“That was the idea.”

I close the drawer and pull him down for a kiss.

“Good.”

I love the place because it has a giant kitchen. Sugar & Coal’s holiday pre-order list already runs three pages, and the black-rose cupcake has its own waitlist.

Suzanne has booked me for the December market. I’ve hired someone to help at the counter, and my mother has started telling people the baking talent runs in the family.

I let her have that one.

Season’s Greedings finally sends a message confirming that all three wishes have been fulfilled. I show Cole my phone, grinning.

“Best five hundred dollars I never spent.”

He kisses me over the screen.

It’s Thanksgiving morning, almost four weeks after the festival, just after dawn, and I’m dancing around the stove when Cole comes into the kitchen.

My phone buzzes on the counter. I glance at it and laugh.

Hazel: Is it too early to hide from my family?

Joss: You run a diner. Lock yourself in the walk-in.