Despite the Pain

Chapter 3

"Fucking useless piece of crap," Ryan muttered under his breath, stomping around the kitchen and slamming everything in reach on the counter. He's been like this since I walked in into the bakery. Slamming everything he touched and swearing with inspired dedication.

"Will you stop swearing like that in front of her," Adam said, nodding towards me. "What's your problem now?"

"You," Ryan snapped. Adam was taking off his apron, ready to leave for the day.

I turned towards the stairs. I could hear the low murmurs of my mother's voice from upstairs and an occasional barely audible response from Albion. He was most likely hiding from the hostility in the kitchen.

"Just fucking taking off and leaving me all the damn work," Ryan spat, gesturing to the kitchen with his hands. The sink was full of dirty dishes that needed to be cleaned by today, the counter and table were littered with little batches of bread and a few pies and desserts cooling to prepare for the afternoon rush.

"I have a wife and a child to get home to," Adam snapped back. "And a job I need to go to in the morning."

"Ryan, stop being an asshole," Ethan called back from the storefront. Adam shot Ryan a triumphant smirk that disappeared as soon as Ethan started talking again. "Adam, don't you dare leave without cleaning up after yourself."

"Can I help with anything?" I felt useless just leaning against the counter watching the scenario. Although, I like watching Ryan squirm, Ethan really did need the help.

"Yes," Ryan said as he pointed to a tray of at least two dozen bare cupcakes on the end of the work table. "Get some fucking frosting on those, please." Adam turned away from the sink to shoot Ryan a glare, earning himself a sneer in response.

I bit back a smirk as I stepped closer to the table. Helena and I never fought, not in that way at least, but I'd seen plenty of fights between Callum's little brothers mirror this a little too closely.

There was a tub of frosting sitting on the low set of drawers situated at the end of the table with a full piping bag on top. I'd seen Ryan do this a few times before, and I knew what the end result was supposed to look like. With any luck I'd do a decent job of duplicating it.

Albion and my mother made their way downstairs after I managed a couple of shaky cupcakes. He sat down at the opposite end of the table and mom moved into the storefront to talk to Ethan. I noticed the brace was gone, but that hat hadn't gone anywhere. I couldn't help but wonder what the wound looked like under there.

"Y-you're doing it w-wrong," Albion said after watching me struggle through a few more.

"How am I doing it wrong?" I frowned at him. He rolled his jaw, studying the frosting pipe in my hands for a moment.

"You're-" he cut himself off, shaking his head in frustration and getting up out of his chair. "Just-g-give it to me." He moved down to my end of the table. Ryan and Adam froze, looking across the kitchen at each other with wide eyes before turning to watch me hand the piping bag to Albion. He worked the frosting down into the bag, twisting it off and draping the end over his forearm before leaning forward over the cupcakes. Albion whipped through more than half the tray in a couple of minutes, topping each of the cupcakes in a perfect, uniform swirl, pausing to squeeze the frosting down toward the metal tip on the bag and twist it off again. He managed a few more before his hands started to shake. He pressed his eyes closed for a moment, drawing a deep breath through his nose and squeezing out one more slightly off kilter swirl of frosting before he dropped the piping bag to the tabletop. Ryan took a hesitant step forward as Albion pressed one hand over his eyes while steadying himself against the table with the other. He was starting to shake.