Despite the Pain

Chapter 21

Albion

"Okay," Ryan stepped into the kitchen, spinning the keys to the front around his finger. I sat at the worktable, hunched over a textbook and pretending to read. I was mostly just watching Dawn as she worked. "All locked up. You got it from here?"

"If I say no, is that going to stop you from ditching us?" Dawn asked, giving him a look as she covered the last of the dry mixes for tomorrow's bread.

"Nope," he tossed her the keys. She rolled her eyes and snatched them out of midair before tossing them to the table. "Lina's waiting for me."

"Isn't D-Dad over there?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.

"That would be why she's sneaking out," he said, giving me a look before ducking into the back room for his coat.

"Yeah, g-good luck getting p-past them," I scoffed quietly.

"That's her problem, not mine," Ryan called back. I chuckled and shook my head. "Goodnight, kiddos." The back door slammed a moment later.

"I still don't get that," Dawn pointed in the direction Ryan had left.

"Get--what?" I smirked.

"Alina. And your brother," she said, moving the containers she'd mixed from the worktable to the counter behind her. "You said it would make sense, if I knew them. And I know them, and it still doesn't." I just laughed.

"Maybe you need t-to see them t-together," I chuckled.

"Whatever," she rolled her eyes; it just made me laugh a little harder. Her lips curled into a small smile. "Don't laugh at me."

"I'm n-not," I said, though it just made me laugh a bit harder. I forced myself to stop, pressing my lips together to keep from smiling any wider. "I'm not."

"How's the reading going?" she asked, nodding toward the textbook on the table in front of me. I had spent most of my afternoon catching up on the readings I had missed for our English class.

"P-painfully boring," I said. She laughed.

"Sounds about right," she said. "Hang on, I have to count out the till. We both know Ryan didn't bother." I nodded, watching her disappear into the storefront. It felt strange to see her so at home in the bakery. She had come a long way from struggling to frost cupcakes in just a few months. She knew the routines, the recipes, and a hell of a lot more about bookkeeping than me or either of my brothers ever did. Dad had been teaching her more about the inventory, too. I wouldn't be surprised if he had her taking over our supply orders before long.

I listened to the noises from the storefront. I rarely counted down the cash drawer at the end of the night, but I still knew the process. As she worked I listened to her, following her progress in my mind. Emptying the till, printing the daily totals, counting out the petty cash, replacing the drawer. There was a thump, and she swore quietly. I smiled to myself. She'd dropped the ledger. It was a little too tall for the shelf Dad wedged it into and tended to stick. It took a hard pull to dislodge it, and that hard pull usually dumped it onto the floor. A moment later she reappeared, a bag with the day's profits tucked under her arm, the ledger in her hand, and a pencil between her teeth.

She sat down at the table across from me, flipping the ledger open and copying the totals from the slip she'd printed. I watched her as she worked; the stray wisps of hair that had fallen from her braid as the day went on, the way her fingers curled around her pencil, the way she sucked her lower lip between her teeth as she counted out the money she'd pulled from the till. She flicked her eyes up to me.

"What?" she asked.

"What?" I raised my eyebrows, cracking a smile as she looked up at me.

"Why are you watching me?" she smiled self-consciously. I shrugged. She let out a quiet laugh and looked down at the ledger again. I got up off of my stool and circled around the table to her, sliding my hand across the small of her back as I moved to stand behind her. She turned her head for a moment, glancing at me over her shoulder before looking back down at her work. I leaned against her back, pushing her hair off of her neck and kissing her there. "What are you doing?"