Another Cinderella Story • Hayden

bonus • the bake sale 🧁

Your son Grayson is in Pre-K and has his first bake sale, lucky for him his mom is the best baker in the area...yet that doesn't matter...

"DAD!" Grayson shouts as he spots his father waiting for him outside of school.

Hayden smiles big as he watches his son, who's in Pre-K now, jump into his arms, all the while holding a flyer.

"Hey buddy! How was school today?" Hayden kisses his cheek and sets his son down, gently sliding his Lightning McQueen backpack off his shoulders.

Hiking it up onto his own, "whatcha got there?" Hayden grabs his son's hand as they walk toward the parked car.

"Is Mama in the car?" Grayson stops walking making Hayden's legs come to a halt.

"Yeah, bud, she's there with sissy." Hayden explains, taking his sunglasses off.

"Can you hide this from her?" Grayson folds up the flyer in his hand, giving it to his dad as you stepped out of the car.

For such a young age, Grayson shows amazing social skills and his speech is the same as an average 1st grader's would be.

"There's my baby!" Having seen them from the rear view mirror that they were approaching.

"MAMA!" Grayson happily skips over to you, you give him a big kiss and hug him tight.

~ Dinner Time ~

Hayden helps you put away dishes, while you both talk about your busy days.

Before Hayden would stay at work until 6 or 7 pm, you begged him to come home earlier, that handling two kids on your own, plus a bakery was too much.

So that's why he's here at this time, you know it was hard for him, but that's why he pays his employees for.

Your bakery has always been open from 6am to 2pm.

Which is why you have the rest of the afternoons to be with your kids and your husband.

"So, um, Gray handed me this, said not to show you..." Hayden hands you a white flyer.

Opening it up, you read the details of this year's bake sale.

Last year when he wasn't in school, this is the first year you get to do something like this. You were actually looking forward to it...your children's school bake sales because obviously that's your cup of tea and right up your alley.

And you knock two birds with one stone, you can contribute a lot to Gray's school while doing what you love: baking.

But your heart breaks a little when your husband repeats what had exactly happened today after school.

"Why...why would he want to keep it from me?" You frown, sad that your baby couldn't be honest with you. That maybe he was embarrassed?

Hayden sees your worry, and walks over to hug you, rubbing your arm, "you know Gray, baby, if you just ask, he'll be honest."

Grayson watches his favorite show, Bluey, on the TV in the living room, sitting the carpet with his Magent Tiles scattered all over.

He loved to construct, and build.

His baby sister loved to destroy and dismantle.

Slashing her little hand down the racetrack he was building, Grayson sighs, he's very patient with her but he's getting to his limit.

His parents appear, but he doesn't think much of it, he just goes back to reconstructing his racetrack for Lightening McQueen and Mater to run through it.

And currently Mater was being slobbered all over by his baby sister. "What are you building, Gray? A water park again?"

Grayson shakes his head at his father, who builds real things in real life like houses and buildings and businesses.

"Racetrack, but Hailey keeps destroying it," Grayson grumps, his mood turned a bit sour as he's now had to rebuild his racetrack four time already.

"Alright. C'mere you." Hayden picks up his baby from the floor, who's not a baby anymore, she's almost 1 and a half.

Hailey mumbles some toddler nonsense at her dada and Hayden nods, "yes you! You need to let brother play with his toys. You can play with him but you can't destroy what he's building."

Kissing her chunky cheek, Hayden pries the Mater toy out from Hailey's fingers, she had him in a tight lock but as soon as Hayden tickled her side she looses control and her baby laughs echo in the house.

Wiping Mater off on his shirt, Hayden gives the toy back to his son, and you take a seat beside him on the carpet.

"Grayson, sweetheart, your school called to tell me about the bake sale that's going to happen soon, why didn't you tell me about it?"

You change the story up, tweaking it so that your husband isn't the bad guy, because last thing you would want is for Grayson to not trust Hayden.

Looking at his dad, because he knows he gave him the flyer earlier today, Grayson wary eyes look over to you after, he remains quiet, looking for a way to express his emotions, what he's feeling.

You and Hayden remain patient with him, awaiting a response, "I don't want my friends to feel bad." Is what he says.

"Why would they feel bad, honey?" You place a hand on his back, he remains concentrated on rebuilding his racetrack, connecting different tiles together in different directions.

"Because their moms don't have a bake store like you do. They buy from the green store. And I know you are going to make your own."

The green store is the grocery store, it's just in Gray's mind, he remembers the green lettering on the big sign that says "Publix."

Looking to Hayden, he gives you a sorrow look, but smiles at how innocent his son is, "Grayson, come here, honey." You invite him to sit on your lap and he does.

Even wraps his arms around you in a big hug, he loves his momma but he also loves Daddy so he's both a Mommy's boy and a Daddy's boy.

"I am going to make a few things for your bake sale, but then I'll also buy a few things from the green store okay? Would that make you feel better?"

"Can you make chocolate chip muffins? They're my favorite. I want Dolan and Natalie to try too." Grayson says the name of his friends at school.

And even though you miss your baby when he's at school, you know it's good for him.

"Don't give her the green light, buddy, she'll bake fifty trays of muffins for you and your friends." Hayden was adding as Hailey cuddling on his own chest, playing with the collar of her Dada's shirt.

Giggling you hug Grayson tightly, "I love you, baby," you kiss his head, and look at your husband, "and I wasn't going to bake 50 trays, Hayden be serious. I was only going to do 25."

"Who's Hayden?" Wondering, Grayson looks at you and then at his dad, he's never heard that name before.

Hayden and you look at each other, laughing at the innocent little mind of your son...

A/N💙:

I love our baker reader and her family so much 🥹💙 even after everything she went through with her stepmom and stepsisters she turned out to have everything she deserves and more!

This is a bonus part to this mini series 🌟