The Sweetest Baker

Chapter 15--How Did I Not Realize This Before?

The sun blinded my eyes as I drank my morning coffee. No matter how much I tried to block it, my tiredness wasn't doing anything to me. If I had known we'd be unexpectedly woken up at six a.m., I would've gone to bed earlier than ten-thirty at night. I swallowed my worries standing next to Nora so we could help set some plates out. Throughout, we turned to each other shaking our heads at the same time at Dad's antics. As if things couldn't get any worse, Mom had to ring a loud breakfast bell to wake everyone who wasn't up.

"Rise and shine! Daylights burning!" Dad announced causing me to frown at him.

"Oh, my god. Are you guys trying to wake up the whole lake?" I asked sarcastically blinking to keep myself awake. Before they could do more than glare at me, the door swung open revealing my siblings coming out one by one.

"Come on, sleepy heads," she said to my siblings who were still in their pajamas. I sighed wishing I was in the same. The girls came out first, the boys following.

"Is there a particular reason we're eating breakfast outside?" Kim asked barely awake.

"Does there have to be?" Mom asked annoyed at her attitude already this morning.

"Of course there has to be," Sarah mumbled being the first to grab food causing me to smirk at her pointing at her wondering the same thing.

"Because it's a beautiful day in Lake Winnetka," Dad announced finishing with the pancakes.

"Besides, isn't it vacation girls?" Mom asked just as a car honked. I grinned seeing Charlie and Lorraine driving up in Charlie's car.

"Hey! Look at that! There's the rest of the clan,' Dad announced ushering everyone off the porch as I walked behind my siblings holding onto Nigel and Mike since Kyle had already run ahead. "Hey, guys! Welcome to the land of plenty!"

"It still smells the same here," Lorraine scoffed fixing her bag. "Like dead leaves and unwashed animals. Let's not forget the murky lake water." I chuckled at that statement as I tried to pull some of my siblings off Charlie so he wouldn't get tacked right as he came out of the car.

"It's called fresh air, sweetheart," Dad informed her as I finally got to Charlie where he held me up and spun me in a circle for a second.

"Hey, you guys," Nora called grabbing extra eggs with a smile.

"You know, I've missed you," I told him as he rolled his eyes walking beside me up the steps. Before he could respond, however, I overheard Sarah yell, "Hey, guys? I think we'll need a forklift to get Lorraine's makeup out of here." That, of course, caused a fight between the two causing us to smirk at each other amused.

"She's already driving me crazy enough," Charlie informed me. "Hey, we'll talk more about this whole Murtaugh situation after breakfast, okay? I gotta take my stuff inside." I nodded noticing the small smile drawn on his face when he said the word 'Murtaugh.' If I thought he still had feelings for Anne before, he definitely has them now.

I began to pile the last of the food up on my plate making sure to leave some for my younger siblings. However, I just about dropped my plate when I heard Dad from behind me.

"Eat up, Bakers, because we are about to do family activities!" he announced, shocking me. How was I supposed to explain my plans? Hey, Dad. Just to let you know, I'm going on a totally non-romantic walk with Daniel Murtaugh today. Can we switch family activities to another game?

"Family activities?" Henry asked shocked as he took some orange juice to his seat beside Jake I took my meal on the other side of Jake and next to Kyle and Nigel where there was an empty seat. I rolled my eyes not caring as Dad began to list off activities he wanted to do. Just then, Jake spoke up making me turn my attention to him and Henry, who was taking his bathrobe off.