he was planning to help anyway today, so he probably won’t mind. If we need more shimmering, we can ask the twins. It’s about time they leave the infirmary.”
“What are you planning?” North asked.
“We can finish the baking back home. We’ll need someone to shimmer back and forth with the stuff once it’s ready, but we can do the decorating here, and if once the party starts, if there’s not enough food, we can always grab some pizza. Most kids love pizza, and the ones who don’t can stick to the stuff we’ve gotten ready.”
Graham finally smiled. “That sounds like a plan.”
“It’s the best we can do with the little time we have. We’re going to have to make do.” Milo wasn’t looking forward to the cleaning up that would be involved here, or having to talk to the people who ran the shelter. He and Graham would make sure the shelter got a new oven, possibly an even better one, but that would take some time, and he wasn’t looking forward to admitting how much of a mess they’d made, even though he had no idea what had happened.
“Do you need anything from the store? I can grab Armand or someone else and go,” North suggested.
Milo’s heart felt like it was swelling in his chest. He knew it was something trivial, but North offering himself to help made him feel loved, even though this wasn’t about him.
He wrapped his arms around North’s waist and kissed his cheek. “Thank you.”
North’s cheeks flushed a light pink. “We’re in this together, yeah? We decided we were going to do whatever we had to make sure these kids have fun tonight, so we are. You and Graham focus on the baking and whatever else you were planning to do. You can use me as your errand boy.”
Graham cleared his throat. “We should have everything we need, but thank you.”
North nodded and took out his phone. “Good. Let me call Dasha, and we’ll organize the transport back and forth.”
They were in this together, all of them, and they were going to make it work.
* * * *
North waited until Milo was safely out of sight to glare at the oven. He had no idea what had happened, but he didn’t believe in coincidences, and between the flooding and the fire, he was sure something was happening. He knew most people wouldn’t believe him on that, so he went to the one person who would—Roark. He needed to know about the fire anyway, so he could start organizing for a new oven to be purchased and brought here.
He found Roark outside, in the shelter’s tiny backyard. He was talking with Griffith and one of the people who took care of the kids while they all kept an eye on them. North counted seven teenagers, and he stayed as far away from them as he could, because he wasn’t good with teenagers, or with kids, or with people in general, to be honest. “Roark?”
Roark leaned closer to Griffith to tell him something, then rose from the bench and came to North. “What happened inside? We kept the kids out here to be safe, but we heard shouting coming from the kitchen. Has Graham tried to kill Armand because he was stealing too much food?”
The kitchen window opened on the street rather than on the yard, so Roark had no idea they’d just avoided a fire. “You should see this.”
Roark arched a brow, but he followed North inside. “That sounds more serious than I thought.”
“As it is, it’s going to cost us a new oven, but that’s the only thing that was ruined, along with the batch of cookies that was inside.”
Roark grimaced. “That’s why Graham was yelling.”
“Yes. But don’t you think it’s a bit too much of a coincidence?”
“What do you mean?” Roark peered inside the oven.
North knew what he’d seen—a tray with the charcoal remains of the cookies, walls black with soot, and some smoke still coming out. The window was wide open, but the room smelled of burned things.
“First, there was the flooding.”
Roark straightened. “That was a burst pipe.”
“That we know of, but I doubt Armand hung around to make sure that’s what happened. Then there’s the oven that worked perfectly until now and suddenly didn’t.”
“Graham did manage to bake a few batches of cupcakes, though.”
“He would have, if the person who tampered with the oven made sure to do something that would take a little time to work out.”
Roark leaned back against the