we should talk to Louise first?” Calder jerked his head in Louise’s direction.
Dakota bumped shoulders with his cousin as they climbed the steps up to the seating area side by side. “You should invite Lacroix to my birthday dinner tonight.”
Calder didn’t say anything but his smile spoke for itself.
Forty-five minutes later, Dakota’s head was in the clouds. As they walked back to Calder’s car parked a couple streets away, he was so lost in thought he almost collided with a jogger.
“The price isn’t as steep as I expected,” he said, sliding into the passenger seat.
Grinning, Calder pulled away from the curb. “Yeah. I think it’s been on the market a while. And the location?”
“Is perfect. Even the interior is perfect. With the way it’s set up, we wouldn’t have to do much remodeling.” Everything had fallen into their lap so neatly, Dakota was almost afraid to trust it.
“Should I make an appointment with the bank?”
Dakota smiled at Calder in answer, and they spent the ride home bouncing ideas back and forth.
Fuck. He was about to own a bakery, and he’d be doing so without having overthought it. Yes, there were details to sort out, but he’d channeled Tay’s willingness to share his comic, even though it scared him, and dove in. Sometimes, you just had to risk the shot.
“There’s your job to think of too,” Calder said.
“Right.” Dakota suspected there were reduced hours in his future so he could devote more time to their venture. First, though, they had to wait and see if they could get the place. Everything hinged on the loan because while the price wasn’t as high as he’d thought, it was still a lot considering he already had a mortgage and Calder had his condo.
Their strategizing lasted until they walked in the front door of Dakota’s house. It smelled like cake, and music was blaring. “What the . . .”
Shedding their winter gear, they headed for the kitchen, the source of the music. Dakota stopped in the doorway, snorting a laugh, heart tripping all over itself at the scene in front of him.
Andy and Tay were singing along to Taylor Swift’s “Shake It Off,” bouncing around the kitchen as though they’d eaten too much sugar. Spatulas were used as makeshift microphones, and hips shook it off as they danced with abandon. Tay replaced the lyrics about fakers fake, fake, faking with bakers gonna bake, bake, bake, using the spatula to pretend-mix ingredients in an empty bowl, and Dakota laughed outright.
“Daddy!”
In the next moment, he had an armful of four-year-old.
He didn’t know why he expected Tay to whip the spatula behind his back, embarrassed at being caught. Rather, he danced up to Dakota, pecked his lips, and then sang in his ear.
“You know the words.”
“Why do you say that like it’s a bad thing?” Tay asked, shimmying backward in some kind of moonwalk imitation.
“Because its Taylor Swift.”
Tay pointed his spatula at him. “You’re just jealous you don’t share a name with the coolest chick in music.”
“Sure,” Dakota said, shoulders shaking with his laughter. “That must be it.”
“Whoa,” Calder said slowly, stretching it out to five syllables. He stepped farther into the kitchen and whistled low. “Did a tornado come through here?”
It wasn’t a stretch.
Taking in what he hadn’t noticed, too distracted by his boyfriend and his son, Dakota followed Calder’s gaze. Flour and what he suspected was dried dough coated the counter. Dirty mixing bowls, spatulas, and measuring cups and spoons were piled haphazardly next to the sink. Baking ingredients sat discarded on top of the stove. There was even flour on the floor.
On the table of the breakfast nook, he spotted the corner of a cake and a tall gift bag Dakota presumed held expensive scotch, a birthday gift from Tay.
Oh, he’d missed the icing crusted on a cabinet. He raised an eyebrow at Tay.
Who pointed at Andy. “He started it!”
“No,” Andy said, giggling, squirming to be set down. “It was your idea.” He grabbed Dakota by the hand. “Come see, Dad.”
Dakota was led to the breakfast nook, where there was indeed a cake. It was circular, roughly the size of a dinner plate. The icing was pale blue and clumpy on the outside of the cake, knife lines indicating where Tay and Andy had tried to smooth it down. The piping along the bottom was indigo. It was also lopsided and uneven, but it came from the heart, which made it beautiful. Little pink fondant hearts were laid out in a crescent shape along