Sweet Dreams (The Bakery Romance Series Book 3) (17 page)

Chapter 23

Misty turned the steering wheel as palm trees whizzed by on the stretch of road. She glanced at her dashboard, checking the time. Ten o’clock. She needed to get the grocery shopping done and do some other errands before one o’clock. Such a blessing that Jennifer continued to bond with Adrian. Her daughter helped Adrian, realizing Adrian was blind. Surprisingly, Jennifer seemed content to stay with Adrian instead of coming with Misty to the store. Well, that was great. She’d probably get the grocery shopping done quicker since Jennifer wouldn’t be with her. Jennifer tended to beg for extra sweets while they shopped. She’d then get upset when Misty didn’t purchase everything she wanted.

As she continued to drive, she thought about Nate’s impending visit. She honestly didn’t know what to expect. He’d behaved himself when he’d given her the ice cream and the flowers, but, that didn’t mean anything. He always acted contrite after they’d had a huge argument. Should she accept Sterling’s offer to help? She honestly didn’t know if that was a good idea. She wanted Jennifer to bond with Nate – as long as he behaved himself. Misty had always felt a bit off-kilter, not knowing the identity of her dad. She didn’t want Jennifer to grow up feeling like that. Although Nate could be a jerk, he did have a few redeeming qualities. He could be sweet and funny at times, and that’s why she had fallen in love with him. She wanted her daughter to know about Nate’s positive attributes. If he was serious about straightening out his life, then maybe her daughter could really get to know her father.

Wouldn’t that be the best thing for Jennifer?

She contemplated her situation with Nate as she pulled into the crowded grocery store parking lot. She drove slowly, searching for a space. Great, she found an empty spot. She pulled into the spot, got out of the car, mentally planning her day. Later, she’d take Jennifer to the birthday party hosted by the woman she’d met at church the previous Sunday. Hopefully, she’d bond with this woman and find out more about Juliette’s. She’d been eager to meet some of the other parents since she’d only had the chance to meet one parent during the open house.

As she rushed toward the store, she spotted Latisha standing in front of her car. Her arms were folded in front of her chest and she glared at her vehicle, almost as if she were mad at her car! Misty was about to rush by without saying anything, but Latisha looked up and spotted her. Misty tried not to cringe. A large bruise marred Latisha’s cheek. She wasn’t wearing any makeup and for once, she was dressed conservatively. She wore a denim skirt and a white blouse.

What had happened to her? She stopped before slowly approaching the girl. She gave her a small smile, but, Latisha didn’t return her grin. She swallowed, refusing to be intimidated. She’d just make sure Latisha was okay before she went inside to do her grocery shopping. She didn’t have a lot of time to waste since she needed to be at the birthday party by one o’clock. “Latisha, are you okay?”

Latisha shook her head, glared at her car again. “My car won’t start.”

Misty didn’t know a thing about cars. “Do you think you need a jump?” She didn’t have jumper cables, but, she’d be willing to help Latisha ask some of the grocery store customers if they’d be willing to help.

“How am I supposed to know?” She kicked her tire. “I don’t know why it won’t start. Plus, I’ve got groceries in my trunk. I don’t want my food to spoil.”

“I doubt your food will spoil, Latisha.” Misty figured Latisha had not been standing out here for a long time. “Do you have triple A?”

She shook her head. “I figure a tow truck would cost at least a couple hundred dollars.”

It sounded like Latisha didn’t want to call a tow truck. Misty opened her purse, removed her phone. She called the roadside assistance number for her Triple A membership. After she’d placed the call, she focused on Latisha again. “They’ll be here in less than a half hour. I’ll stay here with you until they come.” Latisha seemed so upset – so different than what Misty was used to seeing. “I get free towing service. Adrian insisted on it when she bought the car.”

“But, this is my car, not yours.”

Misty shrugged. “We’ll let them know about that when they get here. If they charge us, I’m sure it’ll be less than what a regular towing service would charge.”

“But, I don’t have much money with me.”

“We can worry about that, later. We just need to get your car to the shop and get you home so that your groceries won’t spoil.”

“Why’d you do that?” Latisha gave Misty a sideways look.

Misty shrugged. “Do what?”

“Help me out.”

Misty figured Latisha was referring to their somewhat combative interaction at the soup kitchen. Plus, Latisha made no secret about the fact that she was interested in Sterling. Misty’s spending so much time with Latisha’s love-interest didn’t help matters. “You just looked like you needed help and I helped you. I’d hope you’d do the same if you saw somebody you knew that needed help.” She thought about it for a minute. “You helped me fix that cornbread, even though I burned it. I appreciated your helping me.” It was good to know that Latisha was willing to help others sometimes. She checked her watch.

“You got someplace you need to be? I don’t want to hold you up.”

Misty shook her head, but, had to think how this would affect her schedule. She didn’t want to be late to the birthday party that afternoon. One of the errands she’d been planning to do that morning was purchasing a gift for the birthday boy. She wanted to make sure she chose something nice, but she didn’t want to over-do it and choose something that was too expensive. She’d planned on making a quick visit to the toy store after she’d gone grocery shopping.

“Are you sure? You look mighty anxious about something.”

No way was she going to confide to Latisha that she’d planned on attending a birthday party to find out more about Juliette’s. She couldn’t imagine that Latisha would even understand, could she? Latisha didn’t have any children, did she? She glanced at the young woman who now stared around the parking lot, tapping her sandaled foot, obviously impatient. She knew so little about Latisha and she again recalled how Sterling had been put off by Latisha’s obvious affection towards him.

She continued studying the young woman. Latisha looked much younger, and a lot more vulnerable, without her makeup.

Misty took a deep breath, again thinking about her plans. She needed to stop stressing about the birthday party. She needed to focus on something else. She glanced at Latisha again. Misty couldn’t help but think about the way she used to be before she found Christ. Heck, she couldn’t help but think about the way she used to be before she hooked up with Nate. Nate was the first guy she’d ever loved, and his presence in her life had calmed her wild nature. She realized her relationship with Nate was not pleasing to God. However, being in a monogamous relationship with him had been her first step to changing her life.

“How’d you get that bruise on your cheek?”

Latisha winced, briefly covered her cheek before focusing on Misty again. “None of your business.”

Misty inwardly cringed. She had half a mind to just leave Latisha in the parking lot. The girl had a lot of nerve, giving Misty attitude when Misty was only trying to help her, show her some concern. She glared at the young woman and Latisha’s eyes widened. She uncovered her cheek, glanced down at the ground. “Sorry,” she muttered. At least she realized she didn’t need to be so nasty. “I just don’t want to talk about it.”

Maybe Latisha had a boyfriend who abused her. Misty inwardly shuddered. She couldn’t help Latisha unless the woman was willing to admit she had a problem. She figured she was ashamed, and Misty could understand feeling that way. Her life had been a wreck and she’d dated some losers herself. She could recall having a few bruises, too. “You’re right, it’s not my business.”

The tow truck arrived. After speaking to the driver, it was decided that Latisha’s car would be towed to a garage that was a few miles away. Latisha rode with Misty in stony-faced silence as they followed the tow truck to the garage. Once the tow truck had delivered the vehicle, Latisha spoke to the garage about her car. She’d have to leave it to be tested and since the garage was closing early that day, she wouldn’t be able to get her car until Monday.

After they’d retrieved Latisha’s groceries, Misty gave the young woman a lift home. When Misty pulled into the parking lot of the dilapidated apartment building, she again fought the urge to cringe. Trash spilled from the over-filled dumpster, onto the dirty street. “You live here?” She couldn’t keep the surprise out of her voice.

“You got a problem with where I live?”

Okay, she just needed to help Latisha with her groceries and get on with her errands. At this point, she wouldn’t have time to go grocery shopping. She’d just have enough time to get the gift and fetch Jennifer to go to the birthday party. She recalled that Adrian wanted her to get a roast so that she could marinade it for dinner that night. Oh well, they’d have to have something else since she couldn’t do the shopping.

Latisha still looked miserable and upset. Misty could relate to not having enough money to fix something. Heck, she figured Latisha was probably upset since she didn’t know if she could afford to get her car fixed. She might as well tell her the truth. “Look Latisha. You need to drop your tough girl attitude. I’ve given up part of my morning trying to help you and all you’ve done was be nasty to me. What is your problem? Are you upset because you don’t have enough money to fix your car?”

The young girl’s mouth dropped open, and she glanced at Misty, seemingly speechless. Misty patiently waited, giving Latisha ample time to speak. “I guess so,” she muttered. She stared down at the floor, and when she raised her head, Misty tried not to react to the tears shimmering in Latisha’s eyes. “I’m sorry. I’m glad you helped me.” The urge to hug Latisha consumed her, but, she figured she needed to take this one step at a time. Latisha needed a friend and from what Sterling had revealed, the church folks had reached out to Latisha with no success. She also recalled Sterling telling her that Latisha was not a member of their church, she just attended. He’d also said he didn’t think that Latisha had ever accepted Christ.

That was a big deal.

Misty gestured toward the trunk. “Come on. Let’s carry your groceries inside.”

After they’d unloaded the car, and had carried her groceries inside, Misty took in her surroundings. Latisha’s place was not in the best of areas. Inside, her home sparkled with warmth. Sunshine spilled into the clean kitchen and her walls gleamed in the late afternoon sun. A fish tank rested in the middle of the living room and small goldfish swooshed through their habitat. “Your place looks nice.” At least it looked nice inside.

“Thanks,” Latisha muttered, putting a carton of ice cream into the freezer. Some of it dripped from the container onto the floor. Apparently, the ice cream had melted completely. Misty supposed the ice cream would be fine once it’d been refrozen. “Did you want a drink or something to eat or something?” The girl gave her a sideways look. It sounded as if she wasn’t used to offering refreshment to guests. Misty supposed Latisha still had issues with her.

“No, I really need to get going.” Should she offer Latisha her phone number or something? The girl looked like she needed a friend. She hesitated, unsure about what she should do.

“I know this is not the best of places, but, it’s all that I can afford right now.”

She tilted her head, studied the girl. Misty realized she didn’t know how old Latisha was. “How old are you, Latisha?”

The girl seemed surprised by the question, but, didn’t reply.

Misty figured she simply was not going to answer. She didn’t have time to wait any longer. She needed to get going.

“I’m twenty.”

“You don’t have any roommates? You live here by yourself?”

“I don’t do well living with other females.” This news was not surprising. Questions spilled into Misty’s mind. Was she close to her parents? Did she have siblings? She was curious about Latisha and figured if she wanted to know more about the girl, now was her chance. She highly doubted Latisha would be honest with her while in church, with her heavy makeup and short skirts, strutting around the sanctuary. But, Latisha volunteered at the soup kitchen, which showed that she at least cared for others. “Misty, while we were carrying in the groceries, I was thinking I could help you out. You know, since you helped me out with my car and everything.”

This was surprising. “You can help me? How?”

“Well, I noticed that you didn’t know how to cook at the soup kitchen. Don’t you think it’s time that you learned?”

Chapter 24

I can do this. I can do this.
Misty focused on Adrian’s stove.

Latisha sighed. “Misty, you can’t just stare at the stove. You have to turn on the burner.” The young woman chuckled, leaned against the kitchen wall. It still seemed weird, seeing Latisha dressed so modestly. Today she sported a denim skirt and a simple white t-shirt. Her hair was piled onto her head in a sloppy bun and tiny earrings winked from her ears. The bruise still scarred her cocoa-brown face. Misty figured it wouldn’t help for her to ask about the injury again.

Misty swallowed, took a few steps closer to the stove, contemplating her day. She needed to think about something to get her mind off of cooking. Latisha had been absent from church that morning. No surprise about that. Misty figured that Latisha wouldn’t be coming to church since her car was in the shop, plus, she was sporting that huge bruise on her face. She figured the young woman wouldn’t want to draw attention to her injury. Hopefully, her cheek would be healed by Wednesday night, the night they were serving in the soup kitchen.

Before she’d left Latisha’s house the previous day, they’d exchanged phone numbers. Latisha had taken the bus over to Adrian’s that afternoon. She said she’d help Misty to learn how to cook.

Today was their first lesson.

Misty didn’t know how she was going to manage to spend her Sunday afternoon cooking eggs.

“Misty.” Latisha rolled her eyes, again pointed to the stove. “Turn the burner on.”

Sweat popped on her brow. Goodness, it was hot and they hadn’t even turned the oven on yet. “Isn’t it a bit warm in here to you?”

Latisha groaned. “No, it feels fine.”

Misty wiped the sweat from her brow with her shaky hands. “I don’t know about this.”

She could imagine the oven catching fire as soon as she turned on the burner. “What if there’s a gas leak or something?”

Latisha chuckled. “Girl, stop tripping. You can’t have a gas leak if you’re using an electric stove.”

Latisha was right. She took a few deep breaths.
Lord help me.
She reached over and placed her fingers on the knob. She turned it to the right. The soft ‘click’ of Adrian’s stove echoed in the kitchen. Adrian’s oven tended to click once when you turned on the burner.

“See, that’s wasn’t so hard, was it?”

Well, at least part of the battle had been fought. She breathed deeply, tried to find the courage to continue her chore.

The theme song from Disney’s
Frozen
crooned from the living room. When she’d planned this cooking lesson, she’d wanted to make sure that Jennifer didn’t interrupt her. She’d left her in the living room watching her favorite movie. Adrian had gone out to lunch with some friends from church, so she had to keep Jennifer occupied on her own. She figured Jennifer would stay out of the kitchen for at least another hour.

Latisha sighed. “Misty, you can’t just stand there.” Latisha placed an iron skillet over the burner. She then pressed a bottle of vegetable oil into Misty’s hands. “Open that. Pour some in the skillet.”

“What if I pour too much oil?”

“Just pour some in there.”

Misty unscrewed the top and generously poured the oil into the pan.

“Misty, that’s too much.”

She snapped her head around. “I tried to tell you that.” How was she supposed to know how much oil to pour into the pan?

“Don’t be tripping. Everything will be okay.” Latisha took charge and found a bowl and a potholder. She pressed both items into Misty’s shaking hands. “Just pour the extra oil into this bowl. Make sure you hold the skillet with that potholder. I know the handle of the skillet isn’t hot yet, but, we need to get you in the habit of using a potholder when necessary.”

Lord, help me. Please make my anxiety go away.
She placed the bowl onto the counter and grabbed the handle of the skillet using the pot holder. She poured all of the extra oil into the bowl and set the skillet back onto the burner.

“Good.” Latisha’s voice had turned calm and soothing, almost as if she were speaking to a child. “Now, you did really well so far. You turned that burner on and you didn’t turn it up very high.”

“What if I had turned it up too high?”

Latisha shrugged. “It would’ve been okay. Don’t get so stressed.” Latisha handed her an egg and a clean bowl. “Break that egg into that bowl.”

She cracked the egg and dumped it into the bowl. The egg’s shiny surface was littered with a few eggshells. “I got eggshells into my eggs.”

“Don’t worry.” In seconds, Latisha had removed the shells. “Okay. Now break another egg into the bowl.”

“Another one?” They weren’t making an entire meal.

“Just do it.”

Misty cracked another egg into the bowl. Miraculously, no shells got into the eggs.

“Here, just beat the eggs with this fork. Once you’re done with that, just dump them into the skillet.”

Misty slowly stirred the eggs with the fork.

“Don’t stir it, beat it. Whip it up. Mix it really good.”

She finally managed to mix the eggs, soon they were a nice yellow mass. Concentrating, she bit her lower lip. Latisha continued to give instructions. “Good. That’s enough. Now dump them into the skillet.”

She followed Latisha’s orders. The sound of the eggs softly sizzling in the pan made her feel a bit better. Latisha pressed a spatula into her hands. “Just start pushing those eggs around.”

She moved the eggs around in the skillet, mimicking what she’d seen Adrian and her sisters do numerous times. She couldn’t believe it, she was cooking eggs! She focused on her chore and minutes later, Latisha miraculously appeared next to her with a plate. “Now, go ahead and dump those eggs on this plate.” Using the spatula, she scooped the eggs out of the skillet and placed them onto the plate. Yes, they looked brown, overdone. They didn’t look as nice as Adrian’s eggs. But, she cooked these herself and for the first time that day, she smiled.

“Mommy, those eggs smell good. Can I have some?” Jennifer appeared in the kitchen, grinning.

*

Two days in a row. Sterling scanned Adrian’s front yard as he popped his trunk open. He’d spotted Latisha going into Misty’s house while he’d gone for his afternoon run the previous day. As he removed his groceries from the car, he’d spotted her again, going into Misty’s home. It seemed kind of weird, the two of them getting together. He’d been shocked when Latisha had boldly called him, asking him if he knew what foods had been donated for the soup kitchen that week. Once he’d told her, she’d rang off with him, seemingly anxious to get off the phone.

He continued thinking about the strange friendship, if you could call it that, while putting his groceries away. He left the tomatoes, ground beef and lasagna noodles on the counter. Louis was coming by for dinner and they were watching the game afterwards. He had just enough time to make the lasagna. Since he wouldn’t have time to make dessert, he’d brought a dozen chocolate chip cookies from the bakery.

After he’d fished his herbs and spices from the cupboard and had boiled the tomatoes for the sauce, he continued to dwell on what he’d learned over the last few days. He dumped the ground beef into the pan, the sizzle of the meat was like music to his ears. The previous day at church, he’d noticed Latisha was absent. Misty had told him that she’d helped Latisha get her car towed, and she probably wouldn’t get it back until Monday. She’d further explained that Latisha needed a friend and that she was determined to help her.

He figured Latisha would need a kind, patient woman to help her. Misty was kind, but, she didn’t seem to be patient. He could imagine Misty losing her temper with Latisha. From his experience, Latisha did whatever she wanted without considering others’ feelings. He couldn’t imagine a friendship between those two ladies lasting for very long. Although Latisha had been attending church, he had to wonder how she stood with God. Was she attending their church because she was interested in hearing about God, or, was she merely on a man hunt?

After church, he’d had a short conversation with Adrian while Misty had gone to fetch Jennifer from the nursery. She’d mentioned that Misty had taken Jennifer to a birthday party the previous day. She told about how Misty had met some parents who attended that fancy school while at the party. Good grief. Misty needed to wake up and face reality. He’d been mulling over Misty’s interest in that school for a while now. He honestly hoped that Jennifer was accepted into Juliette’s, but, if she didn’t get in, he’d hate to see what the news would do to Misty. He could imagine her being highly upset, sad, and emotional. He’d hate to see her like that.

After layering his lasagna, he shoved it into the oven and set the timer. Soon, the delicious scent of tomato sauce and cheese filled his kitchen. He sniffed, relishing the wonderful odor. Curious, he pulled out his phone, and looked up Juliette’s website. He spent the next half hour looking through the entire site. The last page on the site stated the tuition. Holy moly! This was preschool, not college. Since when did schools start charging so much to teach kids basic things like colors and the alphabet? This school was taking advantage of the parents, that’s what they were doing. He guessed the parents didn’t see it that way, though. He knew some of them bragged about the fact that their kids were going to this prestigious preschool. But, Misty wasn’t one who was prone to brag. Why was she so desperate for her daughter to get in?