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“Great, I’ll just see if my brother is okay keeping Pais a little later⁠—”

“I can watch her,” I offered myself up as nanny. Better than being in the house alone, wondering what the two of them were doing.

Blaze’s jaw vibrated for a second like he didn’t know what to make of my offer—or my intent behind it. “Are you sure?”

“Yeah, of course,” I assured him, ignoring the pang in my chest.

“Okay. Thanks,” he rumbled, a slight skepticism still shadowing his voice.

“All right, well it was great meeting and working with you, Harper,” Marc chimed in, his eyes twinkling as he added, “Good luck with everything and hopefully, we get to see each other again soon.”

“Thanks for everything,” I returned, and after working together all afternoon, we parted with a hug. Well, Marc and I did. Blaze just grunted and then headed toward the house, a little more of my insides trailing along behind him.

Chapter 9

Harper

“W-when’s Daddy going to be back?” Paisley’s lip quivered but it wasn’t nearly as devastating as the way her entire body started to shake.

“Soon,” I promised, kneeling in front of the couch where she huddled. “There was just a lot of traffic, but he said he’d be back soon.”

“How soon is soon? How many minutes?” She wiped one cheek with her sleeve, the fabric already saturated.

My heart absolutely broke, and I cursed the thunderstorm that had come in from nowhere. Like a wave that swelled suddenly and crashed into the shore, Pais and I had just decided to pick out a movie to watch when rain battered the windows and the first crack of thunder turned her to tears.

I opened my mouth to repeat my answer. I didn’t know how many more minutes. Blaze had only texted to let me know there’d been an accident on his drive back and traffic was at a standstill. They’d gone to a steakhouse in Friendship for dinner, but I didn’t even want to guess that he wouldn’t be that long; I wasn’t going to give Paisley an answer that wasn’t for certain.

“He’s going to be back as soon as he can,” I told her and slid onto the couch next to her. “He has to be careful because of the storm, but it’s okay. We’re going to be okay here, Pais. I promise. The storm will be over soon, too.”

“No…” Even his safety wasn’t a comfort to her as she cried again, sobbing into her stuffed bee and shaking.

She couldn’t stay like this, I thought, wrapping my arm around her shoulders like I could forcibly stop her from shaking. It didn’t work. Crap. I couldn’t watch her like this for another minute, let alone thirty or forty or…no, there had to be something I could do. What would Gigi do when we were younger—I sucked in a breath, memories of staying at my aunt’s house with my grandmother hitting me like a lightning bolt.

“Hey, Paisley,” I started, forcing every ounce of excitement I could muster into my voice. “Do you want to make a thunder cake?”

“A t-thunder cake?” she asked, her waterlogged eyes staring at me.

“You’ve never had one?” I feigned shock though I’d never expect anyone outside my family to know about Gigi’s tradition.

Paisley shook her head side to side.

“Oh my gosh,” I gasped and explained. “A thunder cake is a magical kind of cake that can only be made during thunderstorms.”

“Only in a thunderstorm?” Her little brows furrowed and she fidgeted, fear fighting her curiosity.

“Mhmm. The thunder is the magic ingredient that makes it taste so good,” I told her, wiping another tear that streamed down her face. She started to hiccup, which I’d gladly take over her sobs. I drew my hand back. “But that’s why you can only make it during a storm. Otherwise, it doesn’t work.”

“How do you know how to make it?”

“My grandmother, Gigi, would make it for me and my cousins when we’d sleep over at her house.” I tucked a loose strand of hair back from her face.

To give Dad and Aunt Ailene a kid-free night, Gigi would babysit me and my cousins—Frankie and Lou—once a week while Lou and Frankie’s half brothers, Kit and Jamie, were old enough that they stayed with Max and Nox, the four of them usually playing video games well into the night. Meanwhile, the girls did girl things. Nails. Pretend facials. Played dress up. And made thunder cakes.

“It’s so so good. There’s sugar and chocolate and Nutella and then, after it bakes in the storm, this thundery crunch…” I drawled, hoping I could get Pais to want to make it without me having to ask again. When I looked at her, I knew I was close. She still had hiccups but she wasn’t crying, and when the thunder boomed again, there was only a catch of her breath and not a meltdown.

“You know…” I glanced at my watch. “Your dad is probably going to be back soon. We probably don’t have time…”

“No.” She grabbed my leg, staring at me earnestly. “We have time. We can make it.”