Read Online Standing By: A Knight's Tale #2 by Claudia Y. Burgoa - Free Book Online Page B

let you wait on my tables.”
    “Never.”
    Thank God.
    *
    “I apologize, ma’am but I can’t be responsible for a cake that will travel to the other side of the coast.”
    Hayley has been on the phone for a long time talking to a customer or maybe two. Because one of those times she said, “ As I explained to your daughter, I can’t guarantee it’ll be fresh. ” She’s wearing a baseball hat today, a pair of shorts and a t-shirt; her summer attire, even though it’s only the beginning of May. Those thin purple frame glasses make her look… different. Yes, I’ll go with that word because saying hot will imply that I’m attracted to her, which I’m definitely not.
    “Not sure who told you I baked a cake for James Rembrandt.” The singer for Power Sound? I mouth, and she answers me by chewing on her lip and turning around. “If you feel like my service isn’t up to your standards…”
    I hear her voice crack at the same time her head drops, my chest constricts and I walk to the phone taking it away from her.
    “Who am I speaking to?” I ask as I pull Hayley to my chest and stroke her back. I sense the bitch or asshole on the other side of the phone is threatening her with some crap.
    “Rachel Knight.”
    You got to be shitting me. Not a bitch, a Mama Bear, who I love dearly.
    “Mrs. Knight, as Miss Welsh informed you, the cake won’t make it all the way to San Francisco. I gave you several names already, hire a baker down there, Mother.”
    “Mitch?” Mom asks just as Hayley lifts her gaze and questions, “Mother?”
    “What are you doing there, Mitchel?”
    “Hayley’s a friend of mine, Mom and at the moment you’re giving her a hard time about her policies.”
    “Mitchy, please.” Emma begs, Great, Mom sent me the bride-to-be . “Please tell her to bake my cake, strawberries and cream with—”
    “Em, we can’t transport the cake.” I hope she can understand. “Your cake won’t make it in one piece.”
    It might, but I can’t guarantee that and I know Hayley, she’s going to bake three cakes to prevent a catastrophe.
    “Mitchel you’re not being very cooperative here.” She sobers up and now is starting to sound vicious. “Next time you need a favor, I’ll say no. In fact, I’m not going to stop your mother from inviting that girl she wants you to date.”
    “She’s inviting a date for me?” I bet Emma’s bluffing, Mom knows better than to set me up.
    “Uh-huh, cake and I’ll make the blind date go away.”
    I look down to find Hayley’s big hopeful eyes staring back at me.
    “Nope, sorry, Emma. Muffin girl can’t do it.”
    “Tell your sister that I can bake one for her when she gets back from her honeymoon—free.”
    “You heard?” I ask Emma.
    “Yeah, I guess I’ll take the peace offering. Hey, did she really bake a cake for the Power Sound dude?”
    “I have no idea who she bakes cakes for,” I definitely want to find out. “I have to go, see you later.”
    “Please don’t tell anyone,” Hayley says as I hang up the phone. “It’s part of my NDA with Susan Darling, I can’t confirm the rumors.”
    “I want to see that NDA, it sounds obtuse.” I continue drawing circles on her back and sucking in that peachy, vanilla aroma of hers.
    “You’re touching the Hayley.” She pushes me with her forearms, and once we lose contact, she continues talking. “Are they okay with the cake agreement? Now I feel worse about the wedding cake, they’re your family.”
    “Can you do it?” She shakes her head. “Then no, is no.”
    A hard concept to grasp for my entire family, but I’ll make that grasping happen for now.
    “I wish I could but she’d need to transport it on Friday and have someone assemble it Saturday morning. However, she wants it for Thursday morning, and she plans on storing it in her grandma’s refrigerator for two days. Which may or may not fit. For that to happen, I’ll have to bake them Wednesday and decorate as much as I can during