Dr. Smith showed up for his daily cruller fix at his usual time.
When he held out his hands and waggled his fingers at Libbie, she held her hands out for his inspection. “How’s the pain today?”
“Not too bad. The naproxen are helping. Plus Mandaline brought me a couple of things to try.”
He arched an eyebrow at her. “Eye of newt?”
She laughed, knowing the doctor was only teasing. “No, one is a blend of oils and the other is an ointment. They really seem to be helping. They don’t take the pain totally away, but they do seem to tone it down somewhat.”
He grinned. “Hmm. I’ll need to go have a few words with that little witch for trying to steal my patients as well as holding out on me. Seriously, I have a few other fibro patients. If it’s working for you, I’m interested in seeing if my other patients might benefit, too.
I’m always on the lookout for alternative treatments that might help them.” He released her hands and reached for his wallet.
“Well, I’m definitely a happy client.”
“That’s good enough for me.” He handed her a couple of ones to pay for his order and picked the bag up. “I’m just glad to see you smiling again.”
When Mandaline came in for her daily order that morning, Libbie didn’t miss the sly smile her friend wore as she spotted Charles 92 Tymber Dalton
working in the back.
She leaned in, motioning Libbie close with a crooked finger.
“Hang on to them,” she whispered.
Libbie let out a snort. “Sorry to disappoint you, but they’re gay.”
She glanced over her shoulder. “Doesn’t mean a girl can’t dream about them, though.”
Mandaline handed her a check and winked. “Wish big, dream hard, and it should come true. What are you doing next week for Samhain night?”
“Huh?”
She giggled. “Sorry. Halloween. I’ve got Samhain on the brain.
I’m teaching a series about Pagan and Wiccan sabbats and esbats.
Tonight’s subject is Samhain. Are you joining in on the festivities?”
The local chamber of commerce held an annual trick-or-treat celebration downtown, both to help promote local businesses and to help cut down on the number of wild little urchins running rampant through the darkened streets of Brooksville proper.
Which also meant, in theory, fewer houses getting TP’d and egged. “I’m going to make and bag a bunch of sugar cookies and hand them out. By the way, thank you for pointing Charles and Ken my way. This worked out well.”
“Nice.” She collected her boxes. “I meant about the cookies. And you’re more than welcome about the hunks. How’s your hands?”
Libbie held them up and flexed them. “Between the stuff you gave me, and the naproxen prescription from Doc Smith, I’m not doing half bad. Oh, Doc Smith is liable to pay you a visit. He’s interested in finding out what you gave me so he can try it on some other patients.”
“Good.” She headed out the door. Over her shoulder, she cast one last thought. “Remember, wish big and dream hard.”
Libbie raised a hand to her as she walked out the door and headed across the square.
Wish big and dream hard, huh? She turned and looked through the doorway. Even the hairnet didn’t detract from Charles’
It’s a Sweet Life
93
hunkalicious physique.
She closed her eyes. Two handsome, straight hunks from across the hall to warm my bed. That’s what I wish.
She opened her eyes to find Charles smiling at her. Her face filled with heat as she looked down. When she glanced back up at him, he winked at her.
Libbie smiled as she turned around and faced the window. Jenny sidled close to her. “Is his cousin as cute as he is?”
She let out a happy sigh. “Yeah. He is. But they’re gay.”
“I don’t care if they’re gay,” the young mom muttered as she glanced over her shoulder at him. “Gay or straight, my vibrator doesn’t care.”
Libbie laughed out loud so hard she thought she might wet her pants.
“What?” Jenny asked.
“That,” she finally managed. “We both have a Bob.”
“Bob?”
“Battery-Operated Boyfriend.”
Jenny grinned. “Ah. I named mine Sheldon.”
Libbie snorted again, but knew she had to hear this one.
“Sheldon?”
“Yeah. You should know. You’re the one that turned me on to that show. Sheldon. He’s got his favorite spot. At least, I sure know it’s mine.”
Libbie was glad there weren’t any customers in the store as she doubled over with laughter.
By the time Libbie brought Allan a sandwich down from her apartment for lunch, he’d learned far more about the bakery business than he’d ever imagined. Jenny had left for the day, and Grover and Ruth had already eaten. As Allan sat in the office and ate with Libbie, 94 Tymber Dalton
he felt even more awed by her perseverance. She’d obviously put a lot of thought and attention into setting up the bakery’s workflow to make it as efficient and easy to run as possible.
“Have we scared you off yet?” Libbie asked with a smirk.
He shook his head. “Nope. This has been really educating. And fun.” He pointed at the shelves of books. “Grover said to ask you if it was okay if I could borrow any of those?”
She looked where he was pointing. “Sure. Why?”
He shrugged. “I’d like to learn that part of it, too. Maybe I could be more help. If nothing else, I enjoy learning new things.”
He loved her smile. “You’d better watch it or you’ll end up chained to the decorating table.”
He waggled his eyebrows at her. “How do you know I wouldn’t enjoy that?”
Inside, he sighed as her bright laughter rang through the small office.
I’ll do anything to keep hearing that sound.
The rest of the day went quickly for Allan. An hour before closing the shop at four, Libbie set him up at the decorating table with some frosting and decorating tools, along with a book on basic techniques and a sheet of parchment paper to practice on. He was intently concentrating on making a series of small roses when he felt a tap on his shoulder.
He turned to see Ben standing there. “What are you doing?” Ben asked him.
“What do you think?”
“Looks good.”
Libbie walked up. “Hey, Ken. Come to check up on him?”
Allan wasn’t fooled in the least by Ben’s cool act. He could tell from the way his brothers’ eyes scanned Libbie, how his posture It’s a Sweet Life 95
straightened at her arrival, that he was as smitten as Allan was. “This is neat.”
“Want to give it a try?” she asked him.
Allan jumped in. “He’s bashful, but don’t believe him. He used to do a lot of drawing and sketching in college.”
“Really?” She handed him a piping bag. “Here, have fun.” A buzzer went off at one of the ovens, and she stepped away to go shut it off and remove the red velvet cakes.
Ben shot him a glare before pulling up a stool next to the decorating table. “I’ve never done this before.”
Allan shrugged. “It’s fun. Give it a try.” He flipped back several pages and pointed to one of the exercises. “It’s not as hard as it looks.
Think of it as edible painting.”
Within a few minutes, Ben was also getting the hang of it and graduated to attempting basic leaves and lines of flowers. When Libbie returned to check on them, she appeared impressed.
“That’s it. You’re both being promoted to decorators,” she said with a smile.