Images 54

Chapter 54

*Before…

It’s just perfect settling in with him and falling asleep with him in our bed right to where there’s this tiny little hand pinching my nose shut and I do the cough waking up bit.
Giselle blinks at me and does the sleepy eyed rub at her eyes with her hand. “Pot.”

I smile and take her hand and slip out of bed even though I was in that dead sleep thing.

I’m her mom…

It’s what we do.

And I love this feeling too…dry mouth and eye crusty gunk and all.

*And Now…

I get Giselle to go potty and I teach her to pat and wipe and the rest. She’s into the whole Pull-ups stage and that’s a big help even though still things happen.

I love then fact that she’s really proud of herself too. “Good?” she looks up at me all big earnest eyes and stuff.

“Really good, now we wash up.”

“Kays.”

We both wash up and I get her up by the sink with me and do our hair. It’s just a brushing and stuff and putting our hair back.

“Giselle? Why do we put our hair back?”

“Nogointothefood?” Yep it can out that fast.

“That’s right because that would be.”

“Ucky!”

“Definitely Ucky. C’mon you want to help mom get some stuff started for the others before we get to go and have a play day?”

“Playday?”

“Yep, me and You and Daddy and Mum and Grampy and his girlfriend and Hunter are all going to go and have a play day together at the great big mall.”

“Yeeeeeeeeeee!!!” Her eyes get huge and she bounces in place. “Wanna go now!”

Well…There’s Tay and Iggy up.

“We can’t go right now because they’re not open this early because they’re making it special for people to have fun and they have to make and feed the fishes their breakfasts.”

“Fishies!? They’ze fishies?”

“Yes, there are fishies and all sorts of cool things to do there.”

“Wanna go now.”

“I know honey me too but they need time and we can do stuff between now and then.”

“Stuffs?”

“Stuff’s for the breakfast crowds and to help them do stuff while we’re not here for the others.”

“Ninnamuns?”

“Of course cinnamon rolls.”

“Yays!”

Okay I kinda have to laugh at her and just how excited she is. I love that she seems to be bouncing back too from the stuff that she was going through with Ingrid and her ex. I am not going to lay blame there. There was enough between then all that she was such a tired and drained little kid.

I take her hand and then I head downstairs trying to not make noise but Taylor’s awake after that burst of excitement from her and Ingrid…she has a pillow over her head.

I stifle my Marge Simpson urge to make that noise and Tay’s got his eyes open and he’s sleepily looking at us.

My God that man looks gorgeous when he just wakes up. There’s that expression or rather the lack of one since all the stuff in our lives hasn’t registered yet in awake mode. It’s this Tay without stress or a whole lot less of it look.

I whisper a sorry at him and he does this guy cat glide over our bed so he’s on my side and sort of hanging just a little over it. He gestures at Giselle to come over.

She does that cute thing with her hand in her mouth thing and she comes over. He smiles at her and he taps his cheek.

She bounces a few times and she’s smiling and she giggles and kisses his cheek with a loud lip smack and he gestures to me too. I walk over after slipping one of his tee-shirts on and my baking sweat pants. Grey plays reasonably well with flour so I have a few of them now.

Taylor rolls over onto his back and I lean down and we kiss long and slowly and sweetly. I run my fingers through his growing hair stubble it’s getting close to actually being hair again and he smiles and we’re really into it and Giselle’s hugging herself and swinging herself from side to side and then I hear Iggy up and doing a scramble to the bathroom.

And Giselle’s watching her with a worried look and now hugging my leg.

We break the kiss and Taylor looks at me. “You two go I got this, it’s easier if it’s me anyway.”

Which is sort of true he doesn’t take her crap when she dishes it out and he’s been there at the same time so he knows and he just seems to have a good touch with her.

Hmm…maybe we should have more cancer survivors helping out those who are going through it. Maybe having been there themselves would make things easier to take for the ones that are sick.

I smile and pick Giselle up and she hugs me tight. She needs the attention and the things are going to be okay from me. I carry her downstairs but looked back and saw Taylor going right into the bathroom to help Ingrid.

I get this good little lump in my throat at me being with a guy like that.

Giselle and I get into the kitchen and the morning baking crew’s there along with Dallas who’s talking with them and she’s dresses in kitchen whites or the closest thing that we have to them.

“Hey, morning.” I say smiling at her.

“Morning.” She smiles at me and she tickles Giselle who does the shy smile. “Morning Munchin.” Giselle smiles shyly and hugs me some more.

“Iggy’s having a rough morning.”

“Oh…” She looks at Giselle. “Your Mum’s pretty tough she’ll be okay.”

(Sniffle.) She bobble heads. Her being that upset breaks up a part of me and I’m biting my lip trying not to be upset for her.

“Taylor’s up and taking care of her.” I say. “We thought we’d come down and help some before we head off for the day.”

“I had the same idea too just to help out a little more and stuff for you guys.”

“Without it being on the books?”

“Money’s not everything Jenna, you guys are friends and I love this place.

I hug her and she gets a hug from Giselle too since she’s in my arms. Like I’ve said you can’t buy friends like I have here.

We break the hug and I look at Giselle. “You ready to help mom?”

She cracks a smile again and nods. “Yays I helps!”

Like I’ve said I love how they can bounce back.

I like cooking I really do but I am more of a baker at heart and since I am a baker and have been getting into it I have my other babies and that’s my starters. It’s the whole yeast and even non yeast ones for bread and you mix and you add it to the bread and it is so much more magical than boughten yeast.

And I have white bread and a dark brown one and a rye one and a sourdough one and one that we have just for our doughnuts. The first bit is making batches up and Giselle helps by flipping switches and lowering the wire cage top for the dough mixer and plopping bread.

I pan some of the loaves here and when their ready to go into the pans she gets to pick up the proofed dough and plop it into the greased bread pans. She loves doing that.

I make us some breakfast too with the others doing up some of the other dough’s I grab enough to roll out into pizza rounds and toss them on the griddle out front and let them flat bake that way and Dallas makes up a bowl of raspberries and strawberries and sasketoons and some Greek yogurt and honey and we all eat that together with all the kitchen staff by ripping off fresh flat bread and spooning the berries onto it and it’s both fun and it’s a whole staff bonding moment.

It’s really, really good and goes down awesomely with a cup of coffee. Giselle loves it because it’s sweet and yummy but she’s eating the same as the rest of us and me I’m double happy since it’s not sugary cereal crap.

That stuff means a whole lot more to me now that I have a family.

“Okay I’m putting this on the menu Dallas.”

She blinks in mid chew. “Really?”

I nod. “It’s cool and it’s nummy and it’s vegan. We get a decent crowd of the whole Vegan and vegetarian set along with the whole alternative scene crowd we get her I think it’s be really awesome.”

“I just was kind of messing around and stuff.” She’s blushing.

“Hey credit is credit and it’s a very good dish. I’d add a bit of lemon juice to spike it some and then some zest for the crowd but seriously this is great stuff.”

She bites her lip and her head’s still kind of lowered but she’s smiling. Yeah there’s some damaged goods here actually most of us and that’s why we work.

“You make some more and get some of our marinara/gravy tubs for it and we’ll send it out like pizzas. Hey…yeah we’ll call it the Good morning Dallas.”

“Jenna!”

“Nope done!”

She heads off to get started and the breads are going and I take Giselle to the magic table where some dough’s been proofing and she and I start making cinnamon buns. I love making these and people love these too and there’s just this smell too of cinnamon and butter and brown sugar that fills the air as I make them and I do three batches up and I can smell the breakfast stuff going up with the toast and the coffee and the bacon and ham on the grill and the corned beef and the pastrami…

Yes, some of the deli meats Taylor makes her he’ll toss them onto the flat top to get a crisp on them and to get them warm. I’m not a big sandwich person but you take a big bun of out sourdough bread and it’s fresh and you put Taylor’s Yiddish delight which is onions cooked down in that rendered chicken fat stuff and caraway and black pepper…you butter the bottom with that and then you add in seared hot pastrami and top it with good mustard.

I even like that and it’s that good we have it as one of our bestselling sandwiches. meatball is our best seller and then it’s our egg salad. With little bits of celery and capers and a few other things and this tiny kiss of horseradish it’s really good.

It’s more than cool that we get people in for our sweets in the mornings but we get them in for their lunches too for the day and we have enough people that work close to here that we have a bust morning lunch rush too.

And when Daddy takes his princess out to man the till with him for a while it’s one of those things that just makes peoples days.

How can you not come back to a place where a cute little girl waves at you and blows you kisses when you are leaving?

It gets busy enough and soon or it feels like soon we’re out of the morning rush and it’s just after nine and Taylor comes back with Giselle and she hugs me as we kiss. I break it and he’s smiling. “I think everything’s started and going well enough that we can get ready and go.”

I kiss him again. “A day off, a real day off.”

He’s actually grinning. “Yeah, and there’ll be more I promise. I’m not working my way away from my family not when I just got them.”

We head upstairs and I’ll admit it…I’m happy, I’m choked up because he really gets it…family, those you love they come first. This is the way that I want to live my life.

This is the way I’m going to live my life.