Chapter 24


    Amber


    ‘Where are we?’ I ask Jake, confused.


    ‘Home,’ he simply says, with a wide grin on his face.


    Jake turns off the engine, steps out of the truck, and grabs both grocery bags from the back seat. He heads towards the left, towards what looks like the school’s entrance. Then, turning his head, he raises his eyebrows at me, as if he’s just realizing I’m still sitting in the passenger seat.


    ‘Are you coming?’ he asks, clearly amused.


    ‘Are you pulling some sort of prank on me?’ I ask, suddenly suspicious, pointing towards the stone sign. ‘This is a school.’


    ‘No, this was a school. Now, it’s home,’ Jake replies cheerfully, laughing as he grips the grocery bags a little tighter. He nods towards the entrance. ‘Come inside, I’ll show you.’


    ‘Okay…?’ I murmur, still uncertain. I get out of the car and grab the bag of baking supplies from the backseat, then walk towards Jake, my steps slow and hesitant.


    ‘This building used to be a middle school, but it closed down a long time ago,’ Jake explains as I catch up to him. We continue walking towards the entrance together. ‘It was abandoned and sat empty for years. It became an eyesore for the municipality, so Hugo managed to buy it pretty cheaply, about nine years ago. It was in bad shape but still structurally sound, so we rebuilt and restored it ourselves. Hugo even used our house to train new hires for his construction company for a while, which really sped up the process.’


    He gestures ahead as we approach the entrance.


    ‘We turned the old teacher’s lounge into our kitchen, and the assembly hall became our living room. We knocked down part of the walls between them to connect those two spaces. Some of the classrooms and restrooms got converted into our bedrooms and bathrooms. There’s a small gym in one of the old classrooms, and two others were combined into a workspace. Last year, Hugo turned one of the smaller rooms into a home office. A couple of the unused classrooms at the back, we just use for storage.’


    ‘Wow,’ I mumble, thoroughly impressed. ‘And you guys did all of this by yourself?’


    ‘It was mostly Hugo and Cooper,’ Jake admits honestly, ‘since they both actually work in construction. But Nate and I are pretty handy too. The four of us have always liked working on DIY projects together, so we just keep finding new things to do in and around the house.’


    ‘What do you mean? Is the house not finished yet?’


    ‘A house like this is never finished,’ Jake laughs. ‘We live here pretty comfortably, but there''s always something to improve. Right now, we’re working on building an outdoor porch area with a built-in hot tub.’


    ‘It’s so cool that you guys know how to do that!’ I exclaim. I glance at Jake with great admiration. ‘I wouldn’t even know where to start. I sat in the semi-dark for three days last month, before I finally gave in and asked Ray to fix my ceiling lamp for me. Turns out it just needed a lightbulb change,’ I admit, feeling quite embarrassed.


    ‘So what? You’re able to turn all of this,’ Jake lifts the grocery bags in his arms slightly higher, ‘into delicious edible stuff. We all have our own strengths in life.’


    ‘I suppose,’ I nod, secretly pleased with his compliment.


    We turn towards the unlocked front doors, and I open them since Jake has both hands full. As soon as we step inside, my eyes widen at the sight of a spacious hallway with a beautifully crafted wooden coat closet that spans the entire left wall, though only a few coats hang there. Jake doesn’t pause to take off his coat. Instead, he heads straight to the double doors ahead. He taps a silver button near the floor with his foot, and both doors swing open.


    ‘Baking delivery!’ Jake yells as he walks inside.


    I quickly follow him inside, but as soon as I walk through the doors, my steps falter, and my jaw drops. This house is enormous! The automated doors lead straight into a massive kitchen, where Jake is already setting our grocery bags down on a huge island in the center. An L-shaped counter wraps around it on the left and back walls, and my eyes immediately lock onto the industrial-sized oven built into the long side of the counter. Suddenly, I understand Jake''s earlier amusement—this kitchen is easily twice the size of Marjorie’s, which is already pretty large. I’m practically salivating. This kitchen is a dream for anyone who loves to bake and cook as much as I do.


    On the right, a large window overlooks the street, with a cozy wooden bench beneath it. To my left, adjacent to the kitchen, an expansive living space stretches out. Just beyond the kitchen is a long, custom-made wooden table that could easily seat fourteen people. The area then flows into what looks like a living room, but before I can take it all in, I notice two people heading our way.


    ‘I’m so glad to see you, Jakey!’ Lily exclaims, as she enthusiastically darts towards us. She throws her arms around his neck and pecks him on his left cheek.


    ‘Hi, Lil,’ Jake says warmly. He wraps her in a one arm hug. I suppress a chuckle, thinking back to the platinum blonde girl at Pete''s who tried to call him Jakey as well. Jake was quick to correct her, but apparently doesn''t mind it when Lily calls him that affectionate nickname.


    ‘Yes! I, too, am so glad to see you, Jakey!’ says the other person, who I quickly realize must be Jake’s biological brother. He steps to Jake’s right, mirroring Lily by giving him a playful peck on the cheek. The resemblance between him and Jake is striking—they’re practically twins, with matching heights and similar builds. Even their bright blue eyes, straight noses, and chiseled jawlines are nearly identical. The only clear difference is Jake’s short, dark hair, contrasting with Cooper’s blond waves. Jake releases Lily, grabs Cooper in a headlock, and ruffles his knuckles over Cooper’s hair, grinning broadly.


    ‘Hey! Fuck off, no fair! When did you get so strong?’ Cooper protests, squirming as Jake keeps him locked in place.


    ‘Please, fucker,’ Jake says smugly. ‘You might be built like a bull from lugging around half-finished buildings all day, but I wrestle actual bulls for a living. You’ve got nothing on me.’


    I can’t help but giggle at the sight of the two brothers roughhousing, their affection for each other unmistakable. Lily steps beside me, shaking her head with an exasperated smile as she watches them.


    ‘Are they always like this?’ I ask her, laughing.


    ‘Pretty much,’ Lily informs me dryly. She observes her brothers with an indulgent smile for a second, before she turns to me. ‘Thank you so much for doing this, Amber. You are truly saving my ass today,’ she says with a grateful expression on her face.If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.


    ‘No problem. I wouldn’t want you to end up overdosing in a back alley before you’re even legally allowed to have a drink,’ I laugh, referring to her earlier text messages in their group chat.


    ‘I, for one, am very grateful for that,’ Lily chuckles. ‘How’s your coworker, by the way? Any news?’


    ‘Yes, it looks like he’s going to be fine, thankfully.’


    ‘That’s a relief!’


    ‘Okay, okay! Fine, you win,’ Cooper finally concedes loudly. Lily and I turn, just in time to see Jake release his hold. Cooper pulls back slowly, then, with a sudden grin, throws a quick jab into Jake’s ribs before darting out of reach.


    ‘Asshole!’ Jake grunts, scowling at him, though there’s a spark of laughter in his eyes.


    ‘Watch your language, little brother. There’s a lady present,’ Cooper teases, pretending to admonish him. Jake shrugs off his coat and takes mine, hanging both in the hallway. Cooper, keeping a safe distance from Jake, turns towards me and Lily with a wide grin.


    ‘Since when does that concern you? You never watch your language around me,’ Lily says, frowning as she crosses her arms.


    ‘I said lady, not freeloading leech who eats my M&M’s and hogs the remote,’ Cooper points out, but the playful look they exchange makes it clear it’s all in good fun. Then, Cooper turns to me, extending his hand with a genuine smile. ‘I’m Cooper. The vanilla core to that one’s Oreo cookie,’ he adds, running his fingers through his hair and nodding towards Jake, clearly referencing their contrasting hair colors.


    ‘It’s nice to meet you, Cooper,’ I say, still laughing as I shake his hand. ‘I''m Amber.’


    ‘Good to meet you too.’


    ‘Alright then,’ Jake says, rubbing his hands together as he walks back into the kitchen. ‘I brought you the ingredients and I brought you the baker, Lil. The rest is up to you. Although I''ll gladly offer my services to test the final products before you take them to school. We need to make sure they’re good. We wouldn’t want you to ruin your fucking chances of getting into college.’


    ‘Yes, and obviously one tester can’t be trusted, so I shall sacrifice myself for this important task as well,’ Cooper adds quickly, enthusiastically nodding in agreement.


    ‘Tasting is for helpers,’ Lily replies sternly, using the same tone I sometimes use for Violet and Olivia.


    ‘No can do, we’re going to work on the porch,’ Cooper says, shaking his head.


    ‘Did I know that?’ Jake asks with a frown.


    ‘You do now,’ Cooper shrugs, grabbing Jake by the shoulders and pushing him away from the kitchen, towards the living room. ‘Come on. We’ll get started right away, so the girls have the kitchen to themselves for their baking. Nate’s at the garage working on a new motorcycle, but Hugo and Alex will join us as soon as they’re done sparring.’


    ‘What? I haven’t even had any fucking coffee yet!’ Jake protests loudly, but Cooper shows him no mercy. Jake glances over his shoulder at me. ‘Amber, are you actually going to let him kick me out of the kitchen?’


    ‘You’re probably just going to get in the way and eat everything anyway,’ I grin and sweetly wave him goodbye.


    ‘Traitor!’ Jake grumbles, but I can tell from the twinkle in his eyes that he doesn’t mean it. He quickly snatches an apple from the fruit bowl on the kitchen counter before letting Cooper push him further into the living room. ‘You better save me some of those fucking cookies!’ he yells over his shoulder, his mouth full of apple.


    ‘Take it up with Lily. I’m only the baker. She’s the one in charge,’ I call after him, still laughing as they disappear from view.


    ‘Okay, so we’re baking cookies?’ Lily turns to me with a hopeful glance.


    ‘I actually thought we could make an assortment of baked goods,’ I suggest to her. I nod my head towards the kitchen island, where we start unpacking the groceries together.


    ‘Even better! Anyway, please do consider yourself the baker as well as the one in charge. I’m perfectly happy to serve as your willing lackey today,’ Lily sighs, her voice dripping with dramatic flair. ‘I know absolutely nothing about baking. I’m honestly so impressed that you know how to do all of this.’


    ‘Well, contributing to about a thousand church bake sales will do that for you,’ I smile at her.


    ‘I can imagine! So, what did you have in mind for tonight?’ Lily asks me excitedly.


    ‘I was thinking we could make witch hat brownies, spiderweb cupcakes and pumpkin spice cookies,’ I suggest.


    ‘Sure, sure,’ Lily nods along, before she sends me a hesitant glance. ‘And how would one go about that, exactly? Because most of that sounds pretty complicated and, as I said, I know absolutely nothing about baking.’


    ‘Don’t worry, it’s nothing too sophisticated,’ I say grinningly. ‘We’ll make regular brownies that we cut into triangles. We dip those into melted chocolate and put a Hershey’s kiss on top of them, to create a witch hat shape. Then we’ll make basic chocolate and vanilla cupcakes and decorate them with frosting. White cover frosting and black spider webs on the chocolate cupcakes, and black cover frosting with white webs on the vanilla ones. And for the cookies we’ll just make a basic cookie dough to which we add pumpkin spice,’ I hold up the half-empty container I brought from the ranch, ‘and we use this cutter to shape the cookies.’ I hold up the pumpkin-shaped cookie cutter I bought a few weeks ago to make pumpkin spice cookies with the Jenkins children in my other hand. ‘Then we decorate those with orange icing when we’re done,’ I explain to Lily.


    ‘You make it sound so easy,’ Lily sighs, seemingly impressed. ‘And you came up with all of this stuff this morning? Just like that?’


    ‘No, I’m good, but I’m not that good,’ I say with a chuckle. ‘I made all of these when it was actually Halloween, because the children had a Halloween bake sale at their school. I did–Oh!’ I suddenly frown and turn to Lily. ‘I hope this is not too childish for this event? I mean, this was for an elementary school, and I know that you–’


    ‘Are you kidding me?’ Lily quickly interrupts me, with incredulous eyes. ‘It all sounds amazing! You’re going to make me look so good tonight! Alright,’ she turns towards the ingredients and rubs her hands together expectantly, exactly the same way Jake did before, ‘tell me what to do, bake master!’


    I can’t help but laugh at Lily’s eagerness, but we dive right into the work. We have a lot to do today. Lily may not have much baking experience, but she’s a great listener and follows all of my instructions to the letter. We work pretty well together, and it doesn’t take long for me to realize that I really like Jake’s sister. She’s fun, with a dry sense of humor, and witty without ever being mean. She genuinely seems interested in getting to know me, and we chat easily while we work, as if we’ve hung out a dozen times before.


    At one point, Lily even asks for my number so she can send me a picture of Susan’s face when her classmate finds out that her plan to screw Lily over has failed. I’m having so much fun with Lily that, for a moment, I feel a little wistful—realizing how much I would have loved to grow up with a sister. In fact, I get so distracted by our conversation that I almost miss the first batch of cookies on the verge of overbaking.


    ‘Oh, boogers!’ I exclaim, quickly dropping the whisk I’ve been using to stir the brownie batter. I grab an oven mitt and rush to pull the cookies out of the oven. Setting the two hot trays down on the kitchen counter, I quickly get the next two batches in.


    ‘Boogers?’ Lily echoes, raising an amused eyebrow at me.


    ‘I know, it’s silly,’ I admit, feeling a little embarrassed. Jake has teased me about my inability to curse plenty of times already. ‘My parents were pretty strict when I was growing up. They’re very religious, so there was no cursing in our house, ever,’ I explain to Lily, my cheeks flushing.


    ‘Oh my God, you must be having a field day with Jake then!’ Lily bursts into laughter. ‘I mean, we all curse plenty in this house, but Jake is by far the worst. I don’t know anyone who uses the word “fuck” more than he does.’


    ‘Yes, I’ve noticed that,’ I chuckle. ‘I think it’s a good thing, though. It’s kind of like desensitizing, which has really helped with my deprogramming process,’ I joke, grinning as I go back to mixing the brownie batter.


    Lily tosses her head back and laughs even harder.


    ‘You are so much fun, Amber,’ she says joyfully, briefly sweeping her eyes. ‘I totally get why Jake likes you so much!’ She continues cutting the cookie dough into pumpkin shapes for the next batch, but then sends me a curious glance. ‘How are things going with you two, anyway?’


    ‘Good, I think,’ I shrug.


    ‘Yeah?’ Lily looks at me expectantly, clearly fishing for more information.


    ‘Yes,’ I say and I smile at her. ‘Jake is great. We’re having a lot of fun.’


    ‘That’s good to hear,’ Lily says. She sends me a genuine smile. ‘You two seem really good together.’


    ‘Yeah, I guess. I mean, we’re not really together, of course,’ I say with a fake casualness that feels much less convincing than I want it to. I wish we were officially together, but Jake made it clear from the start that he doesn’t want that. Carefully avoiding Lily’s gaze, I start pouring the brownie batter into a silicone baking pan.


    ‘What do you mean?’ Lily asks with a frown.


    ‘You know Jake, he’s not one for commitment,’ I reply, trying to keep my voice even. ‘We’re just having a good time together, that’s all.’


    ‘If you say so,’ Lily says slowly. She doesn’t say anything else, but her skeptical expression speaks volumes. I get the feeling she sees right through my casual facade and suspects that I want more than I''m letting on. I can only hope she won’t say anything to Jake. I really enjoy spending time with him, and I would hate for that to stop just because he finds out I’m in love with him and wish we could have a real relationship.