"Man, you've been away too long this time. Too long. I was beginning to think you relocated without a forwarding
address!" Jolanda said. "And that," she said, letting him go. "Would have made me very very mad." Then she saw
Andi. "Ooh, making it up to me by bringing me a friend?"
"Nope. I brought MY friend." Hector said with a smirk.
"Damn." Jolanda said.
"She did when I told her how you'd swept me off to your cave to ravish me" Andi protested Mrs. Johnson's innocence
just before a fast moving blur all but took Hector down. It couldn't have been entirely unexpected though because she
did note he'd made it a point to save their groceries before he got hit.
Andi watched the interaction with raised brows and an inward smile. Feeling better seeing Hector received a proper
greeting from at least someone.
"I'm pleased to meet you." She offered her hand and a chuckling smile as the focus shifted and the other woman took
it with a firm grip.
"Real prim accent." Jolanda stated with approval. "It’s perfect with a face like yours."
"Thanks." Andi grinned. "My parents certainly thought so."
"Good." Jolanda said. "He needs someone with a little class. Makes up for his complete and utter lack of it!"
"Oh yeah." Hector said, brushing flour and powdered sugar off his clothes, transferred from her apron. "You're the
epitome of class, I completely forgot." He teased. But it was hard to be on good 'first impression' behavior around
someone as rambunctious as Jo.
"Maybe not, but MY girlfriend is. Figured you'd catch up eventually. You always were slow on the uptake." Jolanda
said, and looked at Andi. "He's come to get free food off me, so I try to bring his ego down a notch or two while he's
here also. I consider it community service, and a good deed done to all humanity."
Andi stiffled a laugh so that it came out a bit choked.
"I would consider that more than that." She stated. "I'd consider it an actual miracle if it worked."
While Jolanda laughed over that, Andi shot Hector a teasing look. She actually loved his ego. Or his confidence. If it
was ego it ran close enough and with enough reason to confidence that it was the same to her. He certainly had ever
right to it.
Andi inhaled and made an appreciative noise. Jolanda's eyebrow went up and she shot a look at Hector.
"Body could get used to hearing that sound. Liking what you smell?"
"Absolutely." Andi's smile was wide and bright. Fresh baked bread. Honest to God fresh baked bread. She shifted
toward the smell automatically. "What kind is that?"
"Honey wheat." Jolanda said. "With the batches of rye, marble, four wheat, sourdough and Italian ready to go.
Someone appreciates the seemingly simpler versions of my craft." She said with a grin. "All he comes here for is the
sugar."
"Come on." She said, taking Andi's arm. Having no qualms of having a beautiful woman on her arm, even if she was
straight and attached and her boyfriend was bigger than her. "Let me show you my domain. I don't expect much that
Hector will cross the threshold." She said with a teasing wink. "Go find yourself a cake man, and we'll call it even."
"You're completely bonkers." Hector said, shaking his head.
"Every time he comes by, he knows if he goes into the kitchen, I'll put him to work." Jo said. "Not actual cooking, I
leave the brave, life endangering and death defying stunts to Mr Military. But he's got uses for taking things off
shelves. Used to be a time when I was taller. And he was damn scrawny. If ever there was a guy who could convince
me to switch around my batting line up, it might be him. But even he's not enough!"
"Then I did all the men in the world a favor." Hector joked.
"That afraid of emasculation?"
"Hell yes! I take great pride in my manliness, thank you very much!"
Andi tossed Hector a smiling look over her shoulder and let the other woman led her into the back of the bakery
where all the wonderful smells were coming from. The place was utter controlled chaos and felt very well loved.
"Just got the new oven installed." Jolanda stated proudly. "Other one was getting old and quirky. So I brought it
home." She chuckled. "This one lets me set different temperatures on different levels."
Andi chuckled softly, looking around at the bins of flour and other ingredients. It wasn't shiny chrome and marble
rolling pins the way she'd seen some places. Instead it was scuffed tile floor, well used and slightly dinged wooden
counter tops and an eye for space and storage. It was - just about perfect.
"This is wonderful." She sincerely told Jolanda. Inhaled the fresh baked bread scent again. "I haven't been able to
bake bread since - "she actually had to think about it. "Since I was a child with my parents."
"It's like falling off a bike." Jolanda stated cheerfully. Walking over to lift the cover off a birthday cake she was working
on for little Bobby Mac. Hector's girl chuckled again when she saw it was shaped like a pirate ship. "You come back
here again and I may just have to put you to work."
Again that quiet laugh. Always that quiet laugh, Jolanda noticed. Never something loud. Just subdued. Honest and
good to listen to. But subdued.
"Threats like that might have me coming here every day." Andi admitted. Lightly touching one of the little pirate figures
that adorned the 'deck' of the cake.
Oh shit, Jolanda thought. She's got sad eyes. Hid it well but especially away from Hector the tall woman had sad eyes.
And Jolanda knew she was such a sucker for sad eyes. Male or female, she just couldn't resist them.
Hector had sad eyes too.
Something bad had happened. She didn't know what but she could hear it whispering just under the surface of both of
them.
"Truthfully, I can always use the help." Jolanda told Andi with a grin. "I get working in here and I lose track of time and
Rachel has to come find me. Wouldn't mind the company either."
"Yeah?" Now that was a bright, honest smile that made you want to smile back. "In that case, I will try to come back."
Andi agreed. "Though I can't guarantee anything skillful."
"Shoot, darlin', you're nice to just look at. How 'bout you come back sometime and keep me company and you can
take home whatever you manage to make?"
Again with the quiet laughter that just came bubbling out.
"I'd like that very much." Andi agreed, chest feeling lighter.
"That's no fair. She's not immune to your clever ploys for cheap slave labor." Hector called into the kitchen as he
investigated what was already made.
"Keep that up and I'll find some things in the storage room to move around."
"I'm on vacation." He said, finding a brownie that looks particularly appetizing. Jolanda rolled her eyes at Andi.
"Every time that man is on vacation he nearly eats me out of my profits." She said with a laugh. "But being the only
baker in town, I can survive a hit to my bottom line like him. So he actually not only met someone and brought her
home. I don't know whether to congratulate you or console you!"
Andi grinned.
"Congratulate me, console everyone else." She answered, drifting over to the loaves of bread laid out to cool. Jolanda
smirked.
"Met some of those, have you?"
Andi cast her a laughing look over her shoulder.
"I'm starting to get a picture." She agreed comfortably.
"Well, take a group of small town girls who the furthest they'll ever go is Baton Rouge or New Orleans, throw in a guy
who drops in and flies off unexpectedly for parts unknown to the rest of us, make him not have been beaten
senseless with the ugly stick....and that's the thing crushes are made of." Jolanda said, finishing the frosting on Bobby
Mac's cake with a steady, practiced hand.
"And on the other side, take a bunch of small town wives utterly bored with their small town husbands, and you get the
same result. Except sometimes there ends up being an annoying half rabid dog for payback." Jolanda said, laughing.
"I can see how that could make a near lynch mob for you! A couple of them, I swear they've got their hearts set on
being Mrs Hector Garrett, even if he doesn't even notice them. Females are funny like that. So how did you find him
anyway? Sorry, but I can't see Hector pulling his head out of the sand long enough to do any chasing."
Andi chuckled to herself as she absently swept powder off the counter top and into her hand.
"He stopped by where I work. Some of his troop were staying so he did too. Over my protests."
Jolanda raised an eyebrow as Andi dusted her hands off into the sink. You couldn't have screamed there was a hell of
a lot more that had happened than that if you'd tried, she thought.
"That true, Hector?" She asked, knowing he was listening whether he was in the other room or not. "'Cause I have a
hard time seeing you just inviting yourself to something." She mocked.
"Me? Never. I'm always invited, even if the people don't realize they've invited me." Hector said with a chuckle.
"Besides, you know me, where there's doctors and other medical people, I’m bound to be found."
"Oh yeah, that's you all right." She said with a shake of her head. "So he settled himself down, harassed the hell out
of you, then dragged you back to his home kicking and screaming?"
"Tossed over his shoulder, no less." Andi agreed before giving in with a chuckle. "He lifted things down from tall
shelves for me and than challenged me to a game of American basketball." She looked automatically toward the other
room even though she couldn't see Hector and her face was somehow soft and warm and glowing. "How could any girl
resist?"
"Oh, yeah." Jo laughed, watching what was being said that neither of them was saying. "That's exactly how girls
around here generally fall for guys. So much more effective than dinner and a movie."
"I made dinner the first time" Andi offered. Shooting her a laughing glance. "And he distracted me so that I burned it
horribly. But he still ate it. So I thought I should keep him. We haven't managed a movie yet."
"He'll eat anything." Jolanda said. "Hector, take her to a movie."
"Nothing playing." Hector called back. "So we'll probably watch a DVD or something, does that count? Love the
brownies."
Jolanda laughed. "Oh yeah, Mr Romantic."
"He makes up for it by being a sterling class snuggler" Andi informed Jolanda with a smirk that had the other woman
choking on surprised laughter.
No, there hadn't been flowers or candlelight dinners or other such. All of which were exceedingly hard to come by in
that section of Africa. Instead she'd gotten - Hector. Just as he was.
A much better deal indeed.
"If I mention the first time he told me he loved me he was on drugs, can I take one of these home?" She asked,
gesturing to the loaves of bread.
Jolanda dropped a pan at that. Luckily it was empty as she turned and looked at the woman in shock. "Really?" She
asked. "Wow.....I'm completely speechless."
"First time for everything." Hector called out.
"Shut up. Only counts if you said it off the drugs, and what the hell were you doing on drugs anyway?"
"I believe the nurse said something about being obsessed with his 'beautiful big bulgy veins.'" Andi supplied mildly. "It’
s terribly hard for us 'doctors and other medical people' to not hunt those down with needles automatically. He made
me leave all of mine behind in Africa." It was said entirely serious and then she glanced over, face innocent. "Which
type of bread goes best with fish head soup?"
"Sourdough." Jolanda said automatically. "So where's his scar that I'm going to see sooner or later, so I'm not overly
shocked."
She knew, no matter how bad it had been, obviously he was okay now, which was all that mattered in the long run,
right? But she would still like to know.