Chapter 381: 1-5

“No, he has his savings and whatnot, but I think he’s going to be staying with your grandparents for a while because with his new…” she stopped abruptly. “His new baby?” “Yes, with his new baby, Amelia and Sarah, plus Sarah never having a job, they can’t afford to move out,” I nodded unsure of how I felt about all of this. It was petty, but in a way I was happy that Sarah wasn’t going to get mommas money, she had tried to get everything else, but this wasn’t one of them. . . . Ben POV There were not many things that I could do with Kayla, and I didn’t know how to bake, but if we had an adult and the recipe Oakley gave me I’m sure we could get it right. So I waited for Kayla to say something, but she just put all the puzzles on the table and ran out of the room. I turned to Chris, “I – I – sorry?” I shrugged wondering what I did wrong. Before he could answer me though, Kayla was back with a sheet of paper. “I made this for you,” she said so quietly that the hum of the fridge was a bit louder than her. Taking it from her I opened it and saw a soccer ball on grass blue sky in the background. “Thank you,” I told her smiling and putting the paper folded into my backpack. “So… do you want to make the brownies?” I asked, “They taste really good, well if we make them right they will,” I smiled. Going to the island, Kayla hopped onto one of the stools, so I handed her the baking pans. “With the recipe we can make two kinds the chewy ones and the fudgy kinds,” I gave her some flour and butter. “So you put the butter in your hands and you wipe it all over everything,” I showed her a bit before opening my backpack, taking out the camera and going to Chris. “Kayla do you mind if your dad takes pictures of us, then we can make more puzzles if you want,” I asked her. “I don’t mind,” she said working on her pan, butter on her fingers, she greased the whole pan while her dad took a few pictures and then helped me melt the chocolate, unsalted butter and the vanilla extract. When we brought out the unsweetened chocolate I dipped my finger in, “eh, bitter” I muttered smacking my lips together, getting a small giggle from Kayla, her blue eyes happy, a small smile on her face. “What does it taste like?” “You wanna try?” I pushed the bowl near her and watched as she dipped her finger slowly, bringing it to her mouth, her nose screwing up, “We’re going to eat more like this?” I laughed at her horror. “No baby, once everything is mixed together it tastes really good, gooey and sweet too,” Chris answered and I just nodded. She shrugged, “All done,” the two pans all greased. Taking some flour in the spoon I sprinkled it in one of the pans, “So you do that, and then tilt it like this,” I lifted the pan showing her what I meant. “When you move it around, the flour gets spread evenly and you make sure it’s all covered so when we pour the batter in it won’t stick to the edges.” We worked together, Chris helping with the mixing and stove, until we scraped the batter into the waiting pans and pushed them into the oven. After she washed her hand, I began trying to help to clean up all the mess but Chris wouldn’t have that, “Why don’t you two go work on one of those puzzles?” I nodded leaving him too it and sitting at the end Kayla at the corner. “Which one do you want to do?” I asked. She looked at the seven boxes, “What do you do when you’re done with it?” she asked. Going to the box I found the backs, “Well Chelsea made these, we can make the puzzles on this, and then we use this-” I picked up the small bottle. “It’s Mod Podge, we paint it on top when we’re done. Then,” I dug around the box, “We use these to frame them,” I held the broken pieces of the frames. “Chelsea made sure to measure so we don’t have to do that, each puzzle has a back and a frame,” she nodded. “This one, the one of me?” she asked me. “Whatever you want to do…” I replied, making sure she chose what she wanted. When she nodded again, I pulled the backing for the puzzle of her, and she dumped all the pieces of that puzzle onto it, the two of us turning them all face up and began working on them. While we put it together I kept sneaking looks at her, happy when she smiled, and even happier when she was working on the puzzle, her tongue between her teeth. Trying to fit the pieces together, smiling large to her self when she put a few pieces together. “Oh you did the hardest part!” I told her when she had the bottom left side up to the wings completed. Earning another smile. “I like puzzles,” she whispered, looking up, something she did a lot. Every few moments I noted that Kayla would look up, her eyes darted around the room before she went back to her puzzle. When the brownies had been in the oven for nearly ten minutes she sniffed the air humming, “How’s your puzzle coming?” Chris came over and asked her sitting opposite her, “oh wow, you’re nearly done,” he pointed out. It wasn’t a large puzzle, less than two hundred pieces, “I have this sweater papa,” Kayla murmured pointing to the one I saw her in the first time we met. “It’s sort of like I have blue wings,” she added and Chris smiled large, nodding at her. “Oh what is that delicious smell?” someone asked from behind me, I turned to face the voice, “Ben, this is my mother Grace-” Chris started to introduce them to me, two women, one with light hair like Kayla the other darker like Chirs.