“Just decorating cakes today, but come on in,” I tell him.
“It’s just me today, so I’ll get right to work so I’m out of here before you close.”
“No helper today?” I ask.
“I usually do installs by myself unless it is a really big unit, so I should be good today. I mainly brought Paul along the other day because I’d never been here and wasn’t sure what kind of space we’d be working with.”
“Ah, okay, well, as long as it won’t be an issue for you, I’ll just stay over here out of your way and continue to decorate.”
“Won’t be an issue for me,” he states.
I can’t help but watch as he walks over to the oven and starts removing the screws securing it to the wall.
“You’re staring at his ass,” Harper whispers into my ear.Shit, she busted me again.
“Shh,” I tell her quietly as I place a finger over my lips and glare her way. “He’s going to hear you,” I mouth to her. “Don’t make me flick this frosting on you,” I threaten.
“You wouldn’t,” she replies, a smug look on her face. I so wish I had the nerve to do it, but she’s right, I don’t. I also wouldn’t want to have to clean up the kitchen if we got into a frosting fight.
“Fine, I wouldn’t, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t tempting.” I smirk.
Our attention is pulled to the noise Garrett is making as he grunts. He’s struggling to pull the oven out, so I quickly make my way over to offer him some help.
“Need help?” I ask.
“If you don’t mind,” he states. “Just lift up from here and it should slide out. There’s an anti-tip bar we have to get over the cabinet base.”
“Okay, sounds easy enough,” I tell him, and lift up where he says. We easily slide the old oven out and set it on the floor.
“Thanks. I wasn’t expecting this one to give me any trouble.”
“No problem at all, glad I was able to help,” I tell him honestly and flash him a quick smile.
He heads outside, I’m guessing to get the new oven and bring it in, so I return to my decorating table and get to work finishing up the last few touches on the cake I was working on. Once done, I get it boxed up and placed back in the cooler for tomorrow’s pick-up, then dive right in to the next order in my stack.
I occasionally look up, checking to see the progress Garrett has made. I’ve caught him a few times glancing my way, but he quickly turns back to his own work when he sees me look his way. I can’t help but smile when it happens. There’s just something about him that makes me feel calm. The way he looks at me gives me butterflies and makes me feel the way a woman should feel when a man looks at her.
“Shit,” I hear faintly from across the room, and I look up to see Garrett scratching at his forehead as he pushes some buttons on the front of the oven.
“Everything okay?” I call out.
“No, the panel is giving me some strange codes and I don’t know why. I’m calling the manufacturer now to see if they can troubleshoot with me,” he says, and I notice he’s tapping away at his phone.
I go back to my order, trying to listen in as he talks with the company about the issue he’s having. He tries a few things, reporting back to the person after each one with no luck. “Okay, and how long will that take?” I hear him ask. “Okay, go ahead and do that and I’ll let the client know,” he says before hanging up.
“Something broken?” I ask, not wanting my assumptions to be correct.
“Unfortunately, yes. The control panel has a bad part and was recalled. They’re overnighting the new one out and we should have it by Monday morning, so I can come back then and install it. Since I know the wiring harness is installed correctly, I can finish installing it so that it is secure and out of your way, you just won’t be able to use it until after I get the control panel replaced, but that should be an easy swap out once I get here with it. Maybe take an hour, at most.”
“Okay, that isn’t so bad. I might have to do some extra baking this weekend to be ready for Monday morning, but we can make do,” I tell him as I already start rolling through my head what we’ll need to move up on the schedule to have everything done on time.
“I apologize for the inconvenience. There won’t be any additional charges for us coming back out since it was a factory issue and is covered under the warranty.”
“I wasn’t even thinking of that, to be honest with you,” I tell him.
“Gives me another chance to sample what you’ve got out in the case.” He winks at me, and I can feel the blush heating my cheeks. “I’m still thinking of that cinnamon roll from the other day.”
“Would you like to take a box of them home? I think we still have a day-old box,” I offer.