Buttercup (Spell Library #10) - Helen Scott Page 0,2

from the painful sunlight. Only a hint of his intricate tattoos peeked out on his temples and neck.

"If I call the fire department then my insurance will go up. I can afford to replace the equipment, but not if my premiums get hiked up as well," I said with a sigh, feeling like my head was clearing now I was getting some fresh air. "Besides, I had it handled."

The smoke alarm that was still blaring in the background begged to differ.

"I need to get in there and shut that thing off before someone calls the fire department for me," I said. "Thanks for the assist, but I've got it, I promise."

"At least let me go in and open the back door to get some air flow going first. I don't need to breathe. Vampire, remember?" He winked at me, and my heart fluttered in my chest.

"Okay, thanks," I said. The words hadn't even finished leaving my mouth when he moved, and in a blink, he was gone, turning into the faintest blur of motion. He was back a second later, and the smoke detector had stopped blaring.

"Door's open, and I ran around the kitchen a few times to get the air moving, so it should have cleared out a bit by now," Logan said, offering me his hand again.

I took it, unsure what else to do, and this time had to resist shivering from the chill of his skin which was more obvious than before. He walked me inside like a gentleman and released me when I moved back behind the counter.

"Are you sure you're okay?" he asked, concern pinching his brow.

"I'm fine. Did you want something? Or were you just rescuing a damsel in distress?" I wondered, trying to crack a joke and failing when he just looked more concerned.

"I know you would have been able to handle it, but you don't have to handle things like that alone." There was a brief awkward pause before he added, "There are plenty of people in town who would help."

"Thank you, Logan, really."

"If you have any of those blood infused raspberry muffins around, I wouldn't turn one of those down," he said with a grin.

I slipped back into the role of business owner and said, "I think I might have a couple. Take the rest back to Vee with you, maybe put in a good word with your coworkers for me." I pulled the red tray from the display case and popped four muffins in a to go box that was red with white polka dots, I saved them just for vamp goods, and put a sticker on top that read The goodness inside came from Buttercup's Bake Shop. When I was done, I spun the box to face him and said, "There you go!"

"How much?" he asked.

"On the house, as a thank you," I replied, giving him my best professional smile.

"Okay, thanks, Buttercup. Will I see you at the Silver Springs Hop tonight?"

I nodded. Between him and Iris I didn't have a chance of forgetting about it now. After the news about Bryce I'd wanted to skip it, but I had bought myself a new dress just for the occasion and if people wanted to see me there, then I wasn't going to let a dumb ex keep me away.

"Good." He smiled at me again, a strange look in his eyes before he picked up the box and left. I waited a moment before doing anything, needing to give my mind a chance to catch up. I had to assess the damage and see what I could save and what needed to be thrown out. It wasn't like it was a huge fire, but I knew for sure it had ruined the oven. It was the stuff around it I was more concerned with. With a sigh, I walked over and changed the sign on the door to ‘on lunch’ before making my way back into the kitchen.

2

Buttercup

The repair guy said that he'd wouldn’t be able to make it out to look at my oven for a week because Silver Springs is so far away from everything. I couldn't wait a week for the oven to be fixed, so I either needed to find someone closer, or just bite the bullet and buy a new one. Ugh.

Why did this have to happen today? Wasn't finding out about Bryce enough? I'd been looking forward to the Silver Springs Hop for a while since it was the first big event that I'd