Ocean

One

I gasped as the little devil flicked strawberry jam at my face, getting me in the eye. Wiping it off, I stared at her. "Jaime Williams, put the spoon down and come over here this instant!" I demanded. God, why did I ever agree to watch Sam's kid?

Because she and James deserve some time together. That ever reasonable voice in my head reminded me. I sighed and watched as Jaime ran off upstairs. I didn't even bother chasing the little brunette rascal.

The kid was such a cutie, she had long brown hair, like her mom, but her eyes were grey, like James. She was tall for her 4 year old age and she was full of energy.

I rubbed a hand over my stomach and wondered what it would be like. I was snapped out of my musings by my phone ringing. "Hello, Lisabeth King speaking."

"Lisa, we have a problem." Said Avery. She was an employee at my bakery, Sweet and Sour. And a good friend of mine.

"What's wrong?" I asked, wondering whether the problem was worth me dragging Jaime into my place of business.

"The power's out."

I sighed. Damn it! "Is the generator on?"

"It won't turn on, we've tried again and again. Hayden even had a go and he couldn't get it to turn over."

"Well is there fuel in it?" I asked, trying to come up with something that could be causing the problem.

"Yeah, the tank's full." Avery told me.

I sighed again, "How busy is it?" I asked.

"There's maybe 10 people here." She answered.

Damn, it was busy. I ran a hand over my face and through my blonde curls. My business was still fairly new and we were trying to work the kinks out and get it running smoothly. "Okay, I'll be over soon." Told her.

"Thank you, Lisa." Said Avery in relief.

I hung up and called out to Jaime. "Jaime! Come here! We're going to the bakery!"

Jaime appeared at the top of he stairs, her face covered in bright blue and purple makeup. She ran down and pulled her coat on, jumping up and down in excitement. She loved going to the bakery. Mostly because Avery liked to give her little treats. Ones that I took out of her pay.

I put the little devil in my car and we drove to the bakery, Jaime dancing with excitement the entire way. I pulled up outside the storefront and walked in to see a very flustered looking Avery trying to explain to an elderly couple why it was so dark.

"Oh thank God!" She exclaimed, making her way over to me. "It's been so stressful here without you!"

I laughed at her. She looked a mess, her bright red hair was frizzy and sticking up in all different directions and she had a wet stain down her apron. "Well I'm here now, you can relax."

With that, I headed past the counter and out the back where the power box was. Inspecting it revealed that the safety switch had been tripped, causing it to shut the power off. I flipped the switch and watched as the power came back on inside.

Walking back in, I almost ran into Avery. "What'd you do?" She asked.

"The safety switch had been tripped, what were you doing when the power went out?"

"I'd just put on the coffee machine to make a cappuccino."

"How many appliances were on in total?" I asked, a sinking feeling growing in my stomach.

"There were the fridges and the air conditioner, the exhaust fan and the stereo, and the coffee machine." She counted off on her fingers.

Crap, the amount of appliances running at once was too much for the old building to handle. To fix it we were going to have to come up with the money to have the whole place rewired. "Damn..." I trailed off.

"What's up?" Avery asked. She was a good friend; she could always tell when something was troubling me.

"Just a lot on my plate at the moment." I told her with a weak smile. Paying back college loans, the loan for the bakery, the mortgage on the house and outstanding bills from my wedding three years ago was causing a lot of stress. Then add to that the little problems that crop up with the bakery and my trouble with-

"Have you still had no luck with the baby?" Avery asked.

I looked up at her and shook my head. Ever since our wedding night, Carson and I had been trying to get pregnant. But to no avail. Gianna, Sam and Avery all told me to go the doctor about it, but I was afraid she was going to tell me that I wasn't able to ever have kids. And that was something Carson and I both wanted. A lot.

"I'm sure you'll get there." She said encouragingly. "I'm really sorry to do this, but someone's just walked in, I've got to go."

"It's okay, Ave. Go do your job. I've got to take Jaime back to Sam's anyway." I told her, looking for Jaime.

I found her trying to reach her 4 year old hand into the display rack for a jam doughnut. I took her hand and the doughnut and lead her out to my car. "Time to go home." I said.

"Okay." Was her simple response before she stuffed the doughnut in her mouth. I just hoped she didn't burn her mouth.

After I'd dropped a sticky Jaime off at Sam's, Carson called me. "Hey, beautiful." He said, "Guess what?"

I grinned, "You won the lottery and we can afford to get the bakery rewired?"

"Um, no. But I found out something pretty important." He sounded apprehensive, like he wasn't sure how I was going to react to what he had to tell me.

"What is it, Carson?" I asked.

"It's Liam." He said, "He's out of prison.

So please tell me what you think! I'm really excited for this story! Photo is Avery! Dedication is because she is the motivation for this story and she's such a loyal reader! Thank you, @Littlepitter01! So please vote and comment! I love you all! <3