The Pal List

Chapter 21

Saturday, December 8th

After work at the bakery, Uncle Troy drives Ben, Kaisey and I home because the roads were too bad for any of us to drive early in the morning. The snow storm that started on Wednesday lasted all the way until late last night. We have a few feet of snow and the temperatures are continuing to drop lower every day, so the commute to school and the bakery is getting less and less enjoyable.

When Uncle Troy pulls into my driveway, the three of us all open our doors and hop out of his truck.

"Thanks, Uncle Troy," I say as I shut the passenger's side door behind me.

"Yeah, thank you!" Ben says.

Kaisey waves. "Thanks!"

"I'll see you kids in a few days!" Uncle Troy says as he backs out of the driveway.

The three of us make our way into my house immediately to avoid being frozen to death outside. I kick off my shoes and head into the kitchen and Ben and Kaisey follow behind me. We all sit down at the kitchen table and start to dig into the muffins we brought home from the bakery.

"So Kais, I noticed you had a little secret admirer in the corner booth today," Ben says before taking a bite of his muffin.

"What?" Kaisey says through a mouthful of chocolate chip muffin.

I smirk. "Did you not see him?"

For a solid hour at the bakery today, Reese Asner and a couple of his friends occupied the corner booth. They were polite and didn't cause a ruckus, but it was obvious that they came for a reason. Every time Kaisey walked by their booth, Reese's friends giggled and elbowed him like the nine-year-old girls they are. Reese would either blush or punch them back, but Ben and I waited on them so he never really got the chance to talk to Kaisey. However, it is very obvious to Ben and me that a crush has developed.

"Who?" Kaisey asks, totally oblivious.

Ben raises his eyebrows at Kaisey. "Reese Asner," he says.

Kaisey chokes on her muffin. "Ew. What?"

Ben and I burst out in laughter. Kaisey's typical clumsy and disorganized work ethic must have distracted her from the googly eyes Reese was making at her. She tends to not even pay attention to customers she serves, so I'm not surprised that she didn't notice him.

"Yup," Ben says. "His cheeks were bright red and he could not stop staring at you."

"Well it's ten degrees outside so his cheeks were probably red because he was cold. And I had cake batter on my shirt so that's why he was staring. He doesn't even know me, why would he like me?" Kaisey protests.

"I don't know, because you're Kaisey Allen?" Ben says.

Kaisey frowns at Ben. "What's that mean?"

"That means you're beautiful and amazing and every guy you walk by looks at you like that," I say. Kaisey smiles and sits back in her chair.

"But this guy happens to be Reese Asner," Ben says, amused.

"Okay, I am not having this conversation anymore," Kaisey says. She stands up from her chair at the table to throw away the paper plate that her muffin was on.

Ben begins to protest again, but his phone starts to ring in his pocket. I stand up from the table and take my paper plate and Ben's to the garbage can, too.