Lost in thought,lanie walked chanically to her hotel and thus failed to notice the person coming from the opposite side as she walked into the reception.
It was why, as a result, she collided with a person and the next minute, a loud crash echoed in the room. Her eyes widened.
"Oh my God! I was distracted! I’m so sorry!" lanie gasped, stepping back hurriedly as the man looked at the bottled that had crashed to the floor in horror.
She glanced down and saw the ss: shards of glass, dripping puddles of amber-colored liquid, and several ruined small bottles.
"I’m sorry, I should have been looking!" the staff mber said quickly, trying to mop up so of the ss with his sleeves while she shook her head, " No no. It was entirely my fault. Are you alright?"
Before the waiter could say anything more, an older man approached them, his eyebrows drawing together sharply. "What happened here?"
The boy straightened hastily and bowed, "It’s my fault, Sir. I’ll bring another order up for you right away and clean this up, imdiately!," he stamred and raced away to get another bottle ready.
lanie turned to the other man, intending to offer to reimburse the man but paused for a mont as she stared at his face. He looked familiar. Too familiar. But she didn’t think she’d t the man anywhere... Just as she was about to say sothing, she realized belatedly that the liquid had soaked into her clothes as well. Wonderful. She slled like a bakery now. Because, as she now understood, the liquid in the bottles was probably vanilla... which Maniwa was famous for.
She watched as the waiter returned with a fresh batch of bottles and a mop for cleaning up and hurriedly stepped forward," Please let reimburse you... both of you. That was entirely my fault."
The older man turned to her, brows lifting slightly in surprise before softening as he stared at her and said, "It was just an accident," he said, waving a hand dismissively. "No one got hurt. I’ll pay for both orders."
"But—"
"It’s alright. The boy’s still new. And you look like you’ve had a long day.
That last part made her blink. Was it that obvious that she was distracted?
Before she could say anything else or even try to thank the man, a child’s voice rang through the reception.
"Father!"
A young boy, no older than five or six, ca running across the lobby toward the older man, all energy and bright, eager eyes.
lanie’s heart lurched.
"No- wait-!" she called out, spotting the glittering shards on the floor.
But the boy was too excited to notice and charged forward anyway.
Without thinking, lanie moved forward and scooped him up just before his sneakers would have landed right on the broken glass.
The boy let out a startled yelp as she lifted him off the ground, clutching him against her side.
"There’s glass," she said quickly as she shifted him to one arm and pointed. "You could’ve gotten hurt."
The boy blinked at her in confusion, then looked down and his eyes went round as saucers.
"Oh!" he breathed and his hands tightened on her shoulders for a minute.
The older man hurried over, and the boy gave his father a gleeful smile, only to receive a reprimand. "You must be more careful, Adir. You can’t just run without looking!"
Carefully, the man stepped around the ss and reached for the boy. lanie handed him over gently.
The boy imdiately clung to his father’s shoulders—but as he was moved away, he turned his head and gave lanie a curious look.
"You sll like cake," he declared, his voice full of innocent judgnt.
lanie couldn’t help it she let out a small, startled laugh. Since she’d just been soaked in vanilla essence, it would be odd if she did not sll like ’cake’.
The older man gave her an apologetic and almost assessing look and said. "Thank you for stopping him. Truly."
"It’s fine," lanie said again, brushing hair out of her face, still smiling a little despite herself. "I guess it could have been worse."
But even as she watched the boy and the man walk away, lanie could not shake off the feeling that she had seen these two people from sowhere. There was so kind of familiarity over there.
Unknown to her, the man was also observing her while the child in his arms chattered animatedly. That was when the waiter approached him again, with a careful smile.
The older man adjusted the boy in his arms and reached into his pocket.
"You did well," he murmured as he handed over a crisp bill, discreetly tucking it into the young man’s palm. "No injuries. Clean break. That’s good."
The waiter’s eyes widened slightly, but he quickly bowed. "Yes, Sir. Just like you said... I tid it."
"Mm," the man nodded, his gaze returning briefly to lanie, who was now at the front desk, likely checking her room key again.
The little boy observed his father’s gaze and said wistfully," She is just like mommy."
The older man turned to look at his son, startled and raised an eyevrow," What?"
Adir cocked his head and pointed to lanie who was now walking away," My friend says moms sll like cakes. I tried yesterday and today... Miss Vaugn does not sll like cakes. But that lady over there, she must have lot of mothering bones. She slt like cakes."
The old man laughed and tickled his son," Really? Then I guess I should invite the bakery’s chef to be your mother?"
Adir imagined the old uncle with his thin moustache and made a face. He would rather have a cute mother who was like cakes and cookies.
The older man cast another look at lanie who was walking away and sighed. It seed Adam Collins’ wife was indeed a good woman. This test had been specifically to make sure if she was kind and she had passed the test quite well... sothing he had not expected and was not sure he liked.
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