Chapter 21

“Six. Two vanilla, two chocolate, two red velvet. Cupcakes.” The first part had been said for the girl at the window, the last part to me. “What’s a birthday without cupcakes, buckaroo?”

“Oh. Let me. Ow.” I cringed when I reached for my wallet.

“I got it.”

“You can’t keep buying me things!”

“I told you on our first day—”

I’d been half expecting a t at the end of the word. Date instead of day. Maybe I’d been hoping for it. “Huh?” Z took a pause, and I feared I’d missed my cue to speak, not to mention the rest of what he’d said.

“I said the universe owed you cupcakes, and I’m happy to be the conduit through which they come.”

“Thank you.”

Z said it, too, as he passed the teen a bill. I couldn’t see what denomination it was over the big pink box that he’d handed off to me first.

“But I will pay you back.” I still felt funny accepting baked goods or medical devises named for them.

“Moose, sit.” Moose had a sweet tooth. “Should we dive right in?”