Everyday Hero: The Volunteers - a Darling Bay Short Story by Lila Ashe

Everyday Hero
    The Volunteers – A Darling Bay Short Story
     
    Noah’s shoe was wet from where the Great Dane had peed on it, and he’d broken his most expensive wrench trying to fix Mrs. Finch’s sabotaged washing machine, so when the enormous strawberry cupcake ran him over, it was just par for the course.
    No ordinary cupcake, this one was half the size of a Smart car and apparently had a little engine in it somewhere, an engine of considerable power, since Noah was six foot two and two hundred pounds and it had still sent him flying.
    “Holy crap,” said the woman inside the cupcake, her brown eyes wide. Only her head was visible. “Are you okay?”
    Noah sat up slowly, brushing off the wet leaves. He wiped his now-slimy hands on his jeans which were now obviously a lost cause. “Do you have a license for that thing?”
    Her eyes widened even more. “Do I need one? Because Josie at the bakery said I didn’t, but I swear this thing is as big as a house, right?”
    Noah looked more closely at the woman driving the snack that had attacked him.
    It appeared to be a stuffed pink cupcake, at least three feet wide. A sign that said “Josie’s Bakery”hung from a frosting swirl on the side. The woman sat inside it, the costume coming all the way up to her neck. On top of her straight blond hair sat a stuffed strawberry. “I can’t even apologize enough. I don’t know why I said yes to doing this.”
    She was pretty on this second examination. Wide brown eyes, a generous mouth, high cheekbones. Who knew what was under the cupcake, but Noah had a hunch that the woman in front of him was probably good looking down to her toes.
    The face that he’d been run over by a hot strawberry cupcake was a slight boost on a day that was already crap in every other way.
    The electrical motor buzzed as she moved forward. “I would help you up but I have no earthly idea how to get out of this thing,” she said. “Oh, I just can’t apologize enough.” She looked at his coffee cup which was also in the gutter. “And your drink. I’m so sorry.”
    Noah stood. “It’s okay. The coffee is kind of masking the gutter smell.” And the dog pee smell, but he wouldn’t say that.
    “No, let me buy you another cup.” She gestured with a jerk of her strawberry-topped head, the green leaves bobbing. “Mabel’s Cafe makes a great maple pumpkin-spiced latte.”
    Noah drank his coffee black, always had. And for some reason, the way this woman said the word pumpkin got him thinking he should be more creative when it came to his morning beverages. “I’m Noah,” he said. He automatically extended his hand until he realized she wouldn’t be able to shake it.
    “Ruby,” she said. “It’s very nice and very embarrassing to meet you. Will you let me buy you that coffee?”
    “Yeah. Sure. I’ve never been bought coffee by a cupcake before.”
    Her cheeks colored. “I’ve never run anyone over in one. First time for everything. Are you sure you don’t mind walking next to me, though?”
    “Nah, a cupcake car is okay. At least you’re not a toast car. So boring. I’m also not a big fan of being run over by donuts. It happened a couple of times when I was college, and the aftermath wasn’t pretty.”
    “I hear you. I saw a bagel car pileup a few years ago.”
    “Wow,” Noah said. “The cream cheese must have been something else.”
    She shook her head. “It was awful. All the screaming poppyseeds in the street. I finally got over it, with a lot of therapy and time spent with a couple of very nice bakers, but this is bringing it all back. Post-traumatic dough disorder.”
    And with that, Noah fell in love.
    ***
    Ruby had hit the most handsome man she’d seen in years with her cupcake. Yep. That was her luck. Even better, he was wearing a Darling Bay fire department T-shirt. She’d run over a hero. Awesome.
    This was a cake wreck of gigantic proportions.
    He held open the door of Mabel’s Cafe for her. “Well,” he