Chapter 43
"Do you think having eight different types of pie is too many?" Harry looked up at Tony with his face scrunched in serious thought.
"As long as you've got blueberry pie, I'm happy. But I think that as long as you have time to bake everything, you can have as much as you'd like," Tony replied, smiling as he watched Harry jot down several other things.
"Have you figured out if you want to hire other bakers, or just sell what you make each night?" Tony asked. Harry had been back and forth for several weeks about how he wanted to handle the bakery. On one hand, he wanted to be the only baker and do what he loved, but on the other hand, he knew that it was unrealistic to believe that he could bake that much on his own, even with all of the equipment that was in the kitchen there.
But last night, as Harry was sitting before the notebook that he was writing his menu plans in, he had come up with an idea.
"I did have an idea about maybe getting someone else, like a sous chef..." Harry smiled a bit, thinking about Caroline from Steve and Bucky's group that he had attended a few more times over the past few weeks.
He remembered his first time meeting her and remembering how afraid he had felt when Steve mentioned that Caroline's brownies were his second favorite. How afraid he was that Caroline would be upset because, in his experience, people were upset when you were better at things than them.
How he was afraid that she would be mad at him, and feel threatened.
But then, over the course of several meetings, Harry had grown closer to Caroline, and could even consider her a friend. She had mentioned a few times how much baking gave her a chance to forget. The same way that baking helped him.
"Any plans on telling me who it is?" Teased Tony, waving his hand in front of Harry's face jokingly as his kid stared off into space, deep in thought.
"Sorry," Harry smiled, blushing. "I was thinking about asking Caroline from the S.H.I.E.L.D group that Steve and Bucky run. I know she has a better paying job right now with S.H.I.E.L.D, but she really loves baking, and she's always talking about how she wishes she was home more with her daughter. I figured, maybe this could give her a chance to do something she absolutely loves, and also have a chance to spend more time with her family."
Tony couldn't stop the proud smile that began to spread across his face. He made a mental note to find out what S.H.I.E.L.D was paying the agent, and to compensate the differences in her paycheck without telling Harry.
"That sounds like an amazing plan, buddy. What about other employees? Have you thought about who else you might want to help you work the shop?"
"Well, Peter mentioned he would like to help out when he can. I know he's busy with everything, but he said he could help out a few nights a week, and some weekends. And he mentioned that he had a few friends from school that might be interested in helping out as well. Other than that, I might just ask around."
"That sounds like a good plan, just make sure that you let me know who's going to work with you, and I'll make sure to run a complete background check on them," Tony winked, making Harry giggle, but both of them knew that he wasn't joking. Tony would actually run a complete background check on all employees that came to work with him.
"Daaaad," Harry gave a mock-whine and rolled his eyes, but he knew Tony had the best intentions in mind, and in all reality, he didn't mind at all. In fact, he felt even safer and more loved that Tony would go through the trouble just for him.
"What are we 'dadding' about?" Bucky spoke, walking into the room wearing a relaxed smile on his face, Steve in tow behind him. Not that he had much choice- Bucky had an iron grip on Steve's arm, and obviously had no intention of letting him go.
"Oh nothing," Tony replied, raising his hand to rest right in front of Harry's mouth, jokingly stopping him from saying anything. "Are you guys getting ready to go to your meeting?"
Bucky nodded, "yeah, we were going to go for a little bit, and then we're going to go on a date afterwards. Harry, you're welcome to come to the meeting if you'd like, and we'll drop you off on our way to the place that I'm taking Steve."
"That sounds vaguely like kidnapping, but I'll allow it," Tony snorted, winking at Harry.
"You're sure you don't mind?" Harry asked. "I can wait until next week if you don't want to deal with dropping me off again."
"Nah, I'm surprising Steve with the location, but we'll be passing the Tower anyway so it's really no trouble. Besides, we were going to take the truck to the meeting and then come back and grab the bike."
Harry smiled, thinking about both Steve and Bucky riding around the New York countryside on the motorcycle, Steve with his arms wrapped around Bucky's waist. The image warmed his heart just thinking about it.
"Yeah sure, I'll come along then. Besides, I needed to talk to Caroline about something anyway, and Peter won't be done with school for a few more hours," Harry grinned, standing up from his spot on the couch.
"Awesome. Go grab a jacket though, it's a bit chilly outside," Bucky instructed, voice gentle. Steve smiled, watching how caring and soft Bucky was around the teen.
Tony smiled because the ex-assassin just used the word 'chilly'.
"Wait a second, I want to show you something," Harry grinned, eyes flashing with excitement. At his side, he snapped his fingers and a jacket appeared in his arms.
Steve's brilliant blue eyes widened in surprise. Sometimes he forgot the kid was a wizard, because he didn't flaunt his power. He was also still getting used to using cell phones, and the idea that you could call someone across the world with something that fit in your pocket still boggled his mind. So knowing that magic was real, even after all of his crazy life experiences, still threw him for a loop and amazed him.
"I think you broke Steve," Tony stage whispered to Harry, pretending like he was keeping it a secret from the two men, who just chuckled in response.
"Ready?" Steve asked, a giant, but gentle, hand placed on Harry's shoulder. Harry gave an excited nod, and looked at Tony with a cheeky grin on his face.
"Bye dad, love you!"
Tony's heart swelled at the ease Harry used to exclaim this. He knew that, even two weeks ago, it wouldn't have been as easy for Harry to tell him this. Because two weeks ago, it hadn't been certain that he would be his dad.
"Bye son, love you too," the words felt so strange, but so right as they came out of his mouth. He smiled and gave Harry a small fair-well solute as the teenager and two super soldiers made their way into the elevator.
God damn, did he love that kid to pieces.