by Olivia Miles
“Cole. It’s no use,” she said.
He didn’t answer as he carried her down the stairs, past the worried lines that etched Janice’s face as she stood near the door, wringing her hands, and out to the truck, which was still warm.
“We have to try, Mom,” he said as he started the engine and backed the truck out again.
He had to try.
7
On Tuesday morning, Maddie was woken by the ringing of the phone. The sun was barely peeping through her curtains and one glance at the clock told her what she already knew. It could only be Amelia, who would have been at the café for over an hour by now, and awake well before that.
Someday soon Maddie would be back on that schedule. Amelia must have forgotten that for now, Maddie had no reason to get up so early. She’d purposefully made the cinnamon rolls last night so that all she needed to do was hand them off to Amelia—in an hour and a half.
So much for catching up on rest.
She hadn’t been sleeping well for too many weeks now, and something told her that she wouldn’t return to blissful, dream-filled nights of slumber once the bakery opened and she had even more things to worry about into the quiet hours of the night.
“I thought when we were doing laundry yesterday that you said Cole wasn’t going to be working yesterday,” Amelia said by way of hello.
Maddie frowned and rubbed the sleep from her eyes. She took a minute to adjust the pillows behind her back so she was sitting up in bed. She’d stopped by the bakery yesterday afternoon, before she’d placed the order for the tables and chairs, so she could measure for the hundredth time, triple-check her decision to have twelve tables in total, some which would seat two, others four. She’d decided on round, bistro-style tables, in a rich walnut stain that matched the floors, with lighter weight cross-back chairs that would be easy to move about the room.
She must have been there for an hour. Probably more like two, because she was so nervous about hitting “send” on her purchase agreement.
Cole had never arrived, not that she’d been looking for him. He’d made his intentions clear on Sunday.
“He wasn’t working yesterday,” she confirmed. But something in Amelia’s tone, in the entire reason for her calling at all, told Maddie that this was not true. Her heart began to pound with panic. She couldn’t afford for anything to go wrong right now. Not with her tight budget or her hopes to open in two weeks. “Why? What are you trying to say?”
She could hear the amusement in her sister’s voice when she said, “Well, I’m standing here, in my café, looking straight into your bakery.”
Now Maddie tossed the quilt from her legs and scrambled toward the closet. “What are you saying? Cole knocked through the wall?”
“Oh, he more than knocked through it,” Amelia said. Maddie could practically picture her sister shaking her head. “I’m not complaining, but you said he wasn’t working, so I’m a little surprised.”
“Let me get ready,” Maddie said. “I’ll be there in fifteen minutes.”
She disconnected the call and flung open her chest of drawers, reaching for her favorite pair of jeans and a long-sleeved tee. A shower could wait. She needed to see exactly what Cole had done—because Firefly Café was open for business all day every day until midday Sunday, and no more work could be done on that doorway until then.
She should be grateful that her sister took things in stride a little more easily than she did.
Maddie was at the café in twelve minutes, the two trays of cinnamon rolls she’d prepped last night stacked in her arms, ready to slide into Amelia’s oven. The café wasn’t open to the public yet, but despite the sign on the door, Maddie knew it was unlocked. She entered and let her eyes pull her to the part of the wall that was supposed to come down. To be an open doorway joining the two establishments.
A large clear tarp was tacked to the wall. Maddie held her breath as Amelia poked her head through the open window pass that led to her kitchen and disappeared again, only to swing through the kitchen door a moment later with a funny expression on her face.
“How bad is it?” Maddie asked, nervously, as she handed over the trays. It was one thing to get everything wrong with her bakery. It was another to mess up anything for Amelia. After everything her sister had done for her over the years, the last thing she would ever want to do was sabotage this café, even for a day.
Amelia set the trays on the counter. “Pull back the tarp and see for yourself.”
On bated breath, Maddie walked to the tarp and, like a band-aid, ripped it back. She gasped. She wasn’t quite sure what she’d expected to find. A haphazard hole. Exposed wires. A work in progress.
Instead she was looking at a framed doorway. The trim had already been painted. Amelia’s walls were touched up. She was looking right into her bakery, past the wall of windows that fronted the porch.
“But this…This must have taken all night.”
“I’d think so. And yet you’d never even know that anyone was here.” Amelia gestured to the floor and her counters. “Not a trace of sawdust. It barely even smells like paint. He must have cracked the window.”
Maddie didn’t even know what to say. She shook her head and let the tarp fall back into place, shielding her unfinished bakery from Amelia’s customers.
“He told me he wasn’t coming in yesterday,” she said again, trying to wrap her head around his change of plans, and why he’d failed to inform her. He’d known she was annoyed. She’d been pretty clear about that. Either he’d done the work overnight as a peace offering, or because he was a man of his word.
Or maybe, a bit of both. Whichever way she looked at it, she couldn’t deny the feeling that Cole was turning out to be a different man than she’d expected. And that she was a little more pleased by this than she probably should be.
“Guess he never specified last night,” Amelia said with a little grin.
“He did say the job would be finished on time,” Maddie said slowly, recalling his words, how hard she had been on him. How tense things had been when he’d left.
Looked like once again Cole was a man of his word. And she owed him an apology. For a couple things.
*
Cole pulled his truck to a stop outside the bakery and reached for his thermos of coffee, only to realize he’d already drank every last drop. He’d need another cup to keep him going, and Firefly Café should probably be just opening its doors by now. He could use the opportunity to ask Amelia how she felt about the doorway, and if she needed any touch-ups to the work.
He walked around the porch to Amelia’s side of the building and up the steps to the front door. Inside the café it was warm and sweet-smelling. There was already a buzz in the air. Most tables were full, and the counter stools were occupied by locals he recognized. He’d expected to see Amelia standing near the display case, but instead, his eyes hooked on Candy. Or rather, hers hooked on his.
Her entire expression lit up and she nearly poured a pot of coffee all over her own hand. As it was, she sloshed the hot liquid all over the counter rather than into the ceramic mug she held. With a laugh at herself, she apologized to the waiting customer, handed over the coffee, and called out to him as she wiped up the mess.
“Yoohoo! Cole!”
Despite the hellish thirty-six hours he’d just had, Cole felt a smile pull at his lips. Unlike the rest of the people in this town, Candy didn’t know his history. And it showed.
“Hello, Candy.”
“You here for my famous cheese biscuits?” If he didn’t know better, he might say she had just batted her eyes at him.
He was flattered, and maybe even more flattered that she had her sights set on him for Maddie, but she was focused on the wrong guy. The only thing he could ever bring Maddie, or any woman for that matter, was disappointment.
He’d learned more than how to change a light fixture from his father, after all.
He set his thermos on the counter. “Here for a coffee, actually.”
C
andy gave him a little wink as she topped him off and then added two cheese biscuits to a white paper bakery bag. “On the house. I’m sure you have another big day at the bakery ahead of you. Unless you want to sit and chat for a bit? I’m sure I could get one of these gentlemen to slide down and make some room for you at the counter.” She gave him a long look.
Given the fact that these gentlemen were aging locals who were only on page one of the daily newspaper, or bent over in thought on today’s crossword puzzle, Cole doubted this very much. But then, taking another glance at Candy, he supposed that she was quite a convincing woman. After all, she’d gone well out of her way to ensure that he took the job at the bakery.
And why was that exactly, he wondered now.
He considered asking her, but doubted she would give him a straight answer. Besides, it was plain as day, wasn’t it? She was trying to set him up, just like his mother and Janice next door.
Really, would his life be that much better if he had someone to share it with?
He pushed back that thought, knowing the answer as much as he’d tried to deny it all his life. Getting close to people was risky business. It was better in the long run to keep them away.
Even someone as sweet as Maddie Conway.
Only the older he got, the harder it was to adhere to this way of thought. And the more time he spent with Maddie…
He shook his head, deciding to keep things professional. He knew, however, that Candy wouldn’t make that easy for him.
“I’m sure Maddie won’t want me sitting around talking when I could be getting work done,” he said with a grin.
“Pfft,” Candy said, brushing a hand through the air. She gave him a conspiratorial wink and leaned far over the counter. He had the instinct to back up, but he didn’t want to hurt her feelings. She was a nice lady. Warm, if a bit overbearing.
“That Maddie has a heart of gold,” Candy said. “A hard worker, too. And talented! Have you tasted her cinnamon rolls yet?”
Knowing he probably had no choice but to humor Candy, Cole let out a low whistle, and considered this question. “Can’t say that I have,” he said.
“Well, you’re too late for any today. Those things sell out in minutes.” Candy raised an eyebrow.
“Is that so?” Cole remarked.
Candy nodded. “Oh, yes. And you know what they say, don’t you, hon?”
Cole wondered if he stayed silent if she would stop talking. He could only assume whatever he said or didn’t say wouldn’t change the outcome of this conversation.
“A way to a man’s heart is through his stomach,” she said, giving him a sage look. “That girl will have half the men in town in love with her by the end of opening weekend of that bakery. Mark my words.”
Cole rubbed a hand over his mouth to hide its smile. “Very interesting, Candy. I’ll certainly have to try one of those cinnamon rolls one of these days.”
“I’ll set one aside for you first chance I get,” Candy said.
“Well, as for today, thank you for the biscuits, Candy. I’m sure I’ll enjoy them.”
“Homemade. By yours truly!” She winked again.
“You’ll be stiff competition for Maddie, then,” he said as he sipped his coffee. A line was forming behind him, he noticed, but Candy didn’t seem to let this bother her.
“Oh, no, this is a family effort. We all support each other. Have each other’s best interest at heart.” She smiled. “But then, I’m sure you understand. I hear that you and your mother are very close.”
The old, younger, angrier Cole would have stiffened at this. Asked why she knew this and who she’d learned it from. But eventually he’d come to realize that no one really heeded him as much attention as he thought they did. That really, no one thought of him at all, and that it was easier to fade into the background than he’d ever realized. Sure, it had been a hot topic for the gossip circle when his dad had upped and left, but that was twenty years ago. It was old news. And people in a small town like this…they lived for fresh gossip.
Candy, he could tell, liked to be in the know.
“That we are,” he said, pushing back the tightness in his chest when he thought of his mother, home now, after spending Sunday night in the hospital, only to be released the next day with new pain meds and little else. There was nothing to be done, really, was what they were telling him. They tried to prepare him, tried to explain what he should expect, but he hadn’t wanted to listen, stormed off, told himself it couldn’t be true.
In that moment, the angry child had reappeared. The scared child, he supposed.
It was another promise he’d made, so many years ago. To never be afraid again. To never feel loss. To never put himself in the position of feeling that kind of pain, or fear losing someone he loved.
To never love again.
“Well,” he said, jutting his chin to the wall with the tarp. It wasn’t exactly the sightliest scene, but until the bakery was ready, it couldn’t exactly be unveiled. “I was hoping to see if Amelia liked the doorway.”
“Oh, we were most impressed!” Candy exclaimed.
“We?” Cole asked.
“Maddie and Amelia were marveling over it all morning!” Candy gave him a long, suggestive look. “I can tell that Maddie is most impressed.”
Cole wasn’t so sure about that, but he decided to let the comment pass. “If Amelia needs any changes, she knows where to find me.”
“I’ll let her know. She’s busy back in the kitchen now.”
Cole nodded. He reached into the bag and pulled out a cheese biscuit. Took a big bite that put the rumbling in his stomach at bay.
Candy watched him expectantly. He grinned back at her. “Good. Really good.”
“Oh, you flatter me so,” she said, giggling loudly.
Cole chuckled to himself as he let the next customer step up to the counter and walked back to the door. He was flattering her, because he’d never really been a biscuit-loving person. But he’d made her smile.
And given what Candy had done for him, finding him the job, and giving him a chance, he supposed it was the least he could do.
*
Maddie was pretending to look over her itemized project lists when Cole came to the door. Even though she’d kept one eye trained on it since watching him pull up and then disappear into the café next door, she still jumped when she saw him.
His expression was impossible to read as he stepped inside, holding a thermos in one hand and a bakery bag from the café in the other.
“Good morning.” His tone was even, belaying no hard feelings about how they’d left things on Sunday, and no apology either.
It was obvious that he didn’t plan to offer up an excuse for his absence. Or try to get credit for the work he’d done either.
“Good morning,” she replied. She set down her papers and motioned to the tarp hanging from the doorway. “You’ve been busy, it seems.”
Cole gave a modest shrug and took a sip from his thermos. “I said I’d get the project finished on time, and when I make a promise, I stick to it.”
She nodded, narrowing her eyes on him. Interesting. “Thank you. It looks wonderful, and Amelia thinks so too.”
Cole shifted his gaze, grumbled something under his breath, and then, when the silence grew too heavy, held up the bakery bag. “Biscuit? Compliments of Candy.”
Maddie grinned at this. The work was separate; Cole had made that much clear. But this was his way of extending a peace offering.
Or an apology.
She’d take both. But not the biscuit.
She wrinkled her nose. “I’m surprised that Amelia lets her sell those things.”
Cole reached into the bag and pulled one out. He took a big, hearty bite, chewing thoughtfully. “They’re good. I like them.”
“Well, I don’t,” Maddie said, crossing her arms. She was aware that she sounded like a child, and she could see the gleam appear in Cole’s dark, hooded eyes. She watched him pull the last of the small,
fragrant biscuits from the bag, suppressing a sigh. “Candy’s just…well, it’s a lot at once. First she becomes part of the family.” Not in the legal sense, but Maddie wouldn’t be surprised if it eventually came to that, God help her. “And now she’s at the café. She took over my position.”
“But didn’t you have to leave the position to start your own business?” Cole pointed out.
“Yes, but…Well, I did. I wanted a change. But…some days I think that I preferred things the way they used to be.”
Cole nodded slowly, as if he completely understood, even though she wasn’t sure she understood it herself. She couldn’t have both worlds. You couldn’t move on with your life if you were rooted to the past.
Or maybe, she thought, as her gaze drifted back to her stack of papers and the list of items for her menu, you could. Right there, at the top of the list were her favorite recipes, passed down from her mother.
“Well, with the open door, you still have one foot in the café, right?” Cole polished off the last bite of the biscuit and flashed her a wicked grin. “And Candy mentioned your cinnamon rolls this morning.”
Maddie frowned. There was no telling what Candy had been feeding him all morning. More than biscuits, that much was for sure. More like a heavy helping of gossip.
“Of course, she also let me know they were all sold out. In fact, she implied that every man in town is in line for them each morning.”
Maddie felt her cheeks flush with heat, and she started to protest, but really, how did you combat Candy’s nonsense?
But Cole just laughed and set down his thermos. “Before I get back to finishing the kitchen, where did you want the sign when it arrives? Over the door or along the long wall outside?”
“The sign?” Oh no, she had completely blanked. Her heart drummed inside her chest as it pulled the blood away from her face. “I…I completely forgot.”
How could she have forgotten? It was right here, on her list! And how could she even think of opening a bakery without a sign? She was supposed to place that order by yesterday morning to ensure it arrived it time. Instead, she’d gotten sidetracked by her conversation at the pub on Sunday and planning for the Harvest Fest this weekend.
