Under the Boardwalk

by Amie Denman

  June, however, had the arm of one of the bankers and was smiling broadly and pointing at things as they passed. She seemed to be the only Hamilton who didn’t want the pavement to open up and swallow her.

  Time to escape into her bakery. Gus took one step and someone tapped her on the shoulder.

  “Aunt Augusta?”

  She whirled around. A blonde girl who couldn’t be more than sixteen stood before her in her bright yellow sweeper costume. She was one of the many teenagers whose job was walking the midways with a broom and dustpan whisking away cigarette butts, food wrappers and other trash.

  The girl held a white bakery box. Gus smiled while her insides sunk. Not now. Since the STRIPE training classes, she’d seen a dozen cakes made by employees who were proud of their new skill. They didn’t have to show her their cakes, they wanted to show her. Wanted her approval. Every time, she had assured them it was wonderful while thinking how nice it was to belong somewhere, to be valued.

  But this was no time for cakes, not with Jack and the bankers closing in.

  “I made a cake,” the girl said, unaware of the day’s drama. She held out the box. Gus took it, glancing over her shoulder. The banker group was closing in fast. There was no way she could avoid Jack now. Not that she had anything to fear. He was the one who’d jumped to conclusions, the one who’d accused her of ratting him out to the other vendors. He was the one who should apologize.

  But not now. Not in front of the bankers. She’d have it out with him later.

  “Let’s see,” Gus said, opening the box and managing an encouraging tone. The white cake had a bright yellow sun in the middle. In green icing, it said Please Don’t Litter. The border was a neat row of alternating yellow and green dots.

  “Beautiful!” Gus said.

  “Nice cake,” a man in a dark suit added. He was peering into the box, smiling. “My wife is a cake decorator. Works from home making wedding cakes. You should see some of them. Amazing hard work.”

  The sweeper blushed, smiling at the man and Gus.

  “Why did you bring a cake to work? Are you having a party?” the man asked.

  “It’s from the STRIPE,” the girl said.

  “STRIPE?”

  Jack towered over them now, the whole group halted by the cake. “The Summer Training and Improvement Plan for Employees,” Jack said. “Every summer our employees can learn an interesting and useful skill. In the past, it’s been everything from car repair to square dancing. This year, it’s cake decorating.” His tone was neutral, almost flat.

  The banker clapped his hands, grinning. “I love it. Man, I can’t wait to tell my wife about that. She’ll get a kick out of it.” He turned back to Gus and gestured at her apron. “Are you the cake-decorating teacher?”

  “Among other things, yes. I run three bakeries here at the Point, but my flagship store is over in Bayside.”

  Virginia stepped into their circle. “Augusta is one of our lease vendors. We’re really lucky she found time to teach our STRIPE classes this summer on top of running her bakeries.”

  The banker nodded. The other men in suits stepped closer. “Tell me more about the lease-vendor program here,” one of them said.

  June put an arm around Gus and smiled. “How about you hear it from a vendor?” she said. “Do you mind?” she asked Gus.

  Gus glanced at Jack, but he stared at the ground, the awning over her shop, the cable cars overhead. Anywhere but her.

  “I’d be glad to tell you about it. I’m the newest one here, so I’ve had some learning to do myself. Many of the other vendors have been here for decades.”

  “That’s hard to believe,” another of the bankers said. “Decades?”

  Gus nodded. “Yes. They have a lot of loyalty.” Jack’s head came up and he finally looked her in the eye. She couldn’t read his expression.

  “The baker who had the contract here for the last twenty years retired, so I saw this as a great opportunity. For a flat fee and a percentage of profits, we lease one or more locations within the gates, the majority of them along this midway. Most of the vendors are quick-service food like hot dogs, fries and ice cream. A few are souvenir stands like Ricardo’s—” she pointed across the midway “—selling Starlight Point hats and T-shirts.”

  “And you said you had three? Do all the vendors have more than one?” a banker asked.

  “I’m the only vendor with three this year. This location,” she said, gesturing at her pink awning, “one in the Wonderful West and one in the lobby of the hotel. Maybe it’s too ambitious, but people like sweets wherever they are, I think.”

  “From a business standpoint,” one of the bankers asked, turning to Jack, “wouldn’t you be better off taking over these stands and running them yourselves? You could control product and profit more.”

  “I’ve thought about that,” Jack said, his face relaxing and his shoulders dropping just a little. “But the vendors make things a lot more interesting around here. Many of our guests who’ve been visiting for years expect to get a Hank’s hot dog.”

  “Or Bernie’s boardwalk fries,” June added.

  “Or Tosha’s homemade ice cream,” Evie said, slipping into the circle and smiling broadly at Gus.

  “They provide the kind of variety we’d probably lose if we ran everything ourselves. And I’m quite partial to our newest vendor,” Jack said, inching closer to Augusta. “I have a serious sweet tooth.”

  “Want to see my Starlight Point–themed cookies?” Augusta asked. She put a little distance between herself and Jack, hoping it would help her figure out his mood.

  The bankers followed Gus to her front counter. “Becky, can you put one of each of the Starlight Point designs on a tray?”

  “Be just a minute,” she replied.

  “I’ll help her,” Evie said, slipping around to the side door. “Looks like she’s got her hands full.”

  “Evie works for me, managing my hotel location and my books. I couldn’t do without her.” Gus leaned against her counter. “It’s about lunchtime,” she said. The bankers ringed her in, looking like kids whose mother had promised them cookies fresh out of the oven. “I’ll bet you’re hungry.”

  “Starved,” one of them said. “I’m thinking of trying a Hank’s hot dog and some—what’d you call the fries?”

  “Bernie’s boardwalk fries.”

  “Sounds good to me,” another banker said.

  Jack stood just outside the shade from the awning. She had no idea where their relationship was going after their earlier conversation, but they would have to figure that out later. Without so many witnesses.

  Evie shoved a parchment-lined tray across the counter. “Here we go. Aren’t these cool? We have the Lake Breeze Hotel, the new Sea Devil, the classic Silver Streak, a carousel horse, a few of the kiddie rides and older coasters, the night skyline and my brother’s favorite, the Star Spiral.”

  Jack coughed. “Actually, I like them all. I was lucky enough to be one of the first taste testers before we opened for the year.”

  Gus picked up the tray, offering it to the bankers, but slipping the night skyline into her hand. She circled closer to Jack and handed him the cookie. His fingers gripped hers for a second and he leaned down to whisper, “I’m sorry.”

  “You can make it up to me later,” she whispered back. “But I’m not going to make it easy for you.”

  The bankers took two cookies each and ate them right there on the midway. Gus thought they looked much happier than they had when they’d first approached. Guests going by paused and looked at the men in suits munching cookies. Jack ate the night skyline cookie in one bite.

  Gus laid the ravished tray back on the counter.

  “How about lunch?” Jack suggested to the group. “I’m buying dogs and fries.”

  The bankers
moved off, but Evie stayed behind. “Aren’t you having lunch with your guests?” Gus asked.

  “In a minute.”

  “How’s the visit going?”

  “Better now,” Evie said. “Thanks to you. I’m sorry I was so hysterical when I called this morning. I had no idea what was going on, but I knew you’d fix it.”

  “I patched it. But your family needs to work out a long-term relationship with the vendors that everyone can live with. I doubt I’ll ever get the maintenance guys to make fries or serve ice cream again.”

  Evie laughed. “Wish I’d seen that.”

  “Get a bottle of wine and rewind the security cameras. You won’t be disappointed.”

  Evie hugged Gus and hurried to join her group, grabbing Betty’s wagon handle and hauling her along.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

  THE AFTERNOON SUN burned overhead as Gus loaded her van and rolled the short distance down the docks to the Bayside Pavilion. Her aunt rode along to help wheel the wedding cakes inside quickly so the heat wouldn’t melt the icing roses. As they backed down the long driveway to the kitchen entrance, Gus was reminded of the early-May evening she’d first met Jack.

  Gus and her aunt had spent all day Saturday on the cake that would serve nearly five hundred wedding guests. On a busy weekend, Gus should have been at Starlight Point. But the used freezer she’d believed was a good buy had failed, and the prebaked layers were wrecked before anyone realized what had happened.

  It was a disaster. At least it would have been a disaster if not for the healthy cash infusion from her bakeries at the Point. Strong cookie sales meant she didn’t have time for setbacks, but the profits also allowed her to buy a new freezer for her flagship store.

  If—when—Aunt Augusta’s Downtown Bakery was strong enough to survive on its own, would she give up her shops at Starlight Point? Gus glanced across the water and her eyes followed a coaster train as it crested the hill on the Silver Streak and raced down. She’d come back to Bayside in search of the home she hungered for, and Starlight Point was a major part of that dream. She couldn’t imagine a life without it.

  Gus left the van running, air-conditioning blasting, while she ran to the kitchen to get the rolling cart. With her aunt’s help, they maneuvered the five circular layers of the main tower and the four smaller layers for additional servings inside.

  “This will sure be beautiful when it’s done. Want me to stay and help set it all up?” her aunt offered.

  Gus shook her head. “Nope. This is my favorite part. I have plenty of time and everything I need.” She squeezed her aunt’s shoulder, noting the tired lines of her face.

  “Wouldn’t mind sitting down and watching my talk shows I recorded. Been a long week for me.”

  “How about a ride back up the hill to your car?” Gus asked.

  “I’m not that old. Never know, I might get a better offer between here and there if I walk slow enough. Call me if you need anything.”

  The older woman started to walk away, but Gus stopped her and hugged her.

  “Thank you. For everything,” Gus said. “I couldn’t have done this without you.”

  “Make a cake? You could do that in your sleep,” her aunt said.

  Gus smiled. “Not just the cake. Thanks for making this feel like my home. And for believing in me. Even when I do crazy things like open four bakeries.”

  Aunt Augusta patted her cheek. “This has always been your home.”

  Gus walked her aunt as far as the van, loaded the rolling cart with extra flowers and decorating supplies, then headed in to build the cake, layer by rose-covered layer. It took her over an hour of placing a layer, adding pillars, setting another layer and filling in with borders and icing roses. She finally stood back, rolling her aching shoulders and surveying her work. Fantastic. If no one knocked the cake table in the next hour, the bride and groom were going to be very happy.

  The photographer had promised Gus copies of his professional photos of the cake, even offering her some enlargements for the walls of her downtown bakery. She’d befriended him by handing out his business cards and sending a few weddings his way. Good business, she thought. All part of her dream to make Bayside her permanent home.

  Gus packed up her supplies, loaded the cart and rolled out to her van. Now that the cake was done, she finally had time to think about Jack. And the vendors. The tumultuous events of the day before seemed as if they were weeks ago, but she could still hear Jack’s angry voice in her ear. That Friday-morning phone call still stung as though it was five minutes ago.

  Evie had called earlier to ask her to attend a Tuesday-morning meeting with all the vendors. Obviously, both sides needed to talk about what had happened. Cooling off for a few days made sense.

  She and Jack had a lot of talking to do, too.

  The night birds were beginning their song, promising a beautiful summer evening. Gus left the kitchen and walked toward her van. When she got closer, she saw another vehicle completely blocking her in. A hideous brown-and-tan SUV.

  Jack leaned against the door of his car, arms crossed over his chest, smiling uncertainly.

  “Looked for you at the Point,” he said, shoving off the side of his car and opening the back doors of her van for her. “All three of your bakeries. Twice. I was afraid you were never coming back.”

  Her heart picked up speed. Seeing Jack was even sweeter than the giant cake she’d just made.

  “I’ve been working all day getting this cake done.”

  “Last-minute job?”

  She laughed. “Shouldn’t have been. My freezer conked out and all the layers I’d prebaked got ruined. Stuff on the upper shelves melted and dripped on them. Had to do it all over again.” She sat on the back bumper of the van. “Sometimes owning a business is a real pain in the butt. Did you know that?”

  He sat next to her. Wrapped an arm around her. Turned her face with the other hand and kissed her softly on the lips.

  “I owe you a year’s worth of apologies,” he said. “I’d be willing to deliver one every day until you forgive me.”

  Gus laughed. “You’d probably be hoping for a piece of cake or pie each time you delivered.”

  “That would sweeten it for me,” he said. “Even though I don’t deserve it. I am sincerely sorry for what I said on the phone. I never believed you would betray me, but I was in panic mode.”

  “Panic mode is no way to make friends. But I forgive you anyway. Being the boss is a lonely job. That’s why I’m here on a Saturday.”

  “But you’re not alone. And you’re done for the day,” he said. “Right?”

  Gus nodded.

  “And you have an empty stomach.”

  “Had an early lunch at the shop. Hours ago. I’m starving.”

  “Perfect.”

  “Are you asking me to dinner, Jack?”

  “Nope.”

  “Okay. What?”

  “It’s going to be a beautiful night.”

  Gus glanced at the bay, sparkling in the late-afternoon sun. “I can see that.”

  “Perfect for riding coasters at the Point.”

  Gus didn’t answer. She got up and unloaded the metal cart, slowly arranging the back of her van. Jack leaned on the open door, where she had to brush against him every time she moved anything. They were right back where they’d first met, but a lot had happened since then. What happened next?

  “You haven’t said yes yet,” Jack commented. “I could sweeten the deal with a VIP pass. No waiting in line for any of the coasters.”

  “Are you kidding? The long line is where I build up my nerve. It’s part of the experience.”

  She wiped off the empty cart slowly and methodically.

  Stalling.

  Resisting.

  Wanting Jack,
but fearing wild rides. She’d been on an emotional one lately.

  “Also got a pretty convenient parking space right at the gate.”

  “Are you trying to impress me?”

  “Yes.”

  Gus sighed and looked him in the eye. “Can we start small? I’ve only been on one ride this whole summer.”

  He grinned. “Which one?”

  “Very funny.”

  “If you liked it, I could arrange for another private ride.”

  “Starting slow tonight, remember?”

  “Whatever you want,” Jack said. “How about you park the pink beast, I’ll meet you behind your bakery and we’ll go from there.”

  * * *

  “I HAD NO idea this is what you meant when you said you wanted to start small.” Jack grimaced next to her. His knees were up to his chin on the small seat of the old-fashioned cars.

  “I like these,” Gus said. She honked as she looped over a bridge, passing a little kid driving his bored-looking dad. “You should have sat in the back where there’s more room.”

  “Then I couldn’t do this,” he said, putting his arm around her shoulders and pulling her in for a quick kiss.

  “Quit that. Gotta keep my eyes on the road. They throw you out if you bump the car ahead.”

  Jack rolled his eyes. “I’m almost afraid to ask what’s next.”

  “I’m thinking of going big. Bumper cars.”

  “Are we ever going to get to the Sea Devil?”

  “Eventually. I like to build up the anticipation. It’s more fun that way.”

  Jack squeezed even closer on the tiny seat. “I’m not sure how much longer I can wait.”

  Gus looked straight ahead, driving carefully into the loading station, never so much as touching the car ahead. She unbuckled them both and climbed out, taking Jack’s hand and pulling him to a stop right outside the ride exit.

  “I’m ready for the roller coaster now, Jack.”

  “Really? The Sea Devil? Or at least the Silver Streak?”