The Bachelor Baker

by Carolyne Aarsen

  Amanda grinned. “She is kinda getting carried away.”

  “Kinda,” Melissa agreed, glancing over the amount of squares and cookies still in the case. “At least today we don’t have as much left as yesterday.”

  She eased out another sigh, rubbing her left temple with her fingertips as she hung the clipboard back on the nail beside the industrial mixer. She’d been up since five o’clock this morning getting the bread going for the day and a spike of pain was slowly drilling into her temple.

  “You look beat,” Amanda said. “Why don’t you go home? I’ll be okay to close.”

  Melissa glanced around the bakery trying not to make a face at the flour dusting the floor, the crumbs spread around the cutting boards and the fingerprints she knew smudged the display cases in the front. Though she had dreamed for many years about opening her own bakery, the reality of the relentlessness of the work was settling in.

  As did the fact that the success of the bakery lay squarely on her shoulders. In St. Louis, working at the hotel as a baker, she was an employee. Here, she was on her own. Though independence and the ability to support herself were what she had always wanted, she never realized how heavy the load could be.

  “Okay. If you don’t mind cleaning up,” she said.

  “Sure. No problem.” Amanda flashed her a smile.

  With a grateful sigh Melissa tugged her apron off just as her cell phone rang. Her heart sank as she glanced at the name displayed on the screen.

  Mrs. Morgan. Mother of the groom of the wedding Melissa was baking for. Very demanding mother of the groom, she might add.

  “My dear Melissa. Sorry to be a bother,” Mrs. Morgan was saying in her usual hurried and breathless voice. “But I need to meet with you and Gracie. I want to rethink the dessert reception.”

  Of course she did, Melissa thought, leaning against the counter behind her. “When did you want to meet?”

  “Tomorrow. At noon at the Cozy Cup.”

  “Okay. I’ll be there.” She ended the call and blew out her breath, catching Amanda’s concerned look. “Will you be able to help me at noon tomorrow for an hour or so?”

  Amanda nodded. “My mom doesn’t need me then. I can easily come.”

  “That would be great.” She pushed herself away from the counter and walked into her office. Right now her first priority was to talk to Dale Eversleigh and see about getting a new list of prospective employees.

  * * *

  Brian strode across Bronson Avenue feeling more humiliated with each step. Working at the bakery? What was the SOS Committee thinking?

  When Melissa Sweeney had called him he wasn’t sure what she wanted, but she had asked him to come to the bakery and it would seem weird to say no. The first time he’d seen her around town he had been immediately attracted to the spunky redhead with the bright smile.

  That was until he found out that she was the owner of the new bakery. A business that had received the money he also had applied for.

  He yanked his keys out of his pocket, still frustrated that the SOS Committee had seen fit to give money to outsiders for shops like a pet store, flower shop, bookstore, coffee shop and bakery instead of the mechanic shop he’d wanted to open. The hardware store he could understand, but the rest?

  And now the committee seriously thought he would want to work at the bakery? The hardware store, okay, but the bakery? Seriously?

  He was about to cross Main Street to where his truck was parked by the grocery store when the door of the Cozy Cup Café opened and Miss Coraline stepped out.

  “Brian. Hello,” she said, giving him the same warm smile she seemed to have for all her former students.

  Miss Coraline was tall, always elegant, her silvery hair cut the same she had always worn it, a short style brushing her jaw. As far as Brian could tell she hadn’t aged since she taught him in high school.

  “Hello, Miss Coraline,” he said, spinning his truck keys around his finger, stifling the frustration still simmering below the surface of his own smile.

  “I noticed you just came out of the bakery,” she said, a surprised note in her voice. Brian suspected she remembered his rant about the new businesses at the Grand Opening.

  “Yeah. I...uh...got a call from Miss Sweeney. Said she wanted to talk to me about something.” He stopped himself there. If anything, he was even more angry than he had been then. Bad enough that the SOS Committee turned down his request, but now they wanted him to work for one of the people who had been chosen instead of him?

  Miss Coraline raised an eyebrow. “Something seems to be bothering you. Do you want to talk about it?”

  Brian seethed a few more seconds, gave his truck keys another spin then blurted out, “Why did you and the SOS Committee seriously think I would want to work at the bakery?”

  Miss Coraline looked taken aback at his anger. Then she held out a placating hand. “I thought it would work for you. After all, you did take my Home Economics class. You seemed to enjoy the baking.”

  That was mostly because Lexi was in it and he’d been eyeing her for a couple of months. But he wasn’t telling Miss Coraline that. “I didn’t exactly pass.”

  Miss Coraline gave him a gentle smile. “I understand, but some of the other people needing work seemed more suited to the other businesses. I didn’t have the final say who got on what list, if that’s any consolation,” Miss Coraline said. “But if you don’t want to work at the bakery, you don’t have to.”

  “I suppose not,” Brian muttered.

  “However, you might as well know the other businesses all have their own list of people to ask and if you don’t take this job, you probably won’t get one with the other stores.”

  Not that he wanted to work at a pet store or flower shop either, but it seemed his options were growing narrower and narrower.

  “I just need something until business picks up,” Brian said. “I’ve got a few mechanic jobs coming in...” He let the sentence drift off, not so sure he wanted Miss Coraline to know exactly where things lay for him. He’d heard rumors that Mr. Robert Randall was looking for financing. Maybe he was opening the factory again in spite of what Randall had said when he laid them off. But for now, he needed work.

  “You’ll have to make your own decision. Pray about it and see what happens,” she said.

  Brian released a light laugh. He’d spent a lot of time with God the past half year. Ever since he got his pink slip from Mr. Randall. Ever since he watched the town he loved slowly die off.

  “I’ll do that,” he said, glancing at his watch. “I’m sorry, but I gotta run. I’m picking up my grandfather from Concordia. He’s coming for a visit.”

  “You say hello to him from me, and I hope to see him around while he’s here.”

  “You probably will. He’s been talking about moving back here.”

  “Wouldn’t that be lovely?” Miss Coraline said.

  “Yeah. Real nice.” The only problem was his grandfather would need a place to stay and that would likely be the house Brian had inherited when his parents died. But Brian was still making payments on it and if Grandpa moved in with him, Brian would need more than the sporadic mechanic work he had been getting to support the two of them.

  You might have to take that job at the bakery after all.

  He gave Miss Coraline a tight smile. “I better get going. I’ll see you around,” he said, then strode across the street to his truck.

  As he drove out of town, he heaved a sigh, his mind spinning in circles, thinking about Melissa Sweeney, her job offer and his own situation.

  When Randall Manufacturing closed its doors, he was out of a job. He’d worked as a foreman and had made decent money. Enough that he’d managed to set some aside with the hope of starting his own mechanic shop. He had been working on cars and trucks ever since he could
pick up a wrench, helping his father work on farm equipment and fixing up his and his sister’s vehicles. He’d been doing some work on the side with an eye to someday owning his own business. Being his own boss.

  After he lost his job he thought that would be the push he needed to get it started. So he’d gone to the bank for a loan. But the bank had turned him down, stating that his down payment wasn’t large enough given the current economic condition of the town.

  His hopes had been revived when he’d heard about some mystery person with a large amount of money who was looking to start new businesses in Bygones. That hope had been extinguished in favor of outsiders. The committee was looking for new blood. New ideas.

  Why had a local like him, who had way more invested in Bygones, been turned down in favor of someone who wasn’t from here, who couldn’t possibly care about the town the way he did?

  Bunch of city slickers like Melissa Sweeney. He gripped the steering wheel of his truck, stifling his humiliation. In spite of his antagonism to Melissa as City Slicker Baker, he couldn’t stop noticing Melissa was an appealing woman. She was the first girl he had felt any kind of attraction toward in a while. In another time and in other circumstances he might allow that feeling to go somewhere. But not now.

  He had no job and no prospects.

  Nothing to offer her.

  Chapter Two

  “I may as well warn you—Trent’s mother wants to meet with us to talk about another change to the dessert menu.” Gracie Wilson ran her fingers through her short brown hair, artfully disheveling her cute pixie cut as she blew out a sigh. “And she was talking about adding a tea right after the church service. Said it was a courtesy for the people who attended the service who we didn’t invite to the reception.”

  Melissa caught a curious note in Gracie’s voice. “Is everything okay?” she asked. “You seem upset.”

  Gracie waved off Melissa’s concerns. “I feel overwhelmed by all this fuss and bother. Mrs. Morgan is all about pink and girlie and I want things simple. I can’t believe how much planning she’s been doing. Plus, I wish we would have kept the wedding on a Saturday, the way I originally wanted. I just think she wants as many people there as possible.”

  “A Sunday wedding will be very nice,” Melissa said, putting her hand on the young girl’s arm in a gesture of commiseration. “And if it’s any consolation my mother had been planning my wedding for years. In fact, before she died, she gave me a folder with ideas she collected.”

  “I didn’t know your mother was dead,” Gracie said, her voice full of consternation. “That’s so sad.”

  Melissa waved off her concern. “It happened five years ago.”

  Gracie was quiet, then she leaned forward. “Have you met anyone since you came here who would give you a reason to pull that folder out?”

  “I’ve met lots of people,” Melissa said, being deliberately obtuse.

  “You know what I mean.” Gracie leaned closer, grinning, her previous funk disappearing behind her usual bubbly personality. “What do you think of my boss? Patrick Fogarty? Isn’t he just a dream?”

  “He is good-looking.”

  “That sounds like a brush-off. So, have you met someone else then?”

  Just then the door opened. When Melissa looked up she had a sense of déjà vu.

  Brian Montclair stepped into the Cozy Cup Café followed by an elderly man, tall, slender, wearing a golf shirt and plaid shorts. His hair, a thick shock of white, was neatly brushed and his blue eyes sparkled. He had the same widow’s peak as Brian, the same blue eyes. Melissa guessed this was Brian’s grandfather.

  Brian glanced her way, then he hesitated a moment and she wondered if he would come up to her and accept her offer. Instead he turned to the man he was with.

  “Grandpa, what did you want to drink?” Brian asked him.

  Gracie glanced over her shoulder, then turned back to Melissa, grabbing at her arm, her eyes wide. “Oh. My. Goodness. He likes you,” she said in a stage whisper.

  Melissa shot her a frown. “What? Who?”

  “Brian. He totally likes you.”

  Melissa resisted the urge to roll her eyes but lowered her voice, too. “That man has been nothing but cranky to me, especially when...” She stopped herself there, figuring someone like Brian wouldn’t want Gracie to know about her offering him a job.

  But Gracie didn’t catch her vague sentence; instead, she looked back just as Brian glanced their way. Then she turned back to Melissa, her eyes wide with pleasure. “See? He is checking you out.”

  “He’s wondering what you’re whispering about.”

  “He’s acting like my brothers do when they like someone.”

  As a sister of five brothers, Gracie could be considered an expert on male behavior. Melissa, growing up the only child of a single mother, had no such experience on which to base her judgment.

  However, she figured she knew how a man would act if he was attracted to someone. The first thing Jason had done when he met her was flirt with her. Then give her his phone number. When they dated, he made her believe she was the only one for him. That he would always be there for her. They talked about starting up a new business together—a bakery in St. Louis. She moved to be with him and make their plans. But just when everything seemed to come together, he left her with her money, her dreams and a broken and disillusioned heart.

  Melissa pushed the dark memory aside. She had her bakery now and her own chance to prove herself. Depending on anyone to fulfill her or to support her plans was a waste of time and emotion.

  Brian reminded her too much of Jason. A bit arrogant and a bit controlling. No thanks. She was her own boss now, in charge of her business and her heart, and she wasn’t letting anyone in on either one.

  Then the door of the shop opened again and Mrs. Morgan swept in.

  “Oh, dear,” she heard Gracie whisper as Mrs. Morgan walked toward them, clutching a binder identical to the one Gracie had on the table in front of her.

  “Good afternoon,” Mrs. Morgan said. “Sorry I’m late.”

  She held out her hand to Melissa, her red fingernails flashing. Her hair, a delicately washed silver, hung in a stylish pageboy around a face that defied her actual age. Her silky brown dress seemed unnecessarily formal for a casual meeting in a coffee shop, but Melissa was slowly learning Mrs. Morgan placed much stock in appearances. She didn’t so much sit down as ease into the chair in one fluid motion. “What have I missed?” she asked, glancing from Melissa to Gracie.

  “We were talking about some of the changes you wanted to make.” Gracie’s voice grew small in this woman’s presence.

  “Gracie said you wanted to add a tea with snacks for after the service,” Melissa said, taking over, hoping to ease the sudden tension. “However, this will substantially change the cost.”

  Gracie spoke up. “I don’t know if my father wants—”

  “You don’t have to worry about the money,” Mrs. Morgan said. “I told your father we would cover everything.”

  “But—”

  “Please. I don’t want to hear about it anymore.” Mrs. Morgan smiled, but the tension around the table had increased.

  And when the café’s door burst open, Melissa jumped.

  “Melissa,” a worried voice called out. “I need you to come to the bakery.”

  Melissa turned to see Amanda scurrying toward her, twisting her apron around her hands, her face a grimace of concern. “The oven quit working and all those cupcakes you put in aren’t baking.”

  “Did you call Alan?” Melissa asked, her mind scrambling. “He was the one who installed the stove and oven.”

  “He can’t come until tomorrow,” Amanda said. “He’s working in another county today. What are we going to do?”

  Melissa bit her lip, her mind racing. The
cupcakes were for a conference in Junction City. If the organizers there liked what she had to offer, it could increase business for the bakery and maybe raise the profile of Bygones and the new businesses here.

  And Mrs. Morgan was still waiting.

  “So the oven won’t go on at all?” Melissa asked, taking care of her first priority.

  Amanda shook her head, her brown ponytail bobbing.

  “I’ll tell Brian. He’s really handy. I’m sure he can help,” Gracie said, then, before Melissa could protest, jumped to her feet as if relieved to have a reason to escape. She hurried over to where Brian sat with the older man and murmured something to him. Melissa looked away when she saw him frown, but then Brian strode over.

  “Something wrong with your oven?” he asked.

  “It doesn’t work,” Amanda said before Melissa could protest that everything was fine, which it wasn’t. She didn’t want Brian in her bakery. Especially not after the way he seemed to treat it so dismissively. “Could you come and fix it?” Amanda asked.

  “Sure. I’ll have a look at it.”

  “It’s fine. We can manage,” Melissa said, holding up her hand as if to stop him.

  Brian shot her a frown. “How? Amanda said Alan can’t come till tomorrow. Can’t bake your fancy cakes if your oven doesn’t work.”

  Melissa stifled another protest at his blunt assessment of her situation. Much as she didn’t like it, Brian was right.

  “Okay. You can come and have a look at it,” she said, relenting.

  “Thanks. I think.”

  As Melissa held his steady gaze she caught the hint of a mocking smile teasing one corner of his mouth.

  Her heart did a slow flop at the sight. Then she caught herself midreaction. Was she crazy? The man clearly didn’t like her or her bakery. Why was she even the least bit attracted to him?

  Because, she thought as she strode out of the coffee shop, in spite of her innate need for independence and her burning desire to make her own way in the world, there were times she wondered what it would be like to have someone beside her.