by Sophie Stern
“I had a good time, too,” I admitted. I hadn’t really expected very much, but dinner with Bailey and Gregory had been quite nice. He’d been charming, and she’d been adorable.
“I’d love to do it again sometime.”
“Well, you know where I work,” I said. Maybe he’d come by and surprise me. The two of us could share one of those little snowmen cupcakes I’d been working so hard on. Savored was going to be part of a baking competition in about a week. I had been planning on showcasing those cupcakes in particular, but I wanted him to try them first. Gregory would give it to me straight, I realized. He’d be honest as to whether they were good or not.
“Yes, I suppose I do.”
I realized, all of a sudden, that I was leaving things too open-ended. That was one of the problems with dating. You couldn’t just say, “Call me when you feel like it!” Instead, you had to be very specific. You had to spell things out for people. I didn’t want to let a guy like Gregory fall through the cracks because I didn’t let him know I was interested. After all, we hadn’t even kissed.
“I’m free on Saturday,” I told him.
“Saturday?”
“Yeah, I don’t have to work, and we could hang out, you know, if you want to.”
Maybe it was a bit abrupt. Maybe it was bold of me. It didn’t matter, though. I was going to be better than I had been in the past. My relationship with Tony had been full of problems, and one of the issues was that I didn’t know how to go after what I wanted. Well, I wasn’t going to have that problem this time.
“Saturday sounds nice.”
“I’ll bring you cupcakes,” I told him.
“That sounds amazing.”
“I’m trying a couple of new recipes for a baking competition,” I told him. “You can be my taste tester.”
“I would be honored,” Gregory said. Then, he added, “Bailey will be home on Saturday.”
“That’s okay. I’m happy to spend time with both of you.”
“You aren’t disappointed?”
“Not at all,” I said. I meant it, too. I would have given anything to have had a dad as attentive and kind as Gregory was. Bailey was lucky to have him.
“Okay,” Gregory said. “It’s a date, then.”
“It’s a date.”
4
Gregory
When Saturday arrived, I was ready. Bailey was, too. We’d prepared an assortment of snacks and treats to share with Kinsley, and as promised, Kinsley brought plenty of cupcakes with her.
“Woah,” Bailey glanced over all of the food. She licked her lips. “You made all of this?”
“Guilty,” Kinsley laughed.
“Don’t be guilty,” Bailey shook her head. Her eyes went wide as she looked at the snowman cupcakes that were topped with powdered sugar and marshmallows. “These are super cute. I want to eat them.”
“Have as many as you want. I brought a lot because I want you and your dad to tell me which ones are your favorites.”
“Really?”
“Yeah, there’s a competition next week, and I want to enter.”
“That sounds kind of interesting,” Bailey said. “What kind of competition?”
“It’s the annual Ashton Town Bake-Off, right?” I asked.
“Yeah,” Kinsley looked over at me. She seemed a little surprised that I knew about it. “How did you know about the bake-off?”
“Ashley used to enter that from time-to-time,” I said.
“Oh yeah,” Bailey nodded. “She baked muffins, right? I think I remember her baking muffins.”
“Yes. They were chocolate chip, to be precise, and she never won a single thing, but she always had fun.”
“That’s sweet,” Kinsley said, crossing her arms over her chest. “To be honest, muffins are really hard to bake in a competition because all of the judges seem to have strong opinions about the right texture for a muffin.”
“What do you mean?” Bailey wanted to know.
“Well, think about it like this.” Kinsley looked at the cupcakes she’d set on the counter, and she picked one up. She held it up in the air for a moment. “These cupcakes are covered in frosting and drizzle and toppings. They have a lot of different elements that come together to make them taste good. No matter how you like your cupcake cooked, whether you like it dry or soft, the toppings can change the flavoring and make or break the cupcake.”
“That’s interesting,” I murmured, watching her. It was fun to see Kinsley talk about baking. Her eyes lit up, and she seemed to get very excited as she talked. I liked that. I was still getting to know Kinsley, but I had a feeling that she had a big heart and that she was the type of person who always looked after others.
“When you bake a muffin, on the other hand, it usually doesn’t have a topping. The muffin has to fend for itself. If you overbake it even a little bit, the judges will complain. If I do that with my cupcakes,” she shrugged, “I can just add extra toppings to it.”
“I didn’t know any of that,” Bailey grinned.
“I didn’t, either, until I started working at Savored.”
“How long have you been there?” I found myself asking. I looked over the different cupcakes she’d brought. Some of them had snowmen on top. A couple of the cupcakes had reindeer. There was even one that had a tiny frosting Santa Clause. They were all wildly cute and super adorable.
“Probably not long enough,” Kinsley admitted.
“What do you mean?”
“Well, a lot of people choose their careers early in life. For example, when did you decide you wanted to be a cowboy?” Kinsley looked over at me, almost shyly.
“Hmm, that’s hard.”
“He always knew,” Bailey said.
“I wouldn’t say always.”
“I would,” Bailey nodded. “Grandma told me. She said that ever since you were a little boy, you wanted to ride horses and chase cows and be a proper cowboy. That’s what she told me.”
“That’s an interesting assessment,” I said. When had my mother and Bailey talked? I didn’t remember always wanting to be a cowboy, but the idea that it was in my blood was pretty accurate. Working with animals was something that made my heart happy. I loved being able to train horses and to ride them. I loved the land I owned, and I spent plenty of time exploring every nook and cranny. One of the coolest things about being a cowboy was just getting to explore the land and finding hidden treasures like creeks or tiny waterfalls.
“Well, I didn’t always know what I wanted to do,” Kinsley said. “When I was young, I went to college to be an accountant. I did that for a few years, but it was a stressful job.”
“I can imagine,” I nodded.
“Later, I decided to work at a restaurant just as a way to slowly shift careers. From there, I ended up working at a candy shop. I was there for a long time, and I liked it a lot. Working with candy was fun.”
“Was it a candy shop here in town?” I asked.
“Yeah,” she nodded.
“Did you work at Lollipop?”
“Yeah.”
Was it just me, or did Kinsley cringe a little when I asked? Okay, so maybe there was a story there. Perhaps working at the local candy shop wasn’t as fun or interesting as I assumed it probably was.
“What was that like?” Bailey didn’t seem to notice the way Kinsley had cringed when I asked about the shop.
“It was interesting,” Kinsley explained. She leaned back against the kitchen counter as Bailey reached for a cupcake. Bailey let her teeth sink into the frosting, and she grinned as she quickly devoured the rest of the cupcake. Kinsley just smiled. “There was a lot to learn.”
“So, you quit that job and went to Savored, and now you make cupcakes?”
“Pretty much,” Kinsley nodded.
“Cool!”
Just then, we heard a honking sound from out front.
“Who’s here?” I asked, stepping toward the living room. Kinsley was the only person I’d been expecting that day.
“Liam?”
“He’s a boy in my class. You know his mom from the feed store.”
Kinsley looked over at me and raised an eyebrow, as if to ask who Liam’s mom was. The problem was that I didn’t know. I thought about it for a second.
“Tina?”
“Yeah,” Bailey grabbed a backpack I didn’t know she’d packed. “I hope you don’t mind, but Liam invited me to come hang out and watch anime. Tina said it was okay, and since I figured that you knew her, it was fine. Besides,” Bailey wiggled her eyebrows, “this way, you two can have some alone time.”
I laughed and shook my head. Normally, I wouldn’t be okay with Bailey just going over to someone’s house, but Tina was kind and friendly. I told Kinsley I’d come right back inside, and I walked Bailey to the car. Sure enough, Tina was there with the aforementioned Liam.
“Hey,” Tina smiled. “Good to see you.”
“And you as well. Apparently, our kids are friends. I had no idea.”
“Me neither,” Tina admitted. “Liam said that he and Bailey arranged a playdate.”
“Movie date!” Liam called from the backseat of the car.
“Actually,” Bailey pulled open the car door and slipped inside, “it’s an anime date.”
“I’m okay with it if you are,” Tina said. “We’re just going to have lunch, watch the show in the family room, and then I’ll have her back by dinner if that works for you.”
Bailey looked so excited that I didn’t have the heart to tell her no. Besides, she’d spent time with friends from school before, and she seemed really excited about this particular friend.
“Sure,” I said. “That sounds great. I’d be happy to pick her up, though.”
Tina and I exchanged numbers and she texted me the address just in case, and then she took off. Bailey had her phone, so she could call me if anything happened or she needed to be picked up, and I turned to head back inside.
Kinsley was standing there, waiting in the living room. She looked over at me, and in that moment, I wondered how I’d gotten so lucky as to meet her. It was a wild feeling, really. I wasn’t used to feeling like I wanted to grab someone and pull them into my arms for a well-deserved kiss, but with her, I wanted that.
I wanted all of that.
“Hey,” I said, swallowing hard. I didn’t want to rush into anything. If Kinsley and I were going to be alone, it was going to be hard to keep my hands off of her, and I could tell that she’d been hurt before. I didn’t know the details, and I didn’t need to. She could share as much or as little as she wanted to, but right now, I just wanted to get to know her.
“Hey.”
“Do you know how to ride a horse?”
5
Kinsley
Gregory and I explored his property for over an hour. It had been years since I’d been on the back of a horse, but everything came rushing back to me a lot more quickly than I would have expected it to. I found myself laughing and relaxing and just having fun as we rode around his property. He showed me a little creek, and a tiny waterfall, and he even brought me to an old deer stand he’d discovered one day.
When we were done, we put the horses back up and headed inside. We finished the cupcakes and had a quick lunch of sandwiches and lemonade. Somehow, we ended up sitting on his front porch just sipping our drinks and watching the beautiful sky. The clouds were rolling by, and we both kept smiling.
“This reminds me of being a little kid.”
“What do you mean?” Gregory asked.
“When I was little, I used to love spreading a blanket out and just looking at the clouds like this. Did you ever do that?”
“All the time. It’s a fun way to pass the day.”
“I agree. It’s funny because when you grow up, you think you’re going to do all of these incredible things, and sometimes you do, but sometimes you forget about other things, too.”
“The simple things should never be forgotten,” Gregory agreed.
That was one of the issues I’d had in my last relationship. I looked over at Gregory. Should I tell him about that? Did he need to know? Did he want to? It had been a long time since I’d dated someone new, and I hadn’t dated seriously before Tony. When the two of us got together, I hadn’t really had much of a dating history to talk about.
“What is it?” Gregory asked gently. “You look like you want to say something.”
“I was in a relationship,” I finally said.
“I’m not surprised.”
“You aren’t?”
“You’re a beautiful woman, Kinsley. You’re funny. You’re kind. I just hope he treated you right.”
“He…”
Well, he hadn’t treated me right, had he? Neither one of us had treated each other right. Our relationship hadn’t been anything like what Gregory had experienced with his late wife.
“Well, things didn’t end very well for us,” I finally said.
“What happened?”
“I stayed too long, for one thing.”
“Yikes. That happens.”
“Well, it kind of happens before you realize what’s going on,” I explained. “I wanted to get married, and I thought that we were going to. He just wasn’t ready, and I figured I’d wait. That proved out to be the wrong decision.”
“What happened?”
“He found someone younger.”
Prettier.
Funnier.
Probably not smarter.
“I’m sorry,” Gregory reached for my hand and squeezed. I looked down at our hands, and then I glanced over at him. He was watching me carefully, but I didn’t see any judgment there. There was literally none. He wasn’t mad or upset or weird about the fact that I’d been with someone before.
That was so different from what I’d experienced with Tony. When I’d dated the candy man, he’d been obsessed with knowing every detail of my past. There were things he really, really wanted to know, things he felt he needed to know, and things he felt I was hiding, so he couldn’t know. My entire world had quickly turned into learning how to manage Tony’s anger.
I realized now that just wasn’t healthy or okay.
When you loved someone, you needed to do things to make them happy. You needed to help them find ways to feel at peace, to be comfortable. I’d never managed to get that with him.
“That wasn’t fair to you,” Gregory said.
“You’re right. I made mistakes, too, but…”
“It probably hurt a lot.”
“It did.”
“You don’t have to feel bad for hurting, Kinsley,” he said.
“What do you mean?”
“I can tell just by looking at you that you feel guilty. I’m not sure why. Maybe you feel bad for wasting so much time with someone who didn’t appreciate you, or perhaps you just feel upset that this guy ruined a lot of things for you.”
“Both of those assessments are pretty accurate,” I whispered.
“I don’t know a lot about breakups,” Gregory admitted. “I do, however, know a lot about people, and one thing I know is that people deserve to be happy.”
“I like that.”
“Me too.”
He leaned back against the porch swing, and he pushed us softly as we watched those beautiful clouds flying by. We kept holding hands, and the conversation shifted toward families and pets and animals and our childhoods, and before I knew it, another hour had gone by.
“I should probably go pick up Bailey,” Gregory finally said. “She’s probably done with the show by now.”
“That’s totally fine,” I agreed easily. “I have a few things I need to pick up at the store for my cupcakes, anyway.”
“You’re baking at home?”
“Yeah,” I nodded. “I’m trying a few different recipes until I figure out what I want. Then I’ll duplicate it at Savored.”
“When’s the bake-off?” Gregory wanted to know.
“Friday n
ight,” I told him. It was going to be here before I knew it, and the thought was a little bit sobering to me. Was I really ready for what was about to happen? Part of me thought that I was totally ready, but the rest of me was scared.
I wasn’t going to be the only baker there. I wasn’t even going to be the only cupcake artist. There would be other employees from Savored, and there would be people like Gregory’s late wife who simply loved to bake.
Then there would be Tony.
He was going to be there with his new girlfriend, and I’d have to face them.
Only, I really, really didn’t want to.
6
Gregory
The day of the bake-off arrived, and Bailey and I both promised Kinsley we would come attend. Bailey wanted to bring Liam along, which was perfectly fine with me, and the two of them took off as soon as we got to the event. I chuckled as Bailey took Liam’s hand and they walked away. Liam glanced over his shoulder at me, as if to say that he wasn’t up to anything inappropriate, but I just smiled and waved at them.
I was young once, too, and seeing them together reminded me of how I used to be with Ashley. That felt like a lifetime ago in many ways, but that was okay. I’d learned so much during our time together. Ashley had been an incredible woman, and she’d shown me a lot of love. She’d given me a chance to truly be myself in many ways, and I loved that about her.
I also loved that even now that Kinsley and I were dating, I still felt secure in this choice. I had a feeling that if Ashley was still around, she’d like Kinsley. I thought she’d approve, and that was a good feeling.
The bake-off was held outside of the high school in town. There was a large stage set up in the parking lot where the baking and cooking would take place, as well as booths set up throughout the parking lot. The booths were for competitors who didn’t want to bake on-site. They would receive different awards for their own performances. I appreciated the fact that the competition was set up in such a way. It seemed as though the organizers truly recognized that everyone was a little bit different when it came to their own capabilities.
