26. Theo
THEO
Strawberry Springs Neighborhood Watch
Hu Gh: Anyone got a recipe for one of them seizure salads?
Comments:
Tammy Jane: A WHAT salad?
Hu Gh: You never heard of a seizure?
Nicole Rudder: Do you mean a Caesar salad?
Hu Gh: Now why would I mean that old guy that got stabbed a bunch of times?
Freya’s bakery was the only newly painted building on the Rainwood downtown strip. Rainwood hadn’t had as much luck as Strawberry Springs, and it reminded me of the town I had moved into many years ago.
Getting out of my car, I grabbed my coffee and took a deep breath. I’d never come to see Freya in person, and all I could hope for was that she wouldn’t take this the wrong way.
But once I’d had the idea yesterday, it was all I could think about.
It still felt weird not to be at the coffee shop. I was so used to being the one to open it up day after day that waking up with nothing to do felt odd.
I had checked in with Kelsey far too many times in one day. She kept reassuring me that things were fine, which meant I could move forward with my plan.
Freya’s bakery was tiny. When I walked in, there were only a few tables. She was manning the counter, eyes wide, when she saw me.
“Theo?” she asked. “What are you doing in Rainwood?”
“I came to talk to you about something. A business conversation.” I needed to quickly clarify.
“Oh, yes, of course. I can have my sister watch the front while we talk.”
I nodded, trying and failing to stay still. This was outside of the norm, and it felt like the day that I had found Riley and asked her about franchising her business. I was terrified.
It didn’t take long for Freya to be ready to talk. She came around the corner and gestured to one of the small tables in the corner. I joined her.
“What can I do for you?”
“The coffee shop’s doing well, but I’ve been considering adding some baked goods to the menu.”
“Really? That’s a great idea. I know a few wholesalers that you could work with if you wanted to go the cheapest route.”
I immediately shook my head. “I don’t want to work with wholesalers. I was curious if you had the capacity to make them. It would be year-round branding for your shop in Strawberry Springs, and I would give you a cut of all the profits.”
Her eyes went wide. “Really? I mean, I don’t know if I’ll be the most efficient or the cheapest, but I would love to work with you.”
“It’s not about efficiency. You’re a good baker, and I want people who don’t get to see the farmers market to know about you.”
She blinked, jaw slightly agape. I bet I’d looked the same when Riley had given me the same offer. “That’s . . . that would be great. How soon are you wanting to start this?”
“How soon can you have things ready?”
“Well, I’m motivated, so I can do as fast as you need. Why don’t we work out the small details? I don’t want to ask for too much of a commission, but—”
“I’ll make sure that we’re both happy with what we make from it.”
She nodded, a smile on her face. She excused herself to go to her office for a few minutes before she came out with her recipes and how much it cost her to make each baked good.
Together, we worked on a commission system where I would give her half of what I made and we decided to start as soon as possible.
I may have hated taking a day off from the shop, but it was worth it. In just a few days, I would have something new to sell and something to help Piper with.
I wound up having to take another day off to find a case to hold the baked goods and to work on the menu for it while Freya got everything ready. By that time, I had heard rumblings that people in town thought I was missing. Just two days and they already missed me.
I’d even had to comment on it to tell them I was fine. But I needed the second day off, no matter how much I didn’t want to take it, in order to make this perfect.
Kelsey took it like a champ. She said she enjoyed the extra responsibility and still had time for breaks in between customers. I definitely owed her and would make sure she got actual time off.
When I finally returned to my usual schedule, Marjorie was waiting by the front door. Judging by her glare, she didn’t like that I’d disappeared.
The plan was to get the baked goods in before anyone saw them. There was no hope for that now.
“Hey.” I waved.
“Don’t you ‘hey’ me. Where were you the last two days?”
I didn’t think I’d ever seen Marjorie angry before. Sure, she loved to mess with people, and she faked being angry from time to time, but I’d never seen the genuine emotion from her. It made me feel terrible that I hadn’t let anyone know where I was going or what I was planning.
But that’s how it had been my entire life when I was younger. Ever since moving to Strawberry Springs, I hardly made any choices that were worth mentioning. That had changed.
“I was working on a work project.” I opened the back of my car and pulled out the massive package of baked goods.
Neither Freya nor I knew how much would sell, so we worked with what she could bake in a day and what I could feasibly carry in my car.
If things took off, we would go from there and adjust, but for now, this was a good start.
Some of Marjorie’s anger cleared and it was replaced with curiosity. “What’s that?”
“I decided to expand the menu a little bit. It’s baked goods I’m going to sell.”
“Thank God.” She let out a sigh of relief. “Here I was, thinking you’d up and left.”
“Not this time,” I said.
“Or ever,” she said shortly. I had to look away. “Now tell me where those are from.”
“Freya’s bakery.”
“Did you go all the way out to Rainwood?”
“I did. And then had to find a case for them.” I’d been at it late the night before, preparing to sell the goods today. Kelsey had been gone for the day, and I wasn’t going to ask her to stay any later after she’d worked solo in the shop.
“A real businessman. You know, it would be a really good apology if I got one of the first rounds of it as a taste test.”
I knew this would be coming. The second she saw me with baked goods, she would want some. “I have a chocolate croissant for you and a cinnamon roll for Henrietta.”
“You do love us.” She gave me a smile as I unlocked the door. “I’ll pay you extra.”
“They could be free of charge.”
“Fuck you.”
That was a resounding no then. Marjorie was far too stubborn for her own good.
After setting down the box on the counter, I got the coffee started and unloaded all of the baked goods into the new cabinet. I had more than the display could hold, so I made a mental note to put the rest in the back while I served Marjorie what I’d promised her.
With the prices Freya and I had agreed on, twenty would be more than enough to cover it all. Marjorie, of course, gave me forty.
“Keep the change,” she said as she left.
“This is way too much!”
“Did you not hear me earlier? I said fuck you. Bye, have a good day.”
Now that I was alone, I huffed out a laugh. Marjorie had reacted just as I’d expected.
I couldn’t wait for Piper’s reaction.
“Holy shit,” Kelsey said, “how did you get all of this done so fast?”
“I took two days off.”
“Those were supposed to be for relaxing. Not all of this.”
I only shrugged. “I had an idea.”
“A good one,” she admitted. “People love Freya when she’s here. I had no idea you even talked to her.”
“She asked me out once.”
Kelsey nearly tripped on her feet as she was walking to her station. “Um, what?”
“I said no.”
“You better have,” she said. “Not that you can’t, but Piper would lose it.”
“She has nothing to worry about.” I looked at the box. “By the way, save one of each.”
Kelsey’s smile grew. “Why?”
“For Piper, obviously.”
“Interesting.”
“Shut up.”
“Fine, I will. I’m being good in the hopes I’ll get to run the shop again.”
“I’m not planning on taking more days off.”
“Don’t make me call the law on you,” she muttered.
“I can do what I want as the owner.”
“But it’s stupid. I should get Piper on my side. I bet she’ll convince you.”
And that was my cue to change the subject. “We should get things started.”
“You’re not denying it.”
“Whatever,” I muttered.
Kelsey laughed before helping me open up the shop.
Only fifteen minutes in, I realized I would have to double my order. The second anyone saw there was a new item on the menu, they bought it up quickly.
Freya was going to be busy.
I saw Piper walk in the front door at two, and my heart jumped in my throat. I was glad I’d saved one of each, because we’d sold out hours ago.
“Afternoon,” she said, though her smile didn’t reach her eyes. She eyed me carefully, as if judging each of my actions.
“Hey. I’ve been waiting for you.”
“Really?” she asked, standing up straighter. She looked at Kelsey, who was definitely listening. “What for?”
I gestured to the cabinet. “I added baked goods to the menu. That’s where I was the last two days.”
“Oh,” she said. “Wow, that makes sense. Did you already sell out? I’m gonna have to come in earlier to get some.”
“I saved you one of each.”
She laughed, but her cheeks darkened. “I know you probably had this in the works for a while, but I’m going to pretend it was just for me.”
“You don’t have to pretend. It was.”
Behind me, Kelsey dropped a cup. She would make fun of me later, but I didn’t care.
Piper’s smile slowly fell off her face. “What?”
“Yeah. I want you to have an option. And if you don’t order anything, I’m adding it in.”
“So you weren’t planning on adding a food menu the whole time?”
“I should have been, but no. You gave me the idea. When we talked about . . . stuff.”
She only stared at me, and I wondered if I’d gone too far.
Or if I’d chosen the wrong thing.
“If you don’t like baked goods,” I continued, “I could see about adding protein options or something else. I could probably get away with sausage and biscuits . . .”
I trailed off when I caught her expression. Gone was the shock, but she didn’t seem happy either. Her eyes were wet, tears threatening to spill over.
My heart jumped in my throat.
“Kelsey, can you watch the front?”
“Yep, got it.” She took my place immediately and I rushed to get to Piper.
“Come on, let’s go to the back.” I used the softest voice I could and led her away from other people. When we were alone, her shoulders began shaking. “Was it too much? I thought it might help, but if I overstepped—”
I was cut off by her throwing herself at me. Her arms wrapped around my middle, pulling me into the tightest hug I’d ever been in.
Suddenly, it hit me that this was a very different kind of crying.
I couldn’t sit with my shock for long. The last time we’d hugged, she needed to be talked through it, and I didn’t think I could handle feeling her so tense in my arms again.
“Piper? You okay?”
“Thank you.” Her voice was thick with emotion. “That is the nicest thing anyone has ever done for me.”
“You deserve way more kindness than just this,” I said. “Can I hug you back, or is this a you thing?”
“Please hug me back,” she said. I wrapped my arms around her, pausing when her breath hitched. Then she relaxed into it. “I can’t believe you would do this for me.”
“I don’t mind.” And that was true. Even through all of the work this had taken, I didn’t regret a single thing.
“Food was always such a contentious thing after Mom died. The fact that you added a whole baked good section—”
“And you can have whatever you want. For free.”
“That’s not a good business decision.”
“I don’t care about business when it comes to you.”
I shouldn’t have admitted it, but like all things with her, I did exactly what I shouldn’t. Every time I’d seen her, I’d gone into it with the intention of keeping distance between us.
And yet here I was, in her arms, as she attempted to squeeze the life out of me.
“I thought you were mad at me for the other night.” She admitted it quietly.
This time, I pulled away and looked at her, bewildered. “Why would you think that?”
“You up and vanished. Right after I finally got a little brave. I thought maybe I pushed you too hard.”
“I—you—” I had a chance to cut this off here. I could tell her that we needed to slow down, that I was happy she was getting past her fear, but nothing would happen between us.
The words wouldn’t come out.
“Did I?”
“No. You didn’t.” It was the truth that I didn’t want to admit to myself. “When you told me you forgot to eat, I was more focused on this, but I promise that was all.”
Piper stared at me for a moment before nodding. She wiped away the last of her tears and I thought she would fully step away for good, but she looked at me through her lashes, a move that made my heart skip a beat.
Then it nearly stopped when she bounced up onto her tiptoes and kissed my cheek. All I could feel was the soft press of her lips like a stamp on my soul.
I froze, both wanting her closer and wishing she would run from me like she should.
“I’ll never forget this,” she said as she pulled away.
I felt like I was on fire.
Piper went back out to the front and took everything we’d saved for her. When she came back for a refill, her smile was even bigger, and she told us how much she enjoyed every single thing we had.
“So, do I get to be a bridesmaid at your wedding?”
“Kelsey,” I warned.
“Hey, if I saw all of this happen, I want to be a part of the wedding. If you say no, I’ll ask Piper. I’d make a killer maid of honor.”
“You are so annoying,” I said.
“Are you going to deny it?”
I needed to. God, I needed to, but I wouldn’t.
Because I knew the truth. My cheek still burned from where her lips pressed against my skin, and I couldn’t stop the way I stared at her as she wrote.
I was so fucked.
And there was nothing I could do to stop it.