Twenty-Two
L auren pulled the tray of pastry rounds she used to make Danishes from the rack they had been rising on for the past hour.
“He kissed me. Scott Brandonson kissed me. He. Kissed. Me.”
“Just so I know how to respond. Is this a good thing?” Melody headed to the cooler and took out the selection of fillings without being asked.
“I think so.” Lauren picked up the raspberry preserves and spooned an extra-large dollop into the well in the center of half the pastries on the tray.
Melody took the cream cheese mixture and began filling the second half of the pastry rounds.
A lecture was coming.
“If you just think so, then it might not be.” Melody looked over at Lauren and rolled her lips between her teeth. She tilted her head to the side before continuing, “He’s going back to the city, right? Are you able to separate your feelings, feelings that I might add, everyone who knows you will all admit run pretty deep when it comes to Scott? Because this might be a one and done thing for him.”
“Don’t say that.” She took a deep breath.
“Why not? It is what it is. One night and then you’ll each go your separate ways. Or maybe you’ll try the long-distance thing. Or who knows, you might finally leave Iron Creek and go to Chicago.”
“Because that makes it sound cheap.” Lauren brushed an egg wash over the filled pastries before putting them in the oven. The problem with Melody’s observation was that she could be right and anything that happened between Scott and Lauren wasn’t destined to be permanent. But it also wouldn’t be a cheap hookup, or at least she hoped it wouldn’t. “Besides, it’s not as though anything will happen. A kiss isn’t like he’s saying he wants to sleep with me. Right? I mean it might just be a kiss.”
Melody rolled her eyes. Yeah, Lauren knew as soon as she said the words she was making an excuse. At least Melody hadn’t added a lecture to her eye rolling. Lauren could live in her sad and delusional world without Melody’s commentary.
“But he kissed you.” She grinned and pulled the second tray of pastry rounds from the rack. “That’s something more than what you had back in high school, right?”
Lauren returned the two fillings to the cooler and came back with two new fillings — lemon curd and an almond paste that was just shy of being a marzipan.
“Can you add berries to the shopping list?” Lauren would need to make more fillings soon, and if she couldn’t get the fruit from the farmer’s market, she’d need to add them to her order.
Melody’s phone rang, and she glanced at it before swiping the screen and sending the call straight to voice mail. Lauren focused on filling the pastries and tamped down her curiosity about who was calling Melody and why she was ignoring the call.
After washing her hands, Melody grabbed the sliced almonds they’d top the Danishes with after the egg wash. “So, when are you going out again?”
“We didn’t make any plans.”
“Yet. You haven’t made plans yet.” Melody grinned wickedly. “When he comes in today, because you know he will, why don’t you ask him to something?”
“I can’t compete with anything he can do.”
Melody held her arms out to the side and spun around. “Helloooo, Miss baker supreme, look around you.”
“Somehow I doubt a date with cookies and coffee qualifies as a date.”
“Sure, it does. Where do you think people go on their first dates with whomever they swipe right on?” She snapped her fingers. “I got it! Make him that chocolate cake you’ve been wanting to make forever and a day now, but never had a good reason to make? Instead of taking him somewhere or doing something somewhere else, make a dessert date with him. You can even have it here!”
“It takes at least two days to make.”
“Perfect!” Melody’s enthusiasm was infectious. “Start it today and when he comes in, ask him if he has plans for tomorrow night and when he says no, ask him to meet you here for dessert. I’ll take care of the rest.”
Melody’s phone rang again. This time she didn’t immediately send the call to voice mail. Instead, her thumb hovered over the screen.
“Answer it. I have a mousse that needs making.”
Melody gave her a thumbs up then answered the call and left the kitchen, “Hello.”
As much as Lauren wanted to listen in on the possibly mysterious phone call and find out more about her friend, she understood Melody’s want for privacy. After all, everyone had secrets and Melody would share hers when she wanted to.
Lauren gathered the ingredients and laid them out on the table. The cake had been featured on a popular TV show and Melody was right, Lauren had been wanting to make it, but never had a good reason. Taking time and ingredients into consideration, she’d have to price the cakes at over a hundred dollars. Well, above and beyond the budget of most of the people living in Iron Creek.
T he last layer for the cake came out of the oven and was sitting on the same rack as its two brethren. Once the layers fully cooled, she’d wrap them in plastic wrap and put them in the cooler for tomorrow. The mousse was already chilling but needed another six hours at least. The cookies were caught up and tomorrow’s bread was rising on the rack.
Lauren couldn’t find anything more to do in the kitchen. Scott had long since arrived and waved to her through the kitchen window, but hadn’t come back to talk with her, which meant he was dealing with clients.
“What’s the next excuse?” Melody popped her head into the kitchen.
“Hm?”
“What’s the next excuse for not going out to talk with Scott?”
“Nothing.” Lauren looked around the kitchen. “Unfortunately.”
“If you don’t get out there and talk to him, I’m sending him back here.”
Lauren waved her arms in surrender. “I’m going. I’m going.”
She walked out of the kitchen and found Scott sitting at his usual table in the back area of the bakery. She tossed her body onto the chair next to him and sighed.
That was her signal to Scott that she wanted to talk but didn’t want to interrupt him. He’d been back in Iron Creek for less than a week and they had already fallen into the companionable patterns of two people who had spent most of their lives together.
Lauren enjoyed the easiness of their relationship.
Since he started working out of the bakery, she did her best to keep tabs on him. When he seemed to approach the frustrated threshold, she did her best to distract him.
“Yesss?” He drew out the ess and raised his voice at the end in the universal signal of asking a question. That was his signal to her that he had the time to talk and just needed a clue about the questions she wanted him to ask.
She took a deep breath.
“Are you going to be around tomorrow?”
“The bakery or Iron Creek?” Scott teased her.
“Well both I guess, but more Iron Creek.” She hadn’t considered that he could already have plans.
“I don’t have any plans to leave yet.”
“So tomorrow night? Would you want to do something?” Why did she sound like she was fourteen years old again asking him to a dance?
Scott’s grin was slow to appear. “What did you have in mind?”
Lauren pressed her hands to her cheeks, hiding the blush warming her neck and face. “No. Not like that.”
“Like what?” His grin didn’t diminish. If anything, it grew broader.
She closed her eyes and breathed in, filling her lungs with as much oxygen as she could. “Meet me here after I close?”
“Lauren Somers, are you asking me out?”
“No… I’m asking you to stick around after closing.”
“Done.” Scott took pity on her. “Was there anything else?”
She bit down on her bottom lip, debating whether to ask him about the bakery before finally giving in. “I thought having wi-fi, thanks for that by the way, would bring in more customers, and it has, but the bottom line hasn’t shifted. At all.”
Talking business was always a tricky endeavor, no matter who was doing the talking. Asking Scott for help would either end in a disaster or a triumphant victory.
“Before we start, I need to know if you just want me to listen, or if you want my advice.”
“Both? I can’t talk to Melody about this, she’s already done so much, and Olivia’s recommendations are perfect for a trendy spot that has a large customer base who don’t care about spending $100 on a cake. That leaves you. You were the one to suggest the Baker’s Dozen loyalty card.” It was such a good idea, she was surprised no one had suggested it before. Buy twelve dozen cookies and get the thirteenth dozen for free.
“How bad is it?”
“Not bad. For now. I mean, I’m not weeks or even months from closing my doors.”
“But?”
She was already in for a penny. She might as well go in for the full pound. “I haven’t paid myself in months.”
Scott leaned back in the chair and crossed his arms behind his head. “What about online orders.”
“Shipping will make the costs outrageous.”
“So? Cookie chains are opening up all over the place because local bakeries are closing their doors. They’re paying $4 for a cookie. Paying $40 for a dozen cookies delivered to the front door won’t be a problem.”
“Fed-ex doesn’t have a drop-off.”
“They’ll do a pickup if there’re enough orders.”
“What if there aren’t?”
“There will be.”
“I’m going to need boxes branded for the bakery.”
“Trust me on this. All you need for now is a box and maybe a sticker.”
She ran out of arguments. “I’ll think about it.”
“Trust me.”
“In the few seconds it took her to stand up, Scott was already back at work, his fingers flying over the keyboard of his laptop.
She stood by the table for a few seconds before she found enough courage to speak her thoughts. “I like having you here.”
He looked up from the computer screen and grinned back at her. “I like being here with you.”