41. Penelope
Chapter 41
Penelope
My stomach is in knots a few days later. It’s opening day for my bakery. The moment I’ve been waiting for. My hands are shaking, and I clasp them together tightly, looking around for probably the hundredth time this morning.
Everything is ready. I know it is because I’ve gone over my checklist time and time again. All the tables are in place, straightened and put an exact distance from each other. There’s a cozy couch set up in one corner, with a sofa and two chairs around a low table, for people who want to hang out or work or just read some of the books on the shelves nearby.
The front bakery case is full to bursting with cookies, cupcakes, lemon bars, brownies, and cake slices. I went a little overboard last night with the stress baking, but the result is that there are so many things for people to try on opening day.
The sign is up, the menu behind the counter is ready, and I have flyers talking about custom cakes and baked goods spread strategically throughout the place.
I’m wearing my apron, hair pulled up into a bun, ready to greet customers and answer questions as they come.
I stand there, fidgeting and then decide I don’t want to wear this apron. It’s a nice spring blue, but it’s not the right one. Quickly I dash to the back and change to a green one that matches more of the decor inside the bakery itself.
But is that the right one? It has to be perfect, and I don’t know how to make it right.
It’s the green one. It has to be. It matches things, it feels good. My hands hover over the blue one again, but I push it away, walking purposefully back out into the main area.
The men are stepping in as I come back, and my heart stutters at the sight of them.
They’re dressed down from the clothes they’d wear to the office, but they still look good enough to eat in nice jeans and button down shirts. Each of them carries himself in a way that exudes confidence and power and I find it both soothing and arousing on a day like today.
Dominic catches me looking at them and he smirks, coming in closer. “If you don’t stop looking at us like you’re imagining filthy things, we’re going to have to push back the opening,” he says. “Because we’ll be too busy fucking you on every available surface.”
There are a lot of surfaces to choose from at this point, and I flush at the image of it. “I don’t have time to re-sanitize everything,” I tell him with a smile.
I kiss him and then Xavier and Tristan, lingering a bit on each one in an attempt to calm my nerves.
“How are you feeling, shortcake?” Xavier asks. “Are you ready?”
I make a low noise that’s not quite a groan, but close. “I don’t know, maybe? I think so? I’m nervous.” It doesn’t feel bad to admit that to them, and they’d probably be able to tell anyway. “I changed my apron like three times already, and I keep looking around, trying to figure out what’s missing, even though I know nothing is. I just want to look good and want this to go well.”
Tristan runs a critical eye over me and then smiles a small smile. “You always look good,” he says. “Today is no exception.”
The sincerity in his voice makes me feel a rush of warmth and that goes a long way toward helping me relax.
“Thank you,” I murmur to him.
“What can we do?” Xavier asks, rolling up his sleeves.
“I want to put those cookies out on the tables,” I tell him, pointing to a tray. “So people can have some samples while they mingle around.”
“Done,” he says, eyes sparking.
Tristan intercepts him before he can take the tray, picking it up smoothly. “If you do it, half the cookies will be in your mouth and not on the tables,” he says. “I’ll handle this.”
Xavier pouts, but doesn’t argue. Instead he makes sure the water dispenser is full and helps put out more flyers.
All three of them take my directions with ease, clearly accepting that this is my space and they’re here to help. That also makes me feel good. None of them are the type to follow if they don’t believe in who’s leading, so they must think I’m doing okay.
Having them believe in me makes things a whole lot easier.
Once everything is done, I stand back and give everything another once over. There’s nothing else to do, and changing anything now would just be wasting time.
All there is now is to officially open for the first time.
I take a deep breath and stride to the door. All three of the Alphas watch as I flip the sign on the door to ‘open’, inviting the public to come on in.
For the first ten minutes or so, I’m incredibly nervous all over again. What if no one comes? I put out an announcement online, and I know the men spread the word at their office, but that doesn’t mean the public will come.
People have been looking curiously at the building as I got it ready over the last couple of weeks, but maybe there’s enough bakeries in town now. Maybe they don’t need anymore.
I chew on my bottom lip, trying not to watch the clock.
Another ten minutes pass. Then fifteen.
Tristan grabs Xavier’s hand before he can sneak a cookie and my stomach roils with dread. What if this was all for nothing? The men buying this building for me, me baking all this stuff and putting so much effort into it. What if it’s just been a waste of time?
I’m yanked out of my doom spiral by the sound of the chime above the door jingling merrily.
A woman with two young kids steps inside, glancing around. “Oh!” she says brightly. “You’re finally open!”
I gape a little, until Xavier pokes me in the side.
“We are!” I say, smiling to try to cover for my lapse. “Today’s our grand opening.”
“How exciting,” she says warmly. “We live just a block or two over, and my kids have been asking for something sweet all day. What do you have today?”
I gesture for her and her kids to follow me to the counter and start explaining today’s offerings to them. The kids hang on my every word with wide eyes, practically drooling as they look at the sweets.
The little boy picks out a massive carrot cake cupcake, and his sister goes for one of the lemon bars.
“Good choice,” Xavier mock whispers to her with a grin.
She grins back and ends up with powdered sugar all over her face after her first big bite.
Her mom gets a half dozen snickerdoodles, and they stay and chat for a while before taking their purchases and heading out.
The smooth interaction relaxes me and makes it easier to handle the steady trickle of customers we get after that.
I see people I recognize from the office, all of them coming over to congratulate me and say how lovely everything looks. One of the other assistants tries one of the cookies from the tables and murmurs a soft, “Holy fuck,” that makes me giggle.
He goes home with a dozen more cookies in a box, claiming his partner will be thrilled with him for getting them.
Amelia, the assistant who replaced Sienna comes over with a big smile and shakes my hand.
“This must be a lot better than working in an office,” she says with a smile.
“The office wasn’t so bad.” I glance at the men as I say it. “But this does suit me better.”
Everyone buys something, and I feel the confidence in my baking returning with every purchase.
Among the people from the office are more people from the neighborhood. Some of them say they’ve been waiting for this place to open up, and others tell me they were passing by and wanted to stop in and see what was going on.
The biggest surprise is when I see people I recognize from my old bakery.
That almost brings me to tears when a man who was one of my regulars shakes my hand and grins. “I was hoping you’d open back up,” he says. “My wife loves your cupcakes and she hasn’t been able to find anything half as good since you closed down. She’ll be so happy when I get home later.”
“I’m so glad,” I say, putting a hand over my heart. I send him home with an extra cupcake on the house, just because it means so much to me.
He’s not the only one who comes by to say they’re happy I reopened, and it gets so overwhelming after a while. I keep up with the flow of customers, my guys letting me handle things for the most part. Sometimes the line gets a little long, and Xavier will jump in to help, charming the customers with his easy smile and calm demeanor.
The bell jingles again, and I look up to see Jonas coming inside. He beams as he looks around, taking it all in.
“Congratulations, Ms. Penelope,” he says warmly. “This is amazing.”
“Thank you so much. And thank you for coming. Please, help yourself to cookies, and let me know if you want to buy anything, but no pressure.”
He laughs. “Oh, I will definitely be buying things, don’t you worry about that. I have a bit of a sweet tooth, and so does my entire family. I think we’ll be frequent customers here.”
A loud cheer catches my attention, and I see Xavier’s siblings pushing their way inside, looking excited. Bella immediately pulls me into a hug, and I laugh, hugging her back.
It’s a whirlwind of chaos from there, and I barely have time to catch my breath, let alone have a conversation with anyone.
I’m explaining ingredients and making change and trying to make sure everyone has what they need.
Eventually the rush dies down, and I have a chance to eat a cookie and drink some water. The men cluster around me, and it’s not surprising that Xavier has a cookie in his mouth when he comes over.
“We knew you could do this,” Dominic says. “But it’s still nice to see how it all turned out.”
“Hearing you talk about the bakery and your plans for it made it seem so real, but this is more than we could have imagine,” Tristan adds.
“It’s no multi-billion dollar company,” I say with a smile and a shrug. “But it’s mine.”
Xavier shakes his head. “It doesn’t have to be on that scale. This is just as big. Just as important. Look at how happy you’re making people.”
I glance around and see what he means. All the table are occupied, and there’s a group of people in the corner reading nook, chatting and eating cake.
My heart warms at the sight of it and at Xavier’s words. “Thank you,” I tell him. I look at all three of them in turn. “Thank you to all of you. You made this possible for me. I couldn’t have done it without your help and your support.” My throat gets tight with emotion, and I don’t even know how to explain to them how much it means to me.
Even without them buying the building for me, they believed in me, and that’s more than a lot of people have done in my life.
“We didn’t do a lot,” Dominic says.
“Yes you did! You have no idea how much you’ve done for me.”
“You did the hard work,” Tristan points out.
“Yeah, but you were helping me every step of the way. When I was nervous and doubting myself, you all were there. If it was just me, I would have gotten all in my head and ended up taking twice as long to get here. You made me realize I can do this, and it wasn’t my fault that things failed last time. That really, really helped.”
“We can’t take all the credit,” Xavier says. “But we will accept payment in treats.”
I laugh while the other two roll their eyes, and I just feel so warm and cared for in the moment. It’s like nothing I’ve ever felt before, and I’m caught up in it, so happy to be here with them. There’s no one else I’d want to share this with.
It’s on the tip of my tongue to tell them I love them, to say those big words that I’ve been feeling in my heart, undeniable now. I’m coasting on this success, and it feels natural to just let it out in the moment.
But before I can get the words to come out, a voice that’s chillingly familiar cuts through the crowd.
“Well, well.” The deep voice is cocky and snide. “Look who we have here. Little Rebecca, trying to be somebody.”