Chapter 3
Chapter Three
S he pushed her chair back and stretched her arms over her head. Then, she looked away from the laptop and peered through her office window, a frown hovering on the edge of her lips as she watched people come in and out of the park across the street.
The view outside her window usually made her feel better, but not today.
Today, even the bright sun set against a backdrop of clear blue skies did nothing to lift her spirits.
With a heavy sigh, she sat back down behind her desk and pressed two fingers to her temples. Slowly, she rubbed in slow, circular motions to ward off the headache that had been threatening to overtake her entire day since she woke up hours ago.
A quick and brisk jog through the empty streets of Falmouth hadn’t helped, and several cups of coffee had barely dented the thing.
Emily was beginning to think it was going to be one of those days.
And she had no idea how to salvage any of it, not when the sheets of paper strewn all over her desk glared at her, begging to be acknowledged.
Heaving another sigh, Emily removed her fingers and shuffled the papers around. After organizing them into piles, she got up and wandered over to the mini fridge she kept in the corner, which had a small tray with a kettle and a box full of tea and coffee.
With a frown, she added a packet of chamomile tea and rummaged through the fridge for the honey. When the door to her office opened, Emily glanced over her shoulder and found herself staring at Angela, her head baker, who had a thin sheen of sweat on her forehead and wisps of red hair peeking out from beneath her white cap.
Sighing, Angela stepped into the office and let the door click shut behind her.
Emily straightened her back and spun around to face her. “Is it Mark again?”
Angela ran a hand over her face. “I know it’s slim pickings lately, but can we really not find anyone else? He ruined two batches of cupcakes today, and yesterday, he nearly singed everyone’s eyebrows off because he didn’t adjust the heat on the oven.”
Emily kicked the door shut with the back of her leg. After adding a dollop of honey to her tea, she set it down on the tray. “I know it’s going to be tough, but—”
“I know, I know. It’s just that things have been tough ever since Valerie opened her bakery across the street.”
Emily frowned. “We’ve been here longer, and we’ve got a loyal customer base, so I wouldn’t worry too much about that. The novelty will wear off.”
Even as she said the words, Emily knew how na?ve she sounded.
Banking on customer loyalty was all she could do.
Emily was hanging on by the skin of her teeth, desperate and praying they survived the people who lined up outside of Valerie’s bakery every morning.
Because at the end of every day, when everyone else went home for the night, and she was left alone with the numbers, Emily had to sit at her desk with tight knots in her stomach and a bad taste in the back of her mouth.
For now, Decadent Treats was hanging on, but it was hard not to take Valerie’s business move personally.
Especially when she knew Emily’s shop had been there for years.
Then again, Emily wasn’t sure why she expected her cousin’s archenemy to play fair. Between promotional ads in every part of town, a social media page with all the bells and whistles, and droves of people hired from all corners of the world, Valerie had a lot going for her.
And it wasn’t really her fault Decadent Treats had taken a few wrong turns.
Oh, Trevor. I wish you’d made better choices because I don’t know what I’m supposed to do about any of this.
Angela studied Emily’s face. “You okay, boss? You look a little pale. I can make you something to eat.”
Emily waved her comment away and sat back down behind her desk. “No, I’ll be fine. I just have to finish some work here.”
Angela raised an eyebrow. “You’re not going to be in the kitchen today? You hate doing numbers.”
Emily sighed and spun around in her chair. After pouring the steaming hot tea into her World’s Greatest Mom mug, she set it down on the coaster on her desk.
Then, she glanced up and offered Angela her best attempt at a reassuring smile. “I do, but someone has to do them. Maybe I’ll go into the kitchen later. Unless you’re offering to do the numbers…”
Angela took a step back and snorted. “You’re better off not having me anywhere near those numbers. I’m a whizz in the kitchen, but better keep me away from the math portion of things.”
Emily chuckled. “Duly noted. I’ll look into finding someone else—”
“I’ll figure out a way to make it work,” Angela interrupted with a shake of her head. “There’s got to be something he can do.”
With that, she spun on her heel and left.
Emily stared at the space she’d occupied for a long time, some of the tension in her shoulders leaving. She released a deep breath and sank lower into her seat. Not only did they not have the money to hire someone new, but Emily also wasn’t in any kind of headspace to be interviewing people to work at the bakery.
As she sipped on her tea, allowing the steam to warm the bridge of her nose, her gaze fell to the picture on her desk.
With snow-capped mountains in the background and a sky full of clouds behind them, the Ricker family looked happy.
With a sad smile, Emily picked up the framed picture of herself, her husband, and their two girls in matching dark ski suits and felt the familiar lump rise in the back of her throat. It was the last picture the four of them had taken together before the car accident claimed Trevor’s life.
A part of Emily desperately wished she could go back to that day, to hold her husband tighter and tell him how much he meant to her.
“We had some good times, didn’t we, Trev?” Emily traced the contours of his face, starting with the bridge of his long nose, down to his full lips, and back up to his expressive gray eyes, twinkling with life and laughter. “You have no idea how much I miss you.”
Doing all of this without him felt wrong, like she was going to spend the rest of her life looking over her shoulder, waiting for him to come back home to her.
It had been three years since the accident had claimed his life and left Emily feeling totally and completely alone in the world.
Three years since she walked through her front door with a plastic bag full of Trevor’s belongings and a heavy heart and collapsed into a heap on the floor. In the weeks and months that followed, Emily remembered thinking she couldn’t possibly live without him.
As if her heart was too small to withstand such a big loss.
In those first few months, it was a struggle to put one foot in front of the other, much less keep her business afloat and maintain a fa?ade for her girls. Yet, here she was, having somehow survived three years later, only to find herself buried underneath an avalanche of more misfortune.
And it was all because Trevor had a big wallet and a bigger heart.
She’d warned him time and again about investing in his friends’ start-up ideas. It had been the subject of many arguments between the two of them, and it usually ended with an apology and Trevor doing what he wanted anyway. Unfortunately, it wasn’t until months after Trevor’s death that Emily realized how bad things had gotten.
Putting the bakery up as collateral had been the only thing to do in order to pay back Trevor’s debt.
But Emily didn’t want to think about what would happen if she couldn’t pay the bank back.
With a slight shake of her head, she set the frame back down and reached for her tea. The scalding hot liquid burned her tongue and took her mind off the dire situation at hand.
Hours later, she was still staring at her laptop screen and chewing on her bottom lip when her phone rang.
Seeing Charlotte’s name flash across the screen made her heart soar.
“Hi, sweetheart.”
“Hi, Mom,” Charlotte greeted. “Am I interrupting anything?”
Emily rolled her shoulders and stood up. “No, I’m just going over some numbers. How was your day today?”
“I’m pretty sure this is going to be one of the worst plays we’ve ever put on, but at least the kids have a lot of heart.”
“You say that about every production,” Emily teased, pausing to switch the phone from one ear to the other. “And every year, you put on a great show.”
“Yeah, but this year, Principal Higgins is watching me like a hawk. You know he keeps looking for an excuse to cut funding for the drama department.”
Emily poured herself some water. “I’m sure you’ll figure something out.”
Charlotte exhaled. “I’ll have to. By the way, have you heard from Savannah today? I think she had one of those forty-eight-hour shifts again.”
“She sent me a quick message this morning.” Emily pulled her phone away from her when it beeped. “Speak of the devil; hold on. She’s on the other line. Let me connect us all in a conference call.”
With a smile, she pulled the phone away from her ear, pushed a few buttons, and teared up when she heard both of her daughters’ voices at the same time.
“I’m so tired,” Savannah said, her voice thick with exhaustion. “I need to shower and eat and sleep. Is it possible for me to do all three? I don’t even know how I’m going to manage when I head off to med school in a couple of months.”
“You could eat in the shower,” Charlotte joked. “Or sleep in the shower.”
“I wouldn’t do either. Your zodiac sign says you should be careful this week. There’s trouble on the horizon,” Emily pointed out with a quick look at the tab on her computer. “Charlotte, you should be fine this week.”
“Mom, you do realize you’re going to have to stop living by the zodiac signs eventually, right? I’m sure you’d be fine without them.”
She knew relying on fortune tellers and astrology wasn’t the healthiest way to cope, but it had gotten her through a difficult time after Trevor’s death. During those first few nights alone, she’d stay up in bed, willing sleep to come until she eventually ended up online, scrolling through article after article.
It made her feel as if she still had some kind of say in her life, even when everything was spiraling wildly out of proportion.
“Everyone has their coping mechanisms,” Emily said finally. She ran a hand through her hair. “What are you two up to tonight, anyway?”
“I’m outside the bakery,” Charlotte replied. “Aren’t you going to let me in?”
Savannah laughed. “I’m two minutes away.”
“Does Harvard Medical School know you’re slacking off?”
“Shut up,” Savannah grumbled. “I want to enjoy my last summer of freedom.”
Emily hated knowing her youngest daughter was leaving so soon, but at least she knew Harvard Medical School was an hour and twenty minutes away by car.
Emily’s heart swelled and grew to twice its size. “I’ll let you in through the back.”
Smiling, she scurried out of her office and down the blue-colored hallway. When she threw the door open, both Charlotte and Savannah emerged in front of her, wearing identical jeans and T-shirts. She drew them both in for a hug and lingered, wishing she could stay like that forever. All too soon, the two of them squirmed, and the hug ended with her ushering them inside and into the now-empty state-of-the-art kitchen with its gleaming tile floors, modern appliances, and a ceiling fan.
Savannah rummaged through the big fridge and pulled out a bottle of Barefoot sweet red wine. After pouring them all a generous amount, they touched their glasses to each other’s and giggled. Over the next few hours, the three of them told stories about Trevor, the kind that made Emily’s chest tighten and tears well up in her eyes.
She wished he was by her side to see how much their daughters had grown and the kind of women they were becoming.
At the end of the night, when Charlotte drove after them while Savannah sat in the driver’s seat of Emily’s car, giving her concerned looks, Emily couldn’t have been prouder. She was overcome with gratitude and pride as the two of them climbed upstairs and helped her to her room, lingering in the doorway when she called out to them.
Emily listened for the sound of their receding footsteps, the silence that settled around her loud and oppressive. All through the night, she tossed and turned and resisted the urge to inch closer to Trevor’s side of the bed, as if she could bring him back through sheer will alone.
By the time sleep came, a new fear washed over Emily and gripped her chest.
Was she going to lose her bakery too?