Chapter 1
Chapter One
HARPER
Life rocked.
Seriously.
Sure, life had its hardships and was never truly easy, but sometimes I knew if I just let my face tilt up to the sun, even in a Colorado winter, I’d be able to let life touch me once again.
Because it rocked.
I looked down at one of my best friends and couldn’t help but smile. “You are living up to your name today, because look at that sky.” My loving and adorable golden retriever tilted his head up to follow my gaze, and I knew I had the smartest, sweetest boy there ever was.
Yes, even at four years old, his face had already gone a little white, but he was still my puppy. And I always loved the fact that golden retrievers looked as if they were smiling sometimes or had the saddest expression with those big eyes. I blamed their eyebrows. They were just so expressive.
Lucky shook his head at me, a very human expression on his face, and then rotated his hips back to stretch.
“Oh, big stretch.” I paused, wondering when exactly I was going to stop saying that phrase. However, my cutest boy did just stretch, and he deserved to know I had noticed.
Lucky had been my graduation and birthday present from my big brother, and I had a feeling Joshua had known exactly the perfect puppy for me. Because Lucky was just as exasperated as my big brother when I didn’t do exactly as I was told.
“Okay grumpy Gus, it’s time to head to doggie daycare.”
At the sound of my voice, he wiggled his butt, went to go get his favorite stuffie, which today happened to be a stuffed rabbit from two years ago. He’d been a little spoiled during our Christmas celebrations, but then again, he was my child. He deserved the best.
“No stuffies today. You’re allowed to bring your ball though.”
His ears perked, and he did a little circle dance, before dropping his stuffie and picking up his orange and blue ball.
I rolled my eyes, because I should have said toy. Now that I had said the word ball I was going to have to play outside of the building for a couple of minutes before walking him to doggie daycare.
I was grateful that the Cages had not only rented me the building with my bakery inside, but also the apartment above. Yes, my home constantly smelled like baked goods, but considering I was the owner and head baker, I always smelled like sugar, flour, and yeast.
One day I would have enough saved to get a little home around Cage Lake and be able to let Lucky roam around in a large yard to his heart’s content with ball time and outdoor time.
Until then however, the bakery did host a small outdoor eatery area where pets were allowed to hang out, and I was right across the street from a large park. That meant he could get his ball time off leash, at least during certain times of the morning, and then we’d head out to doggie daycare.
I grabbed my purse, and flashlight, because while the sun was out, there were enough trees that if the ball went where it shouldn’t, it was going to be annoying to find later.
Lucky, still attached to his leash, bounded beside me down the back stairs, thankfully not knocking me off.
As soon as we hit the park, I let him off his leash, and without looking back, he darted towards the corner of the flat area of the park.
I rolled my eyes, because he didn’t even have to look at me.
No, Lucky he knew I would throw the ball.
Because if I didn’t, I would get those huge puppy eyes.
And even after four years, I couldn’t say no.
I tossed the ball, and of course it hit a tree, then a limb of another tree, before hopping down right next to Lucky.
He looked at me, those eyebrows so expressive I saw the disappointment in them, but picked up the ball anyway.
Then he ran full speed towards me before daintily dropping it at my foot.
This went on for another six throws or so—thankfully I hadn’t hit another tree—and after he took care of his business, and I cleaned it up, it was time to go to doggie daycare.
The owners had decided to call it Dog Gone It. I still had no idea why they had gone with that, but if it made them happy, and it made Lucky happy, that was all that mattered.
At least it didn’t have the name Cage in it.
My lips twitched, because my bakery was called Rising Cage.
The Cage family pretty much owned Cage Lake. They had founded it generations ago, and before it had become a tourist destination, thanks to the resort, also owned by the Cages, it had been a mining town. And when the mines had closed, the Cages had turned it into this.
Or at least the past two generations had. They had plastered their name on everything they could, gobbled up any land they hadn’t already owned, and hadn’t quite turned into robber barons.
Thankfully this new generation, the ones that included my friends, were the good sort. They were kind, even while grumpy, and cared about the people in town. They also didn’t want to own everything.
Aston Cage, the eldest Cage, had helped me open up the bakery of my dreams less than a year ago.
The town’s original bakery had burned down in a fire and the three built since either shut down or went out of business.
The final one had closed while I was in high school, and the town was sorely lacking.
Not everybody would have taken a chance on a twenty-year-old with an associate’s degree. But Aston had. So when I had worked on finishing up business classes to make sure I knew what I was doing, I had begun working on the bakery.
Now I had employees, ledgers, overhead, and I was in the black.
The Cages had taken a chance on me, and I knew it was because I was a family friend. And I wasn’t going to look a gift horse in the mouth. Or whatever that expression was.
I dropped off Lucky, and thankfully he was on his ball-high so he wasn’t sad that I had abandoned him.
I winced at that. I always hated leaving my baby boy at doggie daycare, but he was a large golden retriever, at least seventy pounds, but we weren’t going to talk to him about that, and I owned a bakery.
The health code violations alone would be too much.
And I wasn’t going to have him locked up in my small apartment all day.
For now he got to play with his friends, and I knew he would be taken care of.
Maybe having a large dog at this point in my life wasn’t the smartest idea, but I wouldn’t change Lucky for the world.
After all, Joshua was rarely in town, and that meant Lucky was my only family sometimes.
Though if I said things like that to Joshua, using my big eyes just like Lucky did, my brother would be at my side in an instant.
Overprotective, slightly overbearing, and growly.
But then sometimes he would bring a certain Cage with him, and all would be right in the world.
I rolled my eyes as I began my morning prep. My employee, Melody, whistled under her breath as she worked on the sourdough that we were setting up for the afternoon.
Thankfully she couldn’t read my mind, but as soon as that Cage walked in, she’d be able to read my face. She had always been able to.
Thankfully she didn’t tease me. And thankfully my brother had no idea that I was totally crushing on his best friend.
His much older best friend.
Well, Joshua and Dorian were the same age, but I was not.
No, I was eight years younger, and even though I was an adult, out of college, and a business owner, I was still the baby sister.
But first crushes never went away.
As I set the frosted cookies aside and rubbed my lower back, I caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror.
Flour coated one cheek, and I was pretty sure there was some form of frosting in my dark red hair.
I dyed it different colors constantly, because it was fun.
The only color I never truly went was an orange, mostly because the one time I had it had been a total accident, and it was not my color.
“You look a fright,” Melanie teased.
I rolled my eyes. “That’s what happens when I get to work, and I’m thinking about too many things at once.”
“Joshua should be back in town today, right?
“Yep. He’s in Denver right now but plans on being here for dinner.”
“I’m glad that he has an apartment here, and he doesn’t have to sleep on your tiny couch.”
“If Joshua had his way, I would be living in that apartment with him. Or he would in fact be living on my couch. I don’t think he likes the fact that we live separately. It’s not like he actually lives in Cage Lake year-round.”
Cage Lake was a beautiful town with memories and a thriving historical community. It had been growing over time, but the Cages made sure it didn’t explode.
There were laws in place by the town governance to make sure that things didn’t hurt the environment and grow exponentially. Even the resort on the east side of town had strict limits on how many people were allowed to be there at a time.
It brought in the income our town needed in order to take care of itself, but as of yet, it hadn’t overflowed into making Cage Lake inhospitable or unlivable.
It was home. Unlike some who were transplants, I had been born and raised here—except for a few years after my parents died.
I ran my hand over my chest. No, I didn’t like to think about those years.
“What are you planning on making him?” Melody asked as she flipped the sign to open. People walked in with coffee in their hands and smiled. Our regulars.
“Stew, I think. It’s already made.”
“Good. He can cook for you from now on.” She rolled her eyes.
I understood. I did tend to mother my brother sometimes just how he liked to be overprotective.
But it was what we did.
We were each other’s family, along with Lucky.
We went through our busy rush, selling out of bagels and muffins far quicker than I was planning. However we had backups of other things, and Melody was fantastic at selling what we had on hand.