Chapter 2 Stella
TWO
STELLA
I stared at the gorgeous Viking man before me who had just finished speaking in a language I was unfamiliar with.
I turned to my best friend and coworker, Luna LeBlanc, who was working the register and had come to get me, letting me know two customers had asked for me by name and that they knew Anna.
If he’d asked for me by name, surely that meant he spoke some English, since I knew Luna didn’t know anything other than English. Even though we had two Spanish-speaking employees, taco and hola were the extent of Luna’s Spanish knowledge.
Luna’s furrowed brows were stretched high on her forehead, which meant she was just as confused as I was.
I turned back to face the handsome man in front of me and tried a new tactic. “Umm, do you speak English?” I asked.
“He literally had an entire conversation with me in English just three minutes ago,” Luna pointed out, answering my earlier thought.
“Yes, I speak English,” the man replied. “But I assumed you would prefer to speak in Swedish.”
Ahhh, now it made sense. From time to time, I would get a customer who thought I was born in one of the Scandinavian countries and just moved here.
“My ancestry is Swedish, but I was born here in the States, so the only Swedish words I know are the ones that are related to pastries and desserts,” I told him, shrugging.
He nodded slightly. “Ah, I’m sorry. When Anna told me you are Swedish, I thought she meant you came from there like me.”
“I get it,” I told him. “You’re not the first person to make that assumption.”
“Can y’all move it over to the other side of the counter? We’ve got a line forming,” Luna said, causing me to look up and see three people now standing behind the hunky Viking.
“If you are not very busy, we would like to ask you a few questions about your…situation…that Anna told us about,” he said, clearly trying to be delicate about announcing in front of everyone that I had a stalker sending me creepy letters.
“Nope, she’s not busy,” Luna replied for me and then used her hand to shoo me away. “Go talk to them and get this sorted. Go. I’ve got this covered.”
I turned my body and glanced behind the handsome man toward the side of the room at my favorite table in the space.
It was tucked in the far corner. A little nook that had a window on one side, a wall at the back, and another wall to the side opposite the window.
It was the perfect place to sit in the afternoon sometimes when we would get slow.
I could get work done on my computer but also keep an eye on the counter in case my employees needed my help.
“Let’s sit over there, if you don’t mind,” I told him, pointing to that perfect place, and he nodded.
He and another man were standing by that very table by the time I had walked around from the counter.
I hadn’t realized he was here with someone else.
He had a presence that took over the whole room.
I felt slightly embarrassed that I had missed the other man, since he wasn’t exactly hard on the eyes either, but he wasn’t as gorgeous as the Viking.
Speaking of which… I realized when I got over there that the tall man was waiting for me to sit down first. I wasn’t sure if that was to make me more comfortable when talking to a stranger, or if that was just his chivalrous nature.
I took the seat closest to the wall, allowing him to take the seat by the window. His friend chose the seat next to him.
“I’m Axel Skarsg?rd,” he said, holding his hand out to me.
I shook it and smiled at him. “I’m Stella Nielsen, but I guess you already know that.”
His only response was a small grin, but man, did it look good on him. He had dark-blue eyes like the deep ocean that were a soft contrast to his large, muscular frame.
“I’m Jack Hutchinson,” the other man introduced himself. “I don’t want to interrupt the flow of your business, but is it possible for me to talk with one or two of your employees while Axel gets information from you? It will help speed things up if we can talk to several of you.”
“Yes, of course. I’m sorry you had to come all the way out here,” I told him, putting my hands in my lap in a nervous gesture.
“I’m really hoping this man is just a little slow on the uptake and will eventually get the hint I’m not interested and back off.
Anna was adamant, however, that someone from her husband’s office at least just take a look. ”
“Don’t apologize,” Axel said, shaking his head firmly. “This is not your fault. You are correct. You shouldn’t need us to help, but we’re happy to. Anna also said you would try to pay for this, and I am to tell you no. You’re a friend of Anna’s, and we help our friends who are in trouble for free.”
I rolled my eyes because I knew Anna would fight me on this, but I had hoped that her husband, or whoever showed up would allow me the option to pay. I hated feeling like I owed people.
“Then all of you can have free cinnamon rolls and hot chocolate anytime you want,” I told him, hoping that would at least work for now.
Axel produced a megawatt smile, and I suddenly felt a fiery heat roll through me. This man was gorgeous, but when he smiled, I imagined he became dangerous to any female within a ten-mile radius.
“My wife will be thrilled at that option since she is pregnant and currently obsessed with anything coming from your bakery,” Jack told me, and I could see the affection he had for his wife.
“Wonderful,” I told them. “I have two employees in the back you can chat with, and if Luna gets a break, I’m sure she would fill you in as well.”
“Great. Excuse me,” Jack said, getting up from the table to make his way back to the counter.
“What days do you work?” Axel asked me as he pulled out a small notebook from his pocket. “And what time do you arrive and leave?”
“We all work Tuesday through Saturday because we’re closed Sundays and Mondays. I generally work from eight in the morning until four, but sometimes later, depending on how busy we are.”
“Can you tell me all the people names that work here?” Axel asked. “I would like to know what they do and what hours they work.”
He moved his chair closer to mine, and I could smell hints of pine, peppermint, and leather. God, that was a wonderful combination.
“Oh, okay…umm, sure,” I stuttered. “I have six other employees besides myself. Isabel is my early morning baker. She comes in around six to get everything going. Milo is my late-shift baker and gets everything prepped for the next day. We’re open from nine in the morning until seven at night.”
He had a small little notepad he wrote everything down in, and I found myself gazing at his profile while he wrote.
He had a strong jawline beneath his facial hair, which was neatly trimmed.
His dark-blond hair was pulled back into a messy bun, yet his version looked so much more stylish than the hot mess that was on top of my head.
He lifted his gaze to mine, and I realized I had stopped talking.
“Oh, umm…Nell, Travis, and Drake all work the cash register, cover online orders, and help clean up. They switch shifts often to fit their school schedules, since all of them are in college. Nell also sometimes helps out in the kitchen because she’s going to culinary school and gets college credit by training with me. ”
I paused again while he wrote things down, and I picked up another whiff of his scent. I wanted to bottle it up and enjoy that smell all the time.
“Anybody else?” he said, and I noticed the small smirk on his face, which meant he likely saw me checking him out. Great.
“Luna is my assistant manager. She works the later shift from noon until eight and generally assists in the kitchen or out front—wherever she is needed.”
“How long have you known Luna?” he asked.
“Luna and I met in high school, and we became instant friends because of our names,” I told him, noting the confused look on his face. “In Latin, our names, Stella and Luna, mean star and moon.”
A smirk appeared on his face once what I had said registered with him.
“We’ve been best friends ever since,” I said, shrugging as if it was obviously that simple.
“I am glad you have that.”
I was too. Luna was the best, best friend ever.
She was an extrovert and had always thrived working in the service industry.
That was not me. I could talk to Luna for hours on end about nothing because she was my best friend, but strangers had me struggling to find a topic to discuss.
That was why Luna worked in the front with all the customers and I worked in the back with the food.
That was also why Axel fascinated me. Normally someone like him would make me nervous, and I would clam up or get so flustered that I would say something stupid. Instead, I found he was easy to talk to, and the conversation just flowed.
“What can you tell me about Braden?” he asked, and I hated that he had to.
“I opened this bakery five years ago, and he was one of my first customers,” I told him. “Nice guy, used to come in a couple times a week, and two years ago he started asking me out.”
“You said he used to come in a couple times a week. Now he does not do that?”
“About six months ago, he claimed his job was making him travel more and he couldn’t come in as often as he would have liked, which was why he started pushing so much harder to get me to go out on a date,” I told him, thinking back to how awkward some of those moments were.
“He said he enjoyed coming in to see me, but since he was seeing me less now, he wanted to know if we could go on a date. When he first asked me out two years ago, I told him I needed to focus on my bakery. That was partially true since my business had just switched to being in the black, after having spent the first couple years in the red, so not a total lie.”
“What do you mean, a black and red business?” he asked me.