4. Ella
4
ELLA
PRESENT DAY
“J ust make sure the cabin is ready,” I tell my cousin with a laugh, wishing I’d made this a video call so I could see her roll her eyes. “I’m not staying with my parents. It will be fun to just be with you and Bailey for the weekend.”
“I see my sister all the time,” Eden retorts as I fold another shirt from the basket of laundry. “Axel will be pissed if he’s not invited.”
“More or less pissed that he’s the only guy and related to all of us?”
She snorts out a laugh, but we both know my brother will be pumped to party in the cabin—just us—for the weekend.
This was never the plan.
I sigh wistfully and pull another shirt from the basket as Eden talks about the preparations for our girls’ weekend next month. I’d grown up in Clementine Creek my whole life, spending school holidays and summer breaks in Trappers Ridge, North Carolina. The plan had always been to let my brother and me graduate from high school here and then we’d all move to be with the rest of the family.
My cousins live in neighboring towns to Trappers Ridge, and it made sense, with my father being so close to his brothers, that we’d all make North Carolina our home.
But my senior year of high school, I walked into the Poppy Seed looking for a job. Rhea Thayer—now Rhea Mackay—had found a fresh-faced teenager looking to make some money, and instead of just putting me behind the register, she stoked a passion for baking I’d never known I had.
She gave me more and more responsibility over the years, promoting me again and again, the two of us with a handful of other employees running a well-oiled machine.
A fixture in Clementine Creek.
And the place I couldn’t dream of giving up even when my parents and brother moved. I mean I did move, but just to the neighboring town of Blackstone Falls. They thought I was crazy— you can work at any bakery if that’s your passion, sweetheart.
But that was the problem then, and it hasn’t changed because there’s something holding me here. I can feel it.
Like I’m right where I’m supposed to be.
“Are you even listening to me?” Eden huffs and I grin even though she can’t see me. “You want me to bring all the muffins and the scones with the chocolate drizzle.”
“I’ve been dreaming about those scones.” She pauses. “Speaking of dreaming…”
“No.”
“What do you mean no? Ella, you have to ask him out; you’ve been talking about him forever .”
“And I will continue just talking about him because aside from me taking him out with the door that one time, he barely acknowledges my existence.”
“Then maybe you should move on. You live in a college town; there are plenty of people you could be dating.”
“I deal with enough of them when they come into the Poppy Seed,” I tell her, stuffing my socks into the drawer without matching them. “Until then, I’ll obsess over the hot guy who doesn’t say more than five words to me at any given time.”
“ Boring, ” she singsongs and normally, I’d agree, but not when it comes to him.
Bodhi Maxwell.
The hot guy.
Crushing on the guy who moved to Blackstone Falls with his brother was one thing. But when he started working for Rhea’s husband, it blew my innocent admiring into a borderline obsession.
But who can blame me?
The guy is all dark hair and chiseled features and muscles— so many muscles. He’s got that dark and mysterious thing going for him, and it’s so damn hot I can barely stand it most days. He’s always polite when he comes in. He orders the same coffee but changes up his snack choice depending on if he comes in the morning or afternoon, and I’ve been dying to get him to smile.
I have a feeling that smile will melt the panties off any woman who catches a glance, and while I’d rather be the sole recipient of that particular feat, I couldn’t deprive anyone of such a magnificent sight.
“We’ll just have to find someone for you while you’re here.”
“No locals,” we say in unison, before dissolving into a fit of giggles. I may not be from Trappers Ridge, but I’ve spent enough time there to feel like one.
And I’m not interested in any of the candidates in the dating pool there.
“Just make sure the cabin is ready,” I tell her. “I can’t wait to see you.”
“One month, girl.”
One month.