Chapter 35
CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
RACHEL
“ O kay, get this.” Sydney comes back from the office, where she was talking to one of her friends on the phone. Mostly, I’m surprised she knows someone else who’s up at five a.m. “I got the scoop on Kyle.”
“How?” asks Hailey, who I just finished filling in on everything that happened the past two days with Nick, Kyle, and Jae. I already told Sydney after coming back to the bakery yesterday.
“She’s an administrative assistant at the police station. But this is all confidential. You can’t share it with anyone.” She considers for a moment, then looks at me. “You can tell Nick. But not Jae. It’ll be halfway across town, otherwise.”
Fair enough.
“Apparently, Autumn kicked Kyle out of her apartment after the cookoff. You know, because he’s a creep still hitting on his ex, even after leaving her for his rebound.”
As glad as I am there are consequences for Kyle’s actions, my heart goes out to Autumn, who seems like she got caught up in this mess the same as I did.
“So, since he had nowhere to go,” she continues, “and didn’t want to admit to anyone how awful he is, he had the bright idea to steal his brother’s key to the auto repair shop and hang out there, knowing they’d be closed.
” She rolls her eyes dramatically. “Which doesn’t even make sense since he opened the garage door.
Anyone passing by could see. How dumb is he? ”
I don’t think she’s looking for an actual response, so I continue shaping cinnamon rolls.
“He said he thought things would blow over with Autumn by Monday and he could go back home, none the wiser. Well, joke’s on him.”
“How did your friend overhear all this?” Hailey asks. “If he was being questioned, shouldn’t it have been in a closed room or something?”
Sydney brushes off the question with a wave of her hand. “All the officers are the biggest gossips. She knows everything that goes on there.”
The phone rings and Hailey excuses herself to answer it, then comes back in a minute later, worry on her face. “The jig’s up.”
I exchange a confused look with Sydney. “What?”
“Mom found out about the help wanted sign in the window.”
In all the commotion of the past few days, I forgot we even put that up there. No one’s come in to ask about the job yet.
“Three guesses who told her,” Sydney mutters.
Ah, crap. Mrs. Montour was in here yesterday. There’s no way she would have kept that juicy tidbit to herself.
“She asked if Desiree quit and I told her no… and that she should talk to you.”
I nod. Hailey did say she didn’t want to be involved with the details. “Is she still on the phone?”
“Yeah.”
I walk to the front to take the call, the sky outside the bakery windows the kind of deep, velvety dark that clings to everything just before the dawn.
It’s too early to be dealing with this, but it must be mid-day for her.
My feet drag, as if I’m walking to the gallows, and the rectangular sign in the window that felt like a beacon of hope when I put it up now mocks me.
I do my best to square my shoulders, thinking of the strength Nick gave me when I talked to him about the idea of hiring another baker, nearly two weeks ago now.
How much he supported me, listening to me vent.
How he never made my work feel small or silly.
How much I wish he was here, if only to squeeze my hand in solidarity.
Less than two hours until he’s out of work now.
Picking up the phone, I steel myself. “Hey, Mom.”
“Well, hello to you, too. Have you forgotten how a phone works?”
Instantly, my hackles rise. “I’ve been busy.”
“Too busy to call your parents?”
“We’ve been working sixty-hour weeks. Sometimes more when emergencies coming up.”
“Hailey calls me regularly.”
That’s because Hailey’s the baby of the family and doesn’t know how to say no to them. She even still lives at home. Well, at least she has the place to herself for now.
“I’m glad she has the time,” I say, striving to stay polite.
She makes a sound of displeasure. “Are you trying to punish me? Is that it?”
“Punish you?” What she is talking about?
“We haven’t talked in a month and a half.” Wow, has it been that long? “And that’s only because I called you. I… I’ve been waiting for you to call.”
There’s something off in her voice.
“Is this about the help wanted sign?” I ask, wanting to get it over with.
“No. Well, yes. It’s more about… Well, the bakery seems to be running fine.”
What is she talking about? “I told you we need help.”
“No, I know. But even with just the three of you.” She makes a little huff. “Cathy said the place is thriving.”
Who’s Cathy? Oh, Mrs. Montour. I never think of her having a first name.
“Isn’t that a good thing?”
“Of course.” She sounds annoyed.
“So, what’s the problem?”
There’s silence, and then what sounds like a tussle, a faint give me that coming over the line.
“Rachel?”
“Hi, Dad.”
I haven’t heard from him at all since they left, but that’s not unusual. He’s not much of a talker. Or more like he’s grown used to Mom talking over him and decided not to bother anymore.
“What your mother is trying to say is that she wishes you needed her more.”
There’s a muffled you weren’t supposed to tell her that and then Mom comes back on the line, sounding embarrassed. “It sounds silly when he says it like that.”
I take a moment to think about it, then give up applying logic. Mom and logic don’t mix. “How is it supposed to sound?”
She gives a half-hearted laugh, attempting to appear breezy, but it doesn’t quite hit the mark. “I…”
“Have you been wanting us to struggle?”
“Well, no—”
“So, what? We’ll beg you to come back or something? And say that we need you?”
“No, you’re twisting my words.”
“Then explain.”
She sighs. “It just would be nice to feel appreciated. To know we’re actually missed. Instead, it’s all staffing needs and we’re missing forty percent of the workforce . Not we’re missing you, Mom and Dad .”
I pinch the bridge of my nose. I can’t believe I messed up this badly.
I mean, obviously I didn’t mess up. Mom’s batshit crazy. But in all the madness of working so much and everything going on with both Nick and Kyle, I forgot the number one rule of dealing with Mom.
Make it emotional.
She doesn’t respond to facts and figures the way any rational person would. She needs a personal connection.
“Of course we miss you,” I tell her gently. “And your absence is so noticeable in the bakery, both by us and the customers.”
“It is?” She can’t hide the delight in her voice.
“Yes. And us needing some help isn’t trying to replace you in any way. It’s actually a testament to how much you do.”
She makes a hmm sound. “I guess I was hoping a little you couldn’t do it without me,” she admits.
Her thought process is completely fucked up, but calling her out on essentially sabotaging us won’t solve my problems. Stuff like this is exactly why I had to come back to Aurora in the first place.
“I am proud that you have things under control,” she continues. “And maybe a bit jealous that running the bakery comes so easily to you.”
Ah. So that’s what it boils down to. “Just because I’m handling it doesn’t mean I’m not drowning. I’m only human.”
“You are,” she agrees.
“So, are you on board with us hiring someone else in your absence?”
“I suppose,” she concedes.
Great. “Then as a gesture of good faith, I’ll work with Sydney to develop one of the ideas you’ve sent inspired by your travels. Within the budget,” I add, before she can get carried away.
“Oh, I had the best idea for these hand-painted marzipan figures of European landmarks. We could get molds of the Leaning Tower of Pisa and the Eiffel Tower.”
That’s going to be a hard pass from me, but we’ll cross that bridge later.
I listen to her ramble on for a few more minutes, her latest obsession with baklava since they’re in Greece right now. Even she agrees we’re not making phyllo dough by hand, though.
“I also heard another little something from Cathy,” she says, mischief in her voice. “That you’re dating someone. Even though you’re so busy at the bakery.”
I roll my eyes. She never learns. “Yes, I have a boyfriend.”
“Well, who is it? She wouldn’t tell me who.”
I pause. I never considered what Mom and Dad may think of Nick. I was more concerned with my sisters’ opinions. “It’s Nick Henderson.”
“Oh.” She sounds taken aback, and I wince.
“He sincerely apologized for what he did as a teenager,” I tell her. “Even though it was an accident. And I… I really love him.”
“Oh, honey.” I relax at the warmth in her voice. “That’s wonderful. Honestly. I admit, I’ve kept my distance from him. But I’ve only heard good things about him lately. It sounds like he’s turned things around. And Cathy speaks highly of him.”
My heart gives a warm, fuzzy squeeze in my chest. It’s nice to hear others recognize him for the good person he is.
“Maybe we can all get together for dinner when you get back,” I suggest. “So you can get to know him.”
“I’d love that.”
I make chitchat with her for a little while longer, then remind her I have to finish morning prep, leaving off on a high note. Well, that’s one less thing to worry about. Now to get someone to actually apply for the job.
I relay the good news to Sydney and Hailey when I head into the back again.
“Wow, what kind of magic did you work?” Sydney asks.
I shrug. “You know dealing with her is an art form. Even though I swear she was trying to sabotage us.”
“I don’t know how you still live with them,” Sydney says to Hailey. “Don’t they drive you nuts?”
Sydney and I both moved out at eighteen, but Hailey still lives at home.
“It’s not so bad. They don’t make me pay rent, and college is expensive.”
I was lucky to get a full ride scholarship, but Hailey didn’t get the same test scores I did and is paying her tuition out of pocket while she goes part-time.
“I mean, working with Mom all day and then going home with her at night, too? Doesn’t it—”
“Can we drop it?” Hailey interrupts. “I have the apartment to myself right now, so it’s not even an issue.”
She strides away to the walk-in cooler, and Sydney gives me a look as if to say, what was that about?
I shrug again. That was pretty out of character for her, but I don’t have time at the moment to worry about it, conscious that it’s nearly six now. I need to cram as much prep as I can into the next hour before Nick gets out of work.
I want to make sure everything is resolved between us, hating this lingering unsettled feeling.
Yes, Nick told me he loves me, but… To be honest, there’s still a lot of guilt weighing me down.
I didn’t believe Nick when he was telling the truth.
Didn’t give him the benefit of the doubt when he’s always been there for me. How could he let that slide so easily?
Not that I’m looking to be punished, but I need to make sure there’s no resentment on his part. And if there is, what I can do to make it right. I never meant to hurt Nick.
His text just after seven is a balm to my soul, and he agrees for me to meet him at his place in twenty minutes.
“Go get you some,” Sydney calls out when I grab my purse from the office to leave.
“We’re not…” I blush. Okay, maybe we are. Hopefully.
She gives me a knowing smirk but doesn’t say more.
Up front, Hailey waves to me as she rings up someone at the register, and then I’m off.
I’m not sure exactly what I’ll say to Nick when I get there, but my heart’s already racing remembering what it was like to be in his bed last time. How in tune we were. How amazing he was.
I just hope I haven’t messed everything up.