10. Henley #2
“Well, that was one heck of a hug.” Harper snorts, dusting the flour from her clothes and body. “Now get your crazy ass up and help me clean up this mess!”
“Yes, ma’am.” I salute as she swats me with her broom.
The moment I saw her crossed arms and raised brow when I entered the bakery, I was reminded exactly how much I have missed seeing my best friend in the flesh.
I leapt over the counter and squeezed her so tightly that we lost our balance, crashing into the bag of flour behind us. I couldn’t help myself.
“Sorry, I couldn’t contain my excitement.” I chuckle.
“Ha!” She scoffs. “You sure did a good job ‘containing’ it over the two weeks you were hiding from me!”
Wincing, I apologize again. “I’m so sorry. You’re right, you should have been my first stop.”
“Uh, duh!” She laughs and tries to swat me once more.
“Yikes!” I scamper out of the way, grabbing another broom from the wall to defend myself. She rolls her eyes with a scoff, and we both get to work cleaning up the mess.
We have the small kitchen cleared in record time. Thankfully, one of Harper’s employees tells her she’ll take over while we catch up. So we make coffees and take a seat in one of the little booths in the back corner of the bakery.
The steam swirls off my cinnamon dolce latte as I lift it to my lips and sip. Rich, spicy deliciousness glides through my body, warming me up from the inside out. I needed this, more than I knew.
Silver flashes in front of me as Harper waves a fork. The fluffy, glazed cinnamon roll on the table between us whispers my name. Slicing off a huge forkful, I devour it.
“Mmm,” I mumble between chews. “One bite and I’m already reliving the first time we ever made them. Remember the day we met in home economics class?”
“Absolutely,” she grins, scooping more of the roll onto her fork. “I could never forget the day I met my best friend for life.”
“Thank you for always being there for me, Harper. You helped me through so many hard times while I was away. Sometimes I think you’re the only reason I survived New York for so long.
I’ll forever be grateful for that.” My eyes begin to get cloudy as I cover her palm with my own and squeeze.
“I’ve been so far away for too long. I wish I could have stayed here a little longer after you parents passed.
I still feel guilty for having to leave to go back to school.
I’m sorry I haven’t been there for you like I should have been. ”
A tear slips free, falling down the curve of my cheek.
Harper grabs her napkin and pats it away.
“Hen, I’m the one that forced you to fill out that application!
I would have been upset with you if you didn’t finish your final year of culinary school just to stay with me.
You’ve always been there when I needed you most. Distance didn’t make our friendship weak.
In fact, I think it did quite the opposite.
I feel like we grew closer, because we continued to make a fighting effort to stay in each other’s lives.
“To me, that is the definition of a friendship that will last a lifetime. You’ve always been more than a friend to me, Hen. You’re my family.”
She squeezes my hand tightly while wiping her own cheeks with the napkin.
“Love you, sweet friend.”
“Love you right back.”
Stillness falls between us for a few moments as we sip our coffees, regaining our composure. “Alright, now tell me everything that happened.”
Harper is unusually calm as I rehash my final hours in New York and the events thereafter. When I finish, she takes a long swig from her coffee. Placing the cup on the table, she folds her hands over each other and takes a deep breath.
“Are you sure you’re okay?”
“No.” I let out a breathy laugh. “But I will get there eventually. As much as it hurts, I feel like things have been over between Carson and me for a long time. If anything, I’m ashamed of myself for staying in that situation for so long.
I think I was just trying so hard to make it work, trying to fix myself entirely for him.
I’m still working on believing that it wasn’t me that was the one that needed fixing.
I wish I would have listened to you a couple of years ago and just left then. ”
She squeezes my hands tightly within hers. “Shame on him for ever making you second-guess yourself, and for making you believe you were the problem. You know that you weren’t, right?”
I shrug my shoulders. “It’s going to take me a little while, but hopefully one day I won’t continue to blame myself.”
“Carson is such a pathetic excuse for a man. Ugh! Why are all the handsome businessmen such shallow, selfish pricks? It doesn’t leave a single girl much hope in the male race.
They really need to start taking notes from every romance book in history.
I mean really, it’s like ‘How to be a Good Man for Dummies.’ The instructions are there, but like the men they are, of course they never read them. ”
She winks, releasing my hand to grab her cup and take a sip. Harper’s always been a lot like me, using humor to help us through the harder moments in life.
I snicker into my cup. “There has to be some good ones out there, right?”
“Book boyfriends, or real ones?” She chuckles.
“Real ones.”
She raises a brow, her lips tightening as she tries not to smirk. “Like Emerson Lane?
“Definitely not.”
“Hmm, you sure? From what you just told me about your recent adventures, he seems like he’s changed a bit.” She hums, staring down at her watch.
“Nope, still the same-old Em,” I grumble.
She reaches over to take the empty cup out of my clenched hands. “I seem to remember a time when you were head over heels for that same-old Em.”
Feigning outrage, I throw a palm over my chest and gasp. Harper’s eyes roll while she continues to gather the plates from the table. She’s still smiling all the way to the sink where she deposits our dishes. Returning to the table, she begins to clean it with a wet washcloth.
Without a word, I steal it from her hands and take over cleaning. “He broke my heart. Twice.”
Her smile falls. “Perhaps there was more going on than you really know?”
I pause wiping and sigh deeply.
“It’s been so many years, Hen. Life has taken us all on one hell of a journey. We’re like the hobbits of the Shire. ‘There and back again, an Oakley Falls tale.’”
She giggles as I slap her arm playfully.
“In all seriousness, life changed us in ways that we could have never imagined. Perhaps it’s also given him time to rethink his choices as well?
Maybe there was a reason he never followed through both times.
Who knows, Hen, maybe there was something more that he was afraid of?
If we let it, fear has a funny way of keeping us from the things we want. ”
Letting her words sink in, I finish cleaning our table then move onto the others scattered around her small bakery.
Returning the cloth to the sink and washing my hands, I stroll over to the kitchen table, where I find Harper.
She’s rolling out croissants, adding the final layer of butter before wrapping them to chill until tomorrow.
Making myself useful, I pull up a stool and start scooping a batch of blueberry muffins into the tins she’s already prepped.
We work quietly, only the sounds of her rolling pin echoing between us.
After a while, I realize that the sounds have ceased from my best friend.
When I look up, I catch her staring at me mischievously.
“And what did I do to deserve that crazed look?”
Her smile widens. “I have an amazing idea.”
“Oh yeah?” I chuckle, watching as she rests her elbows on the stainless steel table. She steeples her fingers and taps them together as she hatches a plan.
“I think you should come work with me!”
Leaning back on the stool, I contemplate her offer.
“Wow, I thought that would have been an immediate ‘yes.’ You need a job, right?”
“Ouch?”
Grabbing a handful of blueberries, I launch them toward her, but she dodges them like a ninja.
“It would be good for you.”
“Oh really?”
“Yes! Girl, you need to get out of the house and start doing what you love again. Don’t let those idiots in New York stop you from living your dream. You’re still an amazing chef, no matter where you cook.”
I reach across the table and place my palm over hers. “Thank you. I’d love to work with you.”
“I definitely won’t be able to pay you as much as your old job, but I will make it worth it in other ways.” She waggles her eyebrows, making me snort.
“Harper, you don’t have to pay—”
“Nope, don’t you dare finish that sentence! Honestly, you’ll be doing me a huge favor. One of my workers will be heading back to college in a few weeks, so I will need all the help I can get.”
“I’ll help you in any way I can. It’s the least I can do for all the support you’ve given me over the years.”
A warm smile lifts her lips. Gliding around to my side, she wraps her arms tightly around me.
“You owe me nothing, Hen. This is what family does. We reach out for a lifeline when someone needs it most. Today it’s you, tomorrow it may be me.
That’s the beauty of it. We never have to be afraid of going under, because there will always be someone there to lift us up. ”
Wondering what I did to deserve such an amazing friend, I squeeze her tightly.
After a moment, she releases me, walking over to the wall of aprons.
They’re adorned with Old Oak Oven’s logo, a bouquet of pastries and bread.
The violet apron flies, smacking me in the face before my hands can block it.
Apparently lack of sleep also affects reflexes.
“Now, get to work, slacker! There’s a sink full of dishes with your name on it!”
Rolling my eyes, I put on the apron and stand to tie it around me. “Aye-aye, Captain!”
Again, I salute her. In return, she salutes me with her middle finger.
Oh, this is going to be fun.