Chapter 20
CHAPTER TWENTY
Junie stood in her booth at the farmers’ market, carefully arranging the last of the morning’s chokecherry turnovers on the big wooden display tray.
The cinnamon rolls had sold out before nine, the lemon-lavender scones disappeared by ten, and even her honey badger cookies, the ones she decorated to look like Nibbles, were down to the final two dozen.
The day was beautiful, with warm sunshine filtered through the market tents and a gentle breeze carried the scent of fresh hay, wildflowers, and barbecue from the food trucks. It should have been perfect. Instead, her mind kept drifting back to last week.
Back to Tanner.
To the way he had found her crying on the bakery floor. How he’d scooped her up like she weighed nothing. How he’d cared for her. How he’d told her that he loved her.
Then, when back at the ranch, he’d held her for hours, rocking her gently, reassuring her over and over again until she believed him deep inside her heart. The way he had made love to her afterward, slow and deep and so incredibly thorough. She’d fallen asleep feeling safe and loved in his arms.
His words still echoed in her head. “I’m not them, baby. I’m not going anywhere.”
A soft smile tugged at her lips despite the excitement and joy that never quite left her these days.
Poppy leaned against the side of the booth, popping a broken piece of a turnover into her mouth. “You’ve got that dreamy look again. Thinking about a certain tall, grumpy Daddy who can’t keep his hands off you?”
Junie’s cheeks warmed. “Maybe. It’s just… he’s been so good to me lately. The things he said last week keep playing in my head. How can he really mean all that?”
Poppy grinned, bumping her shoulder. “He means it. That man looks at you like he’s never seen a woman before. You deserve to be spoiled rotten, Junie. Stop doubting it and just enjoy.”
Before Junie could answer, Kenzie came hurrying back to the booth with an empty sample tray and a parade of several customers following her like eager ducklings.
“These chokecherry turnovers are a hit!” Kenzie announced, slightly out of breath but beaming.
“I know. Shocker! Mrs. Henderson wants two dozen for her bridge club next week, and Mr. Callahan asked if we can do a custom order for his grandson’s birthday.
Once people started bragging about them, it seemed like everyone wanted more.
I had to limit the samples to one per person! ”
Junie brightened and laughed. To think she almost hadn’t come. She didn’t normally have a booth at the farmers’ market, but after the response she’d gotten, she was considering doing it at least once a month. This was going to be great for her bakery.
Kenzie turned around to the group of people following her. “If you would line up over here, this young lady will take your orders for those delicious turnovers.” She pointed at Poppy, who stood at the booth counter, her order book in her hand.
“Delicious? You’ve got to be kidding.” Cherry Winters stepped out of nowhere and was now facing the line of customers at Junie’s booth.
“I’m telling you her stuff, including those turnovers, is mediocre at best. You know the guy she’s sleeping with pays her off by ordering doughnuts and stuff.
If he didn’t, she’d go out of business.”
Junie had never thought of herself as a violent person, but if she had a brick right now, she would throw it right at Cherry’s head. Of course, with a head as hard as Cherry’s, it would probably shatter on impact and land at her feet like dust.
Cherry turned toward Junie, her eyes gleaming with hate, and shouted, “At least, that’s what Tanner told me when we were together at the Red Barn the other night. Of course, you probably saw us since you were there.”
The words hit Junie like a slap. Heat flooded her cheeks as everyone in the vicinity looked at her, including the potential customers in her line.
Whispers rippled through the crowd. The happy warmth she had only minutes before vanished, replaced by that familiar, sick twist of humiliation in her stomach.
There was no one in her life she cared about who would judge her. And Wilder wasn’t a judgmental kind of town, so she shouldn’t worry about losing customers. But that didn’t mean she wanted her private business shouted across the damn farmers’ market.
The shock had her wanting to shrink behind her display table and disappear… at first. But another, sharper feeling was making itself known. That would be the hot, stubborn flash of temper that made her hands clench into fists.
She was tired of being nice. She’d been trying that for years, and it hadn’t softened Cherry at all.
Who did Cherry think she was to tear her down in front of half the town?
Those who weren’t at the farmers’ market would hear about it before the sun went down.
What Wilder lacked in judgmentalism, they made up for in gossip.
Before Junie could say anything, Kenzie approached with a large glass of sweet tea, her steps light and purposeful. With perfect timing and a mischievous glint in her eye, she pretended to trip over absolutely nothing.
The glass tipped in Kenzie’s hand, and the entire contents splashed straight into Cherry’s face and down the front of her white Alo Yoga top and leggings.
Iced tea dripped from Cherry’s perfectly styled hair, soaked through the expensive fabric, and left dark, wet stains all over her chest and thighs.
“Oh no!” Kenzie exclaimed in mock surprise, eyes wide with fake innocence. “I’m so sorry! It’s so crowded here with all of Junie’s customers.”
Cherry stood frozen for a second, hands held out in shock as she looked down at the ruin of her outfit. Tea continued to drip from her chin onto the ground.
“Look what you’ve done!” she sputtered, voice rising in outrage. “My outfit is ruined! Do you have any idea what this costs?”
Junie had to bite the inside of her cheek to keep from laughing.
She arranged her face into an expression of wide-eyed concern, tilting her head sweetly.
“Gosh, Cherry, that was really clumsy, someone must have bumped Kenzie’s arm,” Junie said, tossing the woman’s words back at her from when she’d dumped her coffee on Junie.
“You’d better hurry off then and get cleaned up.
Be sure to dry off. I hear witches melt when they get wet. ”
Cherry’s face turned a deep, furious red. She let out a high-pitched scream of pure rage that turned several heads in the market, then spun on her heel and stormed toward her car, tea still dripping from her clothes and hair as she muttered curses under her breath.
Junie watched her go, a rush of satisfaction blooming warm in her chest. For once, she hadn’t been the one shrinking back or trying to keep the peace.
She had stood up for herself, and her friends had stood with her.
The feeling was strange and wonderful and a little bit scary all at once.
She turned to Kenzie, unable to hide her grin any longer.
“You are terrible,” she whispered, laughter bubbling up despite herself.
Kenzie just winked. “Only when it counts.”
To Junie’s delight, several people laughed, and a few even clapped.
A short time later, Poppy walked up to Junie, waving the order book. “I hope you have a clear calendar. Look at all these orders. You know, we really ought to thank Cherry. All that commotion drew a lot of people over to see what was happening. Most of them placed orders.”
“You want me to thank her for insulting Tanner and me in front of everybody?” Junie asked, eyebrows raised.
“Well, no, probably not,” Poppy said with a sheepish grin. “It might just be salt in the wound, though.”
Junie had to admit Poppy might be right. “That might be brilliant, and deliciously diabolical.”
“What might be diabolical?” Tildi said as she, Joy, and Kip walked up. Tildi’s eyes were wide. “We were over at the strawberry tent when we overheard some people talking about you and Cherry. What on earth happened?”
“Cherry happened,” Junie said. That should be all the explanation anyone needed. “What were the people saying? Did they say anything bad about the bakery?”
“Are you kidding?” Kip asked. “They said some blonde was making an ass of herself in front of your booth. They were laughing about something having to do with tea. We didn’t want to eavesdrop…
well, too noticeably anyway… so we didn’t hear everything.
But they didn’t say anything bad about the bakery.
They seemed to be more shocked at what Cherry was saying. ”
“Not at what she was saying,” Tildi said. “They were pissed by what Cherry was saying.”
“And what about the tea?” Joy asked. “I didn’t understand that bit at all.”
“Kenzie,” Junie called, doing her best to keep from laughing, “tell them about the tea.” Kenzie would relish the opportunity to relive her clever exploits.
“Well, since Cherry was so determined to spill the tea on the private things Junie did, I just thought I’d literally spill the tea on Cherry. Right on that snow-white Alo Yoga loungewear she had on. I did her a favor, really. With her pale complexion, that white made her look pasty.”
“You didn’t!” Kip put her hand to her lips to hide her smirk.
“I did.”
“She deserved it, too,” Poppy added.
“Damn straight she did. She needed to cool it.” The vision of Cherry’s face when that tea drenched her would live rent-free in Junie’s head forever. “By the way, thank you for handling that, Kenzie. It was brilliant.”
Kenzie’s eyes lit up with fire, “What I wanted to do was claw her eyes out, but I just got a manicure. I think the tea worked out even better.” She scanned the crowd in the direction Cherry had run. “Of course, I might still go for option one.”
Junie fought to hold back her laughter. “Option one will have to wait. We’ve still got to get everything packed up and back to the bakery.”
“We can help,” Tildi offered. Joy and Kip nodded in agreement.
“Besides,” Joy said as she lifted a box from below the booth counter, “you haven’t finished telling us everything.”
“You know, that’s a great idea,” Kenzie said. “And after we get everything put away, we can all have a little talk.”
Uh-oh. Kenzie’s eyes had that familiar spark, the one that always meant her mind was spinning fast behind that innocent smile. Trouble was definitely coming.
Junie shouldn’t ask, but she couldn’t stop herself. “A little talk about what?”
Kenzie wiggled her brows. “I’m not sure yet. Let’s just say I have some ideas.”
Junie sighed. Why was it that when Kenzie got ideas, the rest of them got sore bottoms?