Page 57 of Bittersweet

Savannah took Harper’s hands in hers. “You’re such a good friend, Harper. I don’t know if I could get through this without you.”

Harper hugged her tight. “It’s going to be okay, Savannah.”

Some customers entered then, and Savannah excused herself to freshen up while Harper took their order. When she returned, her expression was somber. “What if I can’t come back?”

“Why wouldn’t you come back?”

“I can’t give you a date when I’ll return, Harper. I can’t guarantee anything right now. I feel like my entire life is about to be turned upside down.”

“Well, let’s just cross that bridge if we come to it, okay?”

Savannah nodded, fighting back more tears. “Okay.”

Throughout the day, Harper glanced over to make sure Savannah was all right. For the most part, she kept busy, working to keep herself distracted, but every once in a while, her head lowered, and her shoulders shook. Harper wished she could take away her friend’s pain.

She couldn’t help but think about where this left her, though. It was hard enough keeping up with her own orders, let alone handling Savannah’s. And what if Savannah was right, what if she couldn’t come back. If she got home and her parents needed her to stay on indefinitely, she would. Harper knew that much. Then the bake shop would be missing one very important partner, and Harper wasn’t sure if she could keep it running by herself.

She looked around the charming shop that she loved and had worked hard to make a reality. There was no way she’d go down without a fight.

22

Logan stood in the storage parking lot, staring at his dead food truck. The insurance adjuster had been by and snapped a series of photographs for the claim and said they’d need to get a copy of the police report before the insurance company would cut a check. Logan knew it wouldn’t be enough. Business insurance wasn’t cheap, and against his insurance agent’s advice, he’d chosen to keep his premiums as low as possible by not adding the optional property insurance to his policy. He wanted to kick himself now for cutting corners. If he hadn’t, he never would’ve been able to get the food truck business off the ground. But what did it matter now? It was pretty much a total loss.

His mind reeled as he thought about his options, so he called the one person he counted on to talk him through any situation.

“Hey, Logan,” his foster dad’s friendly voice greeted him. “How are you, son? Did you get the insurance situation squared away?”

Logan stared across the parking lot at the passing cars. “I’ll get some money, but it won’t be enough to fix the truck.” Ashamed and discouraged, he explained the lack of proper insurance coverage. “I just wanted to get the business going. Everything was so expensive—the equipment, the supplies, fixing up the truck.”

“We told you running a business was a big undertaking,” Gary said.

“Logan, honey.” Marsha picked up the other line. “Do you know what you’re going to do? Because you know you can always come back here and stay until you figure things out.”

“I know, Mom.” Their love and generosity never ceased to amaze him. And he still felt unworthy of it at times. “Things were just starting to go my way and then this. Why can’t I catch a break?”

“I’m sorry for what you’re going through,” Marsha replied.

“We don’t always get perfect pitches and home run hits in life,” Gary piped in. “We’re thrown a lot of curve balls, Logan. We have to learn to take them as they come, even if we end up with a few fouls.”

Logan chuckled. “You and your baseball analogies.”

“He’s been watching a lot of games on TV lately.”

“I figured.”

“World Series, baby!” Gary cried.

“So, what do you think?” Marsha asked. “Will you be coming home for a while?”

“Is Dad going to make me watch baseball with him?”

“Probably.”

“Then no.”

Marsha laughed, then turned serious. “When does Naya get out?”

“Sometime in the next couple weeks.”

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