Page 22 of One Small Spark
I raise my voice so I can be heard across the shop. “I’m saving up for the most lavish wedding present for Hope and Griffin.”
From her side of the pass-through between our stores comes Hope’s, “Woohoo!”
“Diamond-encrusted salad tongs are all the rage.”
“I can’t wait to use those tongs,” she shouts back.
Tess looks unimpressed, but too bad. If we got into a discussion about not doing the things we really want to do, we’d both wind up sad about our choices. She’s doing better at going after her goals now, but for a long stretch of years, neither of us followed our dreams.
A few minutes later, I’m spared any more uncomfortable looks from my sister. Rosetta walks into the bakery, and I go into customer service mode.
“Welcome in.” Unlike some versions of customer service mode, my big smile is genuine for her. I liked her when I only knew her as Sunshine’s head librarian, but now that I know she can throw down about romance, I’m an even bigger fan.
“Wren. I’ve got a bone to pick with you.”
Her stern-mom voice sends a chill through me. “What? Why?”
Have I been kicked out of book group already? I wasn’tthatbad the other day…
“I think you brought those pies to book club to get us hooked.” Her faux-frown morphs into a grin. “It’s only been a few days, and here I am, needing more.”
I put a hand over my racing heart. “Geez. I thought you’d looked through the fine history on my library card or something.”
I stopped checking out paperbacks because of the constant late fees. At least ebooks return themselves on the right day.
“Not at all. I’m just here for more of your wonderful desserts.” She looks over the selection of pies in the display case. “That pear pie had my eyes rolling back in my head. Ooh. What is the cranberry silk pie like?”
My brain fizzles out as I relive Callahan ordering the same pie.Because I made it.He does it every week to get to me. I shouldn’t care anymore. But I do. It’s our thing, in a twisted way. Some week, he’s going to order something I didn’t make. Park in a space other than mine. Or he’ll stop coming in entirely.
And what will I do then?
“It’s, uh…” I need a second. “It’s a custard pie that offsets the tart cranberry flavor with the sweetened cream piping and a caramel cookie crust.”
“I’ll take one of those.”
Tess moves to the side so I can grab one to slice and box up.
“I tried to reserve the ebook for next month from the library, but it’s got a long waitlist.” Best to distract myself with a safe topic. The popular cowboy romance they chose is as good as any. “Paperbacks were the same.”
Even though checking out a paperback would result in brand-new late fees.
“Give the waitlist a try,” Rosetta says. “The club ladies are the bulk of the current reads. They should finish up in a week or two.”
“That’s good to hear. I didn’t want to go intoBend to find it at a bookstore.” Bookstores are worse than yarn stores for impulse buys.
“I have to say, you and Shepherd are already making our group ten times more fun.”
Tess stills. She slowly turns toward me like some kind of spooky predator. “Shepherd Callahan is in your romance book club?”
“The very same.” Rosetta’s got a big old smile on her face.
“I know,” I say to Tess. “I’m shocked, too.”
“Why?” Rosetta steps closer to the counter. “He’s in the library all the time.”
Probably researching ways to ruin other people’s businesses. There are handbooks for everything these days.
“He’s a voracious reader—always paperbacks—and a faithful volunteer.” She sounds as proud as if she’s talking about her own son.
