Page 31 of A Soldier's Destiny
“No, when is that?”
“They didn’t give me a set time just said today. I’ll be happy to be able to see out again, I hate that piece of wood.”
“I don’t blame you. Do you want more coffee before we open up?”
“Thanks, that’d be great.” She watched him walk into the bakery area and couldn’t help admiring the buns of steel encased in his dark blue jeans. Which then led to remembering the view of his chest. It was rock hard, chiseled and badly scarred. But it didn’t detract from his beauty at all. If she didn’t watch it, she’d be drooling all over the counter.
Jasper handed her the coffee and took a drink of his. “Anything out of the ordinary happening today?”
“Besides the window? Just finishing up a wedding cake I’ve been working on. It needs to be delivered to Ruby’s B&B tomorrow. The Evanston’s are renewing their vows – fifty years. Can you believe it? Anyway, she ordered the wedding cake since they didn’t have one when they first got married.”
“You said you started it?”
“Yup, the cake is baked, and the first layer of fondant is on. It still needs the fancy stuff which will take me most of the day. Luckily, I have you to help.
“You want me to help decorate a wedding cake? Are you sure that’s such a good idea?”
“You won’t be decorating, you’ll be handling the customers out front. All you have to do is yell if you need me.”
“What would you have done if I wasn’t here?”
“I don’t know, probably beg Lily or Anna to come and help out? I suppose I’m going to have to consider hiring someone soon. It’s getting too busy for me to do it all alone. So, what do you say, think you can handle the front of the bakery by yourself?”
“Only if you promise not to unlock the back door or leave the shop.”
“I promise. I’ll be too busy to do anything else.”
“What time tomorrow does it have to be delivered?”
“Four, so we’ll have time to close up and drive it over there. Ruby’s is only a couple of blocks away. I’m hoping that I can get most of it done. But if not, tomorrow will be a repeat of today.”
Before they could say anything else, the jingling bells on the front door let them know they had customers.
* * *
The day flew by. He didn’t know how she managed the bakery by herself. There was a steady stream of customers and half of them wanted to chat. Yesterday they must have been checking him out because today was one question after another. Why was he there, was he Rori’s boyfriend, how long was he staying? It went on and on. He kept to the cover story that he was a distant relative of Lily’s and was helping Rori out. It placated most of the curious, and they went off to compare notes. Or at least, that’s what he figured they were doing. But late afternoon a guy came in and sort of hung back in the corner of the bakery. Jasper tried to make eye contact, but he avoided him. While Jasper helped a couple of women buying a bunch of the petit four things for a book club meeting, the guy wandered around. He never said a word, just casually wandered around and scoped out the bakery. There was something off about the guy and his attitude. It didn’t feel right.
As he packaged up the tiny delicious squares, he tried to keep an eye on him. After finally finishing with the chatty women, he prepared to confront the guy but when he looked around the man had left. Worried he’d managed to get past him and into the kitchen, he stole a look into the back to make sure Rori was okay.
Relieved to see her hard at work on the confectionary masterpiece that she called a cake, he stood and stared. He’d never seen anything so beautiful made of sugar, except maybe his Angel. She had quite a bit of the white stuff on her as well.
It wasn’t long after that the window installers arrived and mounted the new window faster than he’d expected and with little disruption of the bakery traffic. Getting rid of the plywood allowed him better visibility of the area and let in the sunlight making the patisserie a cheery place. It was hard to believe that four months ago he was knee deep in mud in Central America on a rescue mission. The mission that cost him his military career. Just thinking about it made the muscles in his thigh ache, a less than gentle reminder that he’d been standing on it all day.
The last hour was slow, customers dwindled in and by two-thirty it was dead. Three o’clock couldn’t get there fast enough for him. Emails had come in from Chase and Alex but up until then, he hadn’t had time to read them. After locking the door, he went to check on his little pastry chef extraordinaire.
“How’s it going?”
“Great. What do you think?” She backed away from her masterpiece to give him his first full view of the cake.
“Holy shit. You made all those flowers?”
“Yup. Everything is edible. I think it came out well.”
“It’s fantastic. Mrs. Evanston is going to be head over heels for the cake.”
“Now we just have to deliver it tomorrow without any catastrophes. I figured since we didn’t have far to go I could risk putting it together for the delivery.”
“It’s not usually like this?”
“Nope, it’s delicate this way, or extra delicate I guess. Usually, I leave it in a couple of pieces and do the final assembly at the wedding site.”
“Have you made a lot of these?”
“This is only my third, but I love it. Like making something magical to complement their special day. Maybe someday I’ll make my own.”
“I’m sure you will.” No sooner had the words left his lips when he wanted to kick his own ass. He really needed to think before he opened his big mouth. But the eyes she lifted to meet his weren’t sad as he’d expected. Instead, hope was reflected back at him, and it eased the painful twisting of his heart. The last thing he wanted to do was bring her pain. If she could open her heart again, maybe he could convince her to give it to him. He’d make sure the rest of her life was as magical as the cake.
“Maybe. Okay, let’s get this beauty into the walk-in. I still have to make the croissant dough for tomorrow and more custard for the eclairs. Then get this place cleaned up before I can really say I’m done.”
