Page 12 of A Chance for Candace

Chapter 6

It had been a week of putting in long, hard days to get the business up and running. When Candace had moved into the apartment upstairs, she found that Jessie had moved downstairs to a back porch right outside of the kitchen. She had been happy to know he was willing to keep her reputation intact as well as giving her the whole apartment to herself.

The apartment above the store was large and there was an extra room for him to sleep if it had been proper for him to do so. Candace almost felt guilty having him sleep below in a closed in porch. Even though the warm months were here, she hoped he was staying warm enough at night. She hadn’t asked and wasn’t about to. All she cared about was the store.

Working consistently for a week, she had her side of the store sparkling. The large display window out front sparkled and she was almost finished with her sign. She had ventured to the general store several times, buying the things she needed for opening day.

Which was six days from today.

Looking around, Candace felt that they were progressing so fast. Not only had Jessie kept up with her cleaning the store until it sparkled, he had built shelves and display cases for his cakes and baked goods. As a courtesy, he also put up some shelves on her side. For the past few days, they both worked from sun-up and then late into the night. There were a few nights when Candace stepped outside to get some fresh air and realized the only bright lights were the millions of stars in the sky. She hadn’t known how late it was but her body was telling her it was time to retire for the day.

Today was no different, except they were finished with the displays and cleaning. They had a week until the shop was officially opening. Candace and Jessie both agreed a Saturday morning opening would work better than during the week since parents might want to bring their children for some much awaited goodies.

They had a week to fill the store with their baked goods and concoctions.

Jessie was in the kitchen experimenting with a receipt when she went back to check on her sample concoctions. She planned to walk the streets of Last Chance and hand out samples a few days before their grand opening. Jessie had said she was wasting her money since everyone was curious about the contest and would stop by anyway.

He was probably right, but her gut instinct told her to get her samples out there. She took off the towels she had laid over top and smiled. Now all she needed to do was melt some chocolate and dip the sweet candies in the chocolate. These were a favorite in Chicago. Even though Candace wanted to try some of the new receipts from Theodore’s pouch, as a business woman she thought it would make sense to start out with proven candies that were big sellers. These bon bons always went over well and she planned to hook every single person in Last Chance with sweets that they couldn’t resist.

The stove was quite large and served their purpose nicely. It had room to bake several cakes in the oven and was quite modern in terms of today’s cookstoves. She could work on melting her chocolate on the top of the stove while Jessie’s cakes baked in the oven. The device was quite a nice addition to this kitchen even if she had to share it with someone.

Candace pushed a stool over to one of her shelves where she had stored some tins that held blocks of chocolate. She stepped upon the stool and reached up but realized too late she wasn’t tall enough to get the tin from from top shelf.

Before she realized what had happened, her foot caught the edge of the stool and she began to go down. Candace tried to grab the shelf to hang on to, but failed. A strong pair of muscular arms caught her right before she would’ve hit the floor. With wide eyes she looked up to see a concerned Jessie holding her in his arms.

“Are you all right?”

“I think so,” she murmured. He held onto her for a few more moments, staring into her eyes. She was quite distracted by him, even if he was her rival. Were things like this supposed to happen? “You can let me go now.”

He frowned, then sighed. “I suppose I can,” he laughed. Setting her gently on her feet, he still didn’t move away. What was he doing?

“I’ll have to move that shelf down a peg or two so you can reach it. I must’ve miscalculated.”

Did he? Or, was he trying to make it so difficult for her that she’d fail. Would he stoop to that?

When she stared at him, it was almost like he read her thoughts. “I didn’t do that on purpose. I swear.”

“I still need you to let me go,” she warned.

When his arms relaxed and he stepped back, she almost moved into them again. Then Candace shook her head. No, she was not going to fall for her business partner or whatever he was at this point. She had a job to do and the bon bon’s were waiting to be finished.

“Let me get your tins for you,” he told her, jumping onto the stool as if it was second nature. “Do you want all three?”

“Yes, please. I’ll have to store them somewhere else until the shelf can be lowered.”

“I’ll do that later today for you, okay?”

She smiled. “Thank you, Jessie.” Even though it was his fault the shelves were too high, it actually hadn’t slowed down any of the process so she figured it as an honest mistake. And, there was the moment he caught her from falling to the floor.

The air in the kitchen seemed much calmer as they both worked on their own goods. While she did send a glance or two his way, Candace stayed busy at the stove making sure she had the perfect temperature to melt the chocolate. When it was ready, she took two rags, picked up each side of the pot and carried it towards the table. They had pushed two long tables together in the kitchen as a work space. He had the left side and she had the right and had to walk past him since the stove was farther away from her.

“Can I help you with that?” Jessie asked, then took the pot of hot cocoa from her hands and set it on the table. “If you ever need my help, don’t be afraid to ask.”

I’m used to carrying heavy pots, Jessie. How do you think I got by working for Theodore? He didn’t mess around and carry my weight. He was a tough teacher.”

“That’s in the past. I sure don’t want you to accidentally spill that hot liquid and burn your beautiful face.”

Candace didn’t know what to say so she said nothing. She busied herself at her side of the table, tickled that he had paid her such a compliment. No one had ever told her she was beautiful before. Not ever.

---