Page 34 of Traces Of You

Blaze left and the two of them remained standing there sipping their coffee.

“It’s hard to believe he’s a doctor,” she said. “He was always spying on us.”

“He wanted to catch me kissing you.”

Ford grinned as he said those words. More color filled her cheeks.

“You did once.”

“I wasn’t sure if you remembered.”

“It’s difficult to forget your first kiss.”

9

NOSTALGIA MOMENT

“Morning, Reenie.”

“Morning, Brooke,” she said. Brooke told her to show up at six, said there was no reason for her to come in at four. Not on her first day.

She wanted to argue but was glad she hadn’t.

Ford left at eight last night. She couldn’t wrap her mind around all that had happened in the past twenty-four hours.

She should have been waking up in a hotel in Canada, not driving to a small bakery to work in the one town she’d ever felt like she belonged.

“Did you sleep okay last night?”

“I slept better than I have in a long time.”

Surprisingly.

There was no man beside her she had to worry about waking. No one to lecture her for shifting in bed, no fights over needing sleep or her rolling over and tugging the covers away.

Some nights she slipped into the spare room to get a few hours of sleep, then snuck back into bed with Oliver before he woke.

She loved the nights Oliver took his sleeping pills because then she could relax.

Last night, there were no sounds other than a piece of wood falling in the wood stove.

She’d never lived anywhere that was so quiet.

“I’m glad to hear that,” Brooke said. “I’m thrilled you’re here and love the help.”

“You tell me what you need me to do.”

“I’ve got a big order that has to be put together for a work event. Pastries and muffins. Most are done or I’m finishing them up. I make five kinds of cookies a day. Once they are gone, that’s it. I don’t make any more until the next day. I make four dozen of each.”

“They are big cookies.” She saw them cooling on a tray. “Do you sell out daily?”

“Usually. If I don’t, I’ll put them out the next day to be sold first, but only two days. I try to rotate things so that if someone wants a certain cookie, they might miss it and buy something else, then come back another day and hope it’s here.”

“That’s great. Does it work?”

“I like to think so,” Brooke said. “It’d be wasteful to bake the same things daily.”

“What about if someone orders an item you hadn’t planned on making?”