by Olivia Miles
His expression didn’t change. Not even an inch. She stared into those dark eyes uneasily. They were very nice eyes, actually. His lashes were surprisingly long. But they gave nothing away.
“I’m not here for coffee,” he finally said. “I’m here to work.”
She coughed so she wouldn’t laugh. She would eventually hire an assistant, but she wasn’t at the point of interviewing yet, and she could hardly imagine Cole in an apron, mixing cookie dough.
“A woman named Candy approached me this morning?” His mouth quirked for one, telling second, and it was so brief, that Maddie might have missed it, if she hadn’t been staring at him in such complete and utter shock. “Said you needed a contractor for a build out?”
“Oh.” Maddie licked her lip and gave a nervous laugh. She would throttle Candy for this! “She’s my father’s girlfriend.” That description still sounded weird, even after all these months. “She was trying to help, but...I’ve got it covered.”
He raised an eyebrow. “Really? Okay, well, good to know.”
“Yes,” Maddie nodded. Mouth pinched. No nonsense here. Conversation over. “I’m all set. But…thank you.”
Her heart was racing, and she was already thinking of exactly what she would say to Candy the moment she got in touch with her. She began walking toward the door, leading Cole on his merry way, wanting to close the door and lock it behind him and retreat into her safe space. Her personal space. Her chosen space.
Really!
Cole turned when he reached the door. “So who’d you go with?”
Go with? Maddie blanked for a moment, but then latched onto the first name she could think of. “Gus,” she said. The most obvious.
Cole nodded slowly, because of course this made complete sense. Everyone knew that Gus was the primary contractor in town. He’d been in business for decades. He was in high demand.
Very high demand, she’d come to realize.
Her stomach tightened when Cole cut her a look. “Interesting.”
Maddie frowned, not sure what he meant by that. “Well, Gus has always done the work around our house, so…”
“I just saw him this morning,” Cole said. “Stopped at the hardware store on the way to a job. He told me he was about to start a laundry list of projects this week. On your house.”
“On my house?” Maddie squeaked. Her mind was spinning. Amelia wouldn’t have hired him for anything, meaning that Cole must be referring to her childhood home. She tried to think of an excuse.
She tried to think of an explanation.
“Guess Candy approached him, too. Yesterday. Told me she was very persuasive. Offered him top dollar.”
There was that quirk of his mouth again. There was no missing it this time.
Maddie swallowed hard. She thought fast, but her mind could only land on one thing. Or one person, rather. Candy.
“Well, I’m sure you’ll get it all straightened out,” Cole said. He tipped his chin and then walked down the steps, slowly disappearing up the path that led to Main Street.
Maddie stood in the open doorway, watching him go, wondering if he would turn back, and wondering if she should call after him. But that would be preposterous! Completely ridiculous! Something that she never would have chosen, and wouldn’t accept.
She narrowed her eyes as she marched out the door and locked it behind her.
Candy had some explaining to do.
*
The Firefly Café was packed, as it always was, and Maddie felt a wave of longing as she entered. Was it only a matter of weeks ago that she was tying the blue and white striped apron strings at her waist and rolling out her cinnamon rolls? She still made two sheets of them every morning for Amelia, who collected them on her walk to work and then popped them into the oven.
Oh, to turn back time, to when life wasn’t filled with uncertainty and pressure and stress. When she could chat and bake and laugh with her sister in the kitchen, working just as much in companionable silence as they did in camaraderie.
Amelia was at the counter, but the smile immediately slipped from her face when she saw Maddie’s expression.
“Uh-oh. What happened?”
“Is Candy here?” Maddie asked.
Amelia raised an eyebrow, but didn’t press. “In the kitchen.”
Maddie nodded, and then pushed through the swing door into the kitchen that felt so familiar, she almost got a little weepy. That was, until she saw Candy, or rather the rump of her, bent over at the waist, pulling a tray from the lower oven.
She turned, looking pleasantly surprised to see Maddie standing at the big island. Maddie was sure to keep a safe distance between them, physically, lest she do something she would regret.
“Maddie! So good to see you! Couldn’t stay away, huh?” She laughed loudly, and then held out the tray. “Biscuit?”
Maddie shook her head. “I’m afraid we have a problem, Candy. Did you hire Gus to work for you so he wouldn’t be available to work at the bakery?”
Candy’s eyes widened for a moment, and she blinked slowly, clearly formulating her excuse.
“I sent a contractor over for you! Just as I promised I would. Was there…a problem?” She looked a little pale now.
“Yes, Candy, there was a problem.” Maddie held her voice steady. Surely this could all be sorted out. Whatever project Candy needed Gus for could wait. “I thought you were going to track down Gus for me. Get me on his schedule.”
“Oh, but his schedule is all full right now,” Candy said with a little smile.
“Doing work for you,” Maddie said slowly.
“Well, amongst other things,” Candy said quickly, but she couldn’t meet Maddie’s eye. “He said he was busy with small projects, couldn’t take on anything bigger right now.”
“Gus rarely does small projects. Maybe in the winter.”
Candy huffed out a breath. “I’m just the messenger, Maddie! And I did find you a contractor.”
“Cole McCarthy?” Maddie raised an eyebrow.
Candy’s face lit up. “Handsome man, that Cole. You girls failed to mention that Sunday night.”
“And you failed to mention that you had work that needed to be done at the house and couldn’t wait,” Maddie replied. It took everything in her not to point out that it wasn’t even Candy’s house. It was her house—at least, her father’s. But it was home. It always would be.
Now Candy’s cheeks were pink. Clearly, she wasn’t going to talk her way out of this one. She glanced at the door, visibly relieved when Amelia came into the kitchen, carrying a plate of food, her cheeks flushed.
“Everything okay in here?” Amelia looked from Maddie to Candy.
“Just fine!” Candy trilled at the same time Maddie blurted, “No. Things are definitely not fine.”
Candy looked stricken. Amelia looked worried.
“It’s not Dad, is it?” she asked.
“Of course, not,” Maddie said. “I would have told you first thing if it was about Dad.” Though in some ways, Maddie supposed it was about their father. He’d urged Maddie to let Candy get involved, to help, and now Maddie realized she would have been much better off handling things on her own.
“Good, because table four just sent back their order. Said there weren’t enough apples today.”
She set down the dish of her signature apple stuffed French toast and Maddie took a moment to look at it. “Looks like plenty of apples to me.”
“Well, if the customer isn’t happy, I’ll have to remake it and quickly. Candy, can you please cover the dining room for a moment?”
Candy needed no further encouragement as she darted from the room.
Maddie let the argument slide while she watched Amelia dredge four thick slices of bread in the pre-made egg mixture and fry it in butter, before making two sandwiches from it, with the cinnamon and brown sugar coated apples melting inside.
She resisted the urge to offer to help, knowing that Amelia would send her away, as she had any time that Madd
ie offered her services since giving her notice, but when Candy returned with another order slip a few minutes later, Maddie saw her chance.
“Want me to get started on that?”
“Nope.” Amelia chuckled under her breath as Maddie felt her shoulders deflate.
“I’m right here, and I’m happy to help.”
“You have your own business to worry about now, Maddie,” Amelia replied as she plated the French toast and drizzled it with fresh caramel sauce. “Besides, this is nothing. I’m used to putting out fires.”
“And you make it look so easy,” Maddie said, realizing now that it couldn’t always be so easy. That if she had an upset customer and had to remake an order while also tending to new customers, she wasn’t sure she could do it quite as effortlessly as Amelia.
“It all comes with training and time. You’ll see. It just takes a little practice, and…a little confidence. And when all else fails, trust your instincts. Go with your gut. It’s usually right.”
Trust her instincts. She would try to do just that.
Amelia gave her a little wink and scooted out of the room. A second later, Candy reappeared.
Maddie crossed her arms firmly across her chest. Candy did her best to feign innocence as she rinsed the French toast pan in the sink.
“Now,” Amelia said, reappearing again. “You were saying?”
“Maddie isn’t pleased with the contractor I found to do her bakery,” Candy said a little pertly.
Amelia slid her gaze to Maddie, her brow pinching. “Who is it?”
Now it was Maddie’s turn to look smug. “Cole McCarthy.”
Amelia bit down on her lip, clearly in an effort to hide a smile. She didn’t need to say anything. They were both thinking the same thing. Of course Candy had hired Cole, a young bachelor, to do the project, instead of good old Gus. Of course she had!
“Well, he’s probably cheaper than Gus,” Amelia pointed out. Practical, that sister of hers.
Maddie begrudgingly agreed, but said nothing.
“And if it gets the job done, does it really matter who does it?”
Again, with the rational points.
“Fine,” Maddie blurted, narrowing her eyes in Candy’s direction.
Candy just feigned disinterest and scurried to the door. “Better get these biscuits plated!”
Maddie watched her go and then slowly turned back to her sister, who was having a good, hard laugh at her expense.
“Hey,” she said, holding up her hands and backing up. “Candy did what she promised, right? She got you a contractor. Problem solved.”
Maddie pushed miserably through the door, unable to even comment any more on this bizarre twist of events. Contrary to what Amelia might think, her problems were far from solved.
Now she would have to track down Cole McCarthy and see if he’d be willing to come back. And from the way they’d left things off, there was no denying that he wasn’t going to make any part of it easy for her.
3
Maddie didn’t know Cole’s number, but she knew where he lived—an innocent enough looking house that had somehow been the setting of local lore for most of her childhood. That was Cole’s turf back then, and Maddie and Cora, who was only a year ahead of her in school, would approach the bus stop each morning apprehensively, their cheerful conversation drawing to a halt when they caught sight of the boy who seemed to always be angry, whether it meant brooding on the curb, not making direct eye contact with anyone, or picking up rocks and chucking them down the road, as if he had a target in mind. Once, before Maddie knew better, she’d tried to cheer him up, because that’s what she did around the house, and it usually worked. When her mother got sick, she learned that drawing pictures and cards would always bring a smile to her mother’s face, no matter how bad she was feeling that day. She would admire the drawing, often with tears in her eyes, and then tuck it into her bedside table drawer, along with all the others.
Maddie didn’t make a card for Cole because she suspected as a boy he wouldn’t appreciate her drawings of flowers and rainbows and butterflies, but her mother had always told her that Maddie could turn even the greyest day into sunshine with her smile, so Maddie decided to go with that. Cole was sitting on the curb that morning; the bus was running late. As usual, he spoke to no one, greeted no one, looked at no one. It was spring. It was warm. And personally, Maddie was hoping that by the time school let out for the day, she might able to convince her mother to let her take a dip in the lake, even though she knew the water would be icy cold. What was Cole so bent out of shape about? She walked close to where he was perched, watching him until she caught his eye (and oh, it was a menacing stare, causing her to almost lose her nerve) and then she smiled, a big, hopeful smile, and said, “It’s a nice sunny day, don’t you think?”
Her smile slipped when she saw the set of his jaw and he stood, making her take a step back, and then picked up his faded navy backpack with its fraying straps and walked to the other side of the street, even though it meant he would have to cross back over again when the bus finally arrived.
Maddie supposed it could have been worse. The next week at school he had slammed a kid named Dwight into a locker for reasons no one ever did know, gotten a two-day suspension for it.
From that day on, Maddie kept her distance.
But today, she would have to seek him out.
With a heavy sigh, Maddie gathered up her paint samples and considered her dilemma. Cole was a contractor, and he was available, and she did need the work done.
She looked at the paint color she had chosen and held it to the wall, like she had earlier. Now, the natural sunlight was brighter, filling the entire room in its golden glow. And just like Cole had said, the color faded away. On an entire wall, it would be lost.
She pursed her lips. If she was going to get the project going, she was going to have to choose a paint color soon. And she may as well entertain the idea of a slightly brighter shade…
Maddie gathered up her belongings and walked to the hardware store, telling herself that she wasn’t really delaying reaching out to Cole. She could stop by Cole’s house at the end of the day, when he’d be home. She could pay her father a visit afterwards, too. Have a little chat about Candy’s behavior. Or maybe, she could find another contractor by then—someone from a neighboring town, someone who happened to be available to start within the next few days.
But each day she pushed the work back, she also delayed her opening. And with each day that she wasn’t open, she was losing money. Bills were still due, regardless of whether she had an empty space or a bustling business.
Her anxiety flared up again as she stuffed the paint swatches into her tote and caught sight of her notepad, covered in furious scribbles of her ideas and lists, but she focused on the task at hand. Today she would commit to a paint color. She would check that box off her list and it would feel great. It was the most basic of her tasks, but the decision still felt all important. She wanted every detail of this bakery to be just right. She just wasn’t as confident with her decision making as Amelia—or Britt or Cora.
She walked down the aisles she was now vaguely familiar with, since she first started coming in here a couple of weeks ago when her plans for the space began to take shape. The display of paint swatches lined the back wall, like a rainbow spread out before her, and all at once, she was met with indecision again. Her mind flitting from yellow to green and lingering on the blue. But no, no blue. She had already decided that. She didn’t want to copy Amelia. She wanted to be her own person. She wanted the bakery to be her own space.
But leave it to Amelia to have picked the best color.
Still, yellow complimented blue, and the establishments would be linked through an open doorway, and a shared patio. Feeling surer of her decision, she focused on the endless shades of yellow, wondering how she would ever choose the correct one, when a hand came up beside her, plucked a strip and handed it over.
She looked over to see Cole s
tanding beside her, one eyebrow cocked in a way that was almost mocking and almost nonplussed.
“I see you decided to take my advice.”
She jutted her chin, wanting to tell him that no, she had not taken his advice, she was simply considering all her options, but she knew from the glint in his dark eyes that there was no point to denying it.
“I saw your point about that particular color being too subtle.”
His mouth twitched. She narrowed her eyes. Pulled in a breath, forced herself to get through what she was about to say next.
“I’m glad that we ran into each other.”
Now his expression was one of undeniable disbelief. Okay, so glad was probably a bit of a stretch. Still, it saved her the trouble of hunting him down. Going to that house that was hidden behind a wall of overgrown shrubs, the curtains always pulled, rumors of it being haunted always whispered amongst the kids on the school bus.
Maddie had never thought the house was haunted. She’d thought it was sad, despite the yellow paint. Whereas her own house always had a cheerful wreath on the door, pumpkins lining its porch steps for Halloween, and garland and lights for Christmas, Cole’s house had looked the same year-round. It looked unhappy. As unhappy as the boy who lived there.
“I was, uh, wondering if you’d still be up for the project.”
He didn’t look surprised when he asked, “What about Gus?”
She had known he wouldn’t make this easy. She shrugged and said, “Seems that he’s taken another job after all.” She refused to admit that he was right about this, too. “And I need someone to start on this soon.”
He nodded, seemed to mull something over for what felt like an unbearable amount of time. Eventually he said, “Lots of people are trying to fit in projects before the winter hits. It’s a busy time of year.”
“You weren’t busy this morning,” she pointed out. Was he seriously going to claim he couldn’t take on the project? Her heart began to hammer in her chest, and she swallowed hard, hoping that the desperation hadn’t registered on her face.
He motioned to his cart, which held multiple cans of paint. “Big project has come up. Painting the exterior of a house.”