by A. E. Radley
Olivia came over and leaned against the doorframe, watching as Serenity carefully set up her gingerbread walls and glued them together with the icing. She offered, “Maybe he’s just trying to be fair.”
“Maybe,” Serenity said. “But I can’t compete with Abbott’s when it comes to price or speed. If the mayor himself is on their side, it’s only a matter of time before I’m sunk. Can you go get the other big pieces of gingerbread on the prep counter?”
“Sure,” Olivia said. Serenity held the first two pieces in place, waiting for the icing to dry as she watched Liv disappear into the kitchen. When she returned carrying a baking sheet, Serenity stood to take it from her.
“Thanks,” she said.
“Hey,” Olivia said, and Serenity turned back to her. She got sucked into those emerald green eyes – they were so easy to fall into – and Olivia said firmly, “Things are classics for a reason, right? Abbott’s may have production line speed and cheap ingredients, but you… you’re unforgettable.”
It felt like the temperature had been turned up about twenty degrees in the little shop and with the intensity of her gaze, Serenity wondered if Liv was still talking about her baked goods. “Thanks.”
A smile played over Liv’s lips, that dimple becoming more pronounced. Serenity could feel her pulse beating in her ears, and then Liv leaned in and kissed her. It happened so fast Serenity thought there was a chance she’d imagined it, but she could taste the cherry lip balm that made Liv’s lips so slick and irresistible.
It had been real.
She opened her mouth to speak, although she had no idea what words would come out, and then she was saved by the doorbell. It chimed right above their heads and made her jump. The door swung open and Liv stepped closer to Serenity to avoid being hit, then they both smiled and said to their customer in awkward, sheepish unison, “Welcome to the Sugar Plum.”
DECEMBER 9
Serenity arrived at the bakery the following morning feeling gloomy despite the falling snow and the unexplained kiss from Liv.
The first few flurries of the season never failed to get her into the holiday spirit, and yet this year she was having a hard time enjoying it. It seemed like no matter where she turned, the shadow of Abbott’s Grocery reached her and she wondered how long it would be before her stubbornness lost out to her sense of practicality.
There was only so much a small, independent bakery could do to compete with a giant one-stop shop like Abbott’s.
She turned on the radio at the front of the store, tuning it to a station that played beautiful Christmas music around the clock in the month of December. That helped lift her spirits a little bit. Then she put on her apron and went into the kitchen to make donuts before the shop opened in a couple of hours. She was so absorbed in her task that she hardly heard the doorbell chime as Olivia let herself in with the key Serenity had given her.
She jumped slightly when Olivia came up behind her, appearing in her peripheral vision.
“You scared me,” she said with a smile.
“I’m sorry,” Olivia said. “We did agree on seven a.m., right? To start working on the mayor’s order before the morning rush?”
“Yes,” Serenity said. “I’ve been inside my own head and I guess I lost track of time.”
“Do you want help with the donuts?” Olivia asked.
“Yeah, just give them a light coating of the red and green sprinkles in that jar,” Serenity said, nodding toward the prep counter. “Then they can go in the display case.”
She reached for the sprinkle jar and Olivia did, too, her hand closing over Serenity’s. Her heart skipped a beat and instead of casually handing Liv the jar – like she might have done on any morning when she wasn’t so distracted – Serenity knocked the whole thing on the floor. A sea of red and green scattered across the tile and Serenity closed her eyes.
“Damn it.”
“I’m sorry,” Olivia said.
“It’s not your fault,” Serenity said. “I’m all scattered this morning because of that stupid grocery store.”
“Did something happen?” Olivia asked, retrieving a broom that hung from a hook on the wall.
“Not really,” Serenity said. “It’s stupid.”
“I’m listening,” Olivia said, those emerald eyes burning into Serenity as she walked back to the mess of sprinkles on the floor. She was wearing a boot-cut pair of jeans and a sweater that looked like it would be very soft to snuggle into.
“I went over to my parents’ house last night for dinner,” Serenity said. “They had an Abbott’s coffee cake in their pantry, like they were hiding it from me.”
It probably would have worked if Faith hadn’t forgotten to put the croutons on the salad. Serenity had popped into the pantry to retrieve them before their mother could stop her and came out holding her competitor’s mass-produced coffee cake.
“Those traitors,” Liv said.
“It hurt my feelings,” Serenity said. “If my own parents have succumbed to the convenience of getting all their baked goods in the same place as the rest of their groceries, then what hope do I have of keeping the rest of my clients?”
Her mother had tried to apologize, explaining that she’d only intended to say hello to Ashley in the bakery department and she’d bought the coffee cake because it felt rude to walk away empty-handed. Serenity had accepted the apology, but her mood still hadn’t recovered.
“They’ll stay because you’re worth it,” Liv said, then started sweeping up sprinkles. “Besides, nobody’s going to want an Abbott’s sheet cake for their wedding when they can have one of your masterpieces.”
“Pfft,” Serenity muttered, feeling suddenly embarrassed. Masterpieces? She turned back to her donuts, substituting the holiday sprinkles for her regular, purple ones before the icing had a chance to set. “How would you know about my wedding cakes?”
“I got bored the other day between customers,” Liv said. “I looked through your portfolio. You do great work.”
“Thank you,” Serenity said. She carried her tray of donuts up to the display case, loading them carefully inside, and when she turned around, Liv was right behind her with another tray.
She stepped up to the display case, trapping Serenity in the small space between the case and the wall. Serenity watched her as she transferred her donuts, admiring the angle of her jaw and the cute upturn of her nose. When she was done, Liv set her empty tray on the counter and turned to Serenity.
“I’m serious, you know,” she said. “You’re incredible.”
Serenity swallowed hard and glanced toward the windows. The shop would be opening in about fifteen minutes and then they wouldn’t get a moment to themselves for the next eight hours. That was why she was so grateful when Liv kissed her.
Serenity never would have had the guts to do it, but she’d been able to think of little else in Liv’s presence ever since their first kiss.
Her lips were soft and sensual, awakening desire in Serenity, and her fuzzy sweater was just as warm and soft as she’d imagined. Serenity put her hands on Liv’s waist and tentatively pulled her closer. Her tongue swiped over Serenity’s lower lip, her teeth closed on it in a quick, playful nibble, and then Serenity slid out of her grasp.
“Well,” she said, smoothing her apron and letting out a nervous laugh. “I guess we should get the coffee brewing and open up shop.”
“Whatever you say, boss,” Liv said.
DECEMBER 12
Serenity was able to shake off her bad mood quickly with Liv around and they worked well together for the rest of the week.
Liv handled everything at the front of the shop effortlessly, allowing Serenity to focus on the things she loved most, and she took every spare moment she could get to work on her display window. She even roped Liv into helping her with it, teaching her how to use royal icing to glue on the small details of the gingerbread castle.
On the afternoon of the holiday gala, Serenity was waiting for her brownies and blondies to cool
so she could package them. In the meantime, she handed Liv a piping bag full of icing and a bowl of gumdrops.
“Come on,” she said, looping her arm in Liv’s and pulling her over to the display window. “We’ve got just enough time to make the little gumdrop paths around the castle before we have to pack up and go to the gala.”
“I don’t know,” Liv wavered. “I watched you build an entire gingerbread drawbridge yesterday and I’d hate to mess the whole thing up with poorly-placed gumdrops.”
“You won’t mess it up,” Serenity said, tugging Liv to sit down on the floor beside her. “I’ve known you since we were kids and I don’t think I’ve ever seen you be bad at anything. I’m sure you won’t start now.”
“I’m not creative like you are, though,” Liv objected. It wasn’t like her to be self-conscious and Serenity found it charming.
“This task isn’t creative,” she said. “It’s lining up gumdrops and sticking them in place with sugar water. I have full confidence in you.”
They worked side by side for about twenty minutes. While Liv slowly and meticulously placed her gumdrops, Serenity worked on assembling the chocolate sleigh that would be the pièce de résistance. It had to be perfect so she tried to concentrate all of her attention on it, but that was easier said than done with Olivia sitting just a few inches away. Her thighs lightly brushed against Serenity’s each time she came to her knees to reach a distant part of the display. It was hard to think about anything else.
Finally, Serenity set the sleigh in front of the castle and turned to Liv.
“What?” she asked, smiling.
“Who are you?” Serenity asked. It wasn’t quite the wording she had intended, but it was a question she’d been dying to ask ever since her family’s Christmas party. “This is not the Olivia Winters I went to high school with.”
“And you’re not the Serenity Ryan that I knew back then,” Liv pointed out.
“You didn’t know me in high school,” Serenity said. “We lived in different worlds back then. Still do.”
“I don’t think that’s true,” Liv said. She looked down at her hands, sticky with royal icing despite her best attempts at perfectionism. Then she grinned and said, “I was jealous of you. Did you know that?”
“What?” Serenity asked, practically snorting from surprise. “No way.”
“You didn’t give a damn what people thought about you,” Liv said. “You were you from the first day of kindergarten, never trying to pretend to be someone else so other people would like you.”
“Everyone loved you,” Serenity said.
“Everyone bought into the lie I told them about myself,” Liv answered. “I stumbled into the life of a girl who wears dresses and dates football players and cares more about being the valedictorian than making real friends, but that was never really me. I didn’t figure out who I was until college, or maybe even later. Heck, maybe I still don’t know.”
“Can I tell you a secret?” Serenity asked. When Liv nodded, she said, “Nobody knows who they are. We’re all constantly reinventing ourselves, trying to figure out what feels right. If I knew who I was in high school, it was only because I was so painfully aware of how unlike everyone else I felt.”
She turned back to the window display momentarily, chasing away some unpleasant memories. She could feel Liv’s eyes on her, studying her.
Serenity’s lips turned up in an involuntary smile and she looked back at Liv. “Two secrets, actually. I was so hopelessly in love with you back then – you were my first crush and boy, was it a fierce one.”
Her cheeks turned aggressively pink and she couldn’t stop grinning at Liv, challenging her to respond to the confession she’d held in for so long. Liv just stared at her for a second or two, long enough to make Serenity second-guess her honesty, and then she slipped her hand behind Serenity’s neck, pulling her forward so she had to put her hands down on the floor to keep from falling into her.
They kissed passionately, the fulfilment of a thousand of Serenity’s juvenile fantasies, then Liv raised an eyebrow and asked, “And now?”
“Still going strong,” Serenity had to admit. Then she glanced at the clock on the wall and said, “Hey, we’ve got to box up those brownies. Come on.”
She pulled Liv to her feet, then Liv chased her into the kitchen. She slid her hands around Serenity’s hips and kissed the back of her neck before grabbing a couple of hairnets for them both and handing one to Serenity with an incongruently flirtatious look.
They arrived at the gala about two hours later. The whole town was there and Serenity and Liv had both gone home to change before meeting back at the bakery. Now in their formalwear – Serenity in a lace-trimmed dress and Liv in another crisp pair of slacks and a button-down blouse – they carried their bakery boxes up the concrete steps of the town hall.
Liv had gotten the whole catering thing down by now and Serenity hardly had to coach her through the process of plating the brownies and blondies and then bringing them into the ballroom where the gala would be held. The room was already busy with people at tables decorated with holly, and there was a large Christmas tree near the entrance. A string quartet played at one end of the room while Serenity and Liv worked seamlessly together to arrange the trays on the dessert table next to a massive display of Abbott’s cupcakes.
When Liv caught Serenity staring at them, she whispered, “No way they’re as tasty as your brownies. You’ve got this.”
“Thanks,” Serenity said, putting on a smile with some effort. “Well, there’s nothing more we can do now. Shall we mingle?”
“Yeah,” Liv said. She didn’t even ask as she slid her arm around Serenity’s, and that surprising show of ownership made Serenity shiver with desire. Her heart had belonged to Liv since high school so it felt perfectly right to be at the gala with her now.
“My parents and sister will be here,” Serenity said. “Is your family coming?”
“My parents never miss it,” Liv said, looking around the room as their fellow Angel Valley residents moved about the room. “Oh, I see them over by the drink station. Do you want to say hi?”
“Sure,” Serenity said. She’d met Liv’s parents dozens of times when they were in school, and Liv’s mother came by the bakery often, but the idea of walking over to them with her arm linked in their daughter’s was enough to make Serenity’s stomach erupt in a flurry of butterflies.
She didn’t quite make it to the drink station, though. On the way there, a man in a neatly pressed suit caught sight of Serenity and started marching toward her. He looked at her with such intensity that she worried for a second that he might be planning to hit her, but when he stopped in front of her and Olivia, he simply extended his hand with a smarmy grin.
“Serenity Ryan, at last we meet,” he said. She took his hand, glancing nervously at Liv. “I’m Joseph Abbott.”
“Oh,” Serenity said. Ordinarily she wouldn’t have dreamed of being so rude – she would have at least put on a fake smile and tried to be approachable – but he caught her off-guard and she was already feeling so many things, there was no room for friendly competition.
“Look, I hope there’s no bad blood between us,” Joseph said, his grin never faltering as he continued to shake her hand. “It’s just business, right?”
“You poached her employee right out from under her,” Liv said, scowling until he finally released Serenity’s hand.
“I offered her a competitive benefits package,” Joseph said, putting his hands into the pockets of his pants and rocking back on the heels of his highly polished shoes. He glanced at the dessert table, where Serenity was happy to see that people were already beginning to dig into her brownies. Then he said, “I hear your blondies are a town favorite. Abbott’s has a blondie recipe passed down from my grandmother.”
“Good for Abbott’s,” Liv said. “Come on, Ren. Let’s get something to drink.”
Even as she was reeling from her unexpected encounter with the man who was trying
to sink her bakery, Serenity didn’t miss the fact that Liv had given her a nickname. She nodded and let Olivia lead her away from Joseph Abbott. They met up with Liv’s parents and helped themselves to generous cups of eggnog, then when they were alone again a few minutes later, Liv leaned in to whisper once again into Serenity’s ear. She nodded toward the dessert table, where only a few cupcakes had been taken and Serenity’s brownie trays were already more than halfway depleted.
“The proof is in the pudding – or the brownie batter, if you will,” she said. “You’ve got nothing to worry about so just have fun tonight.”
Serenity smiled. “You’re right. Do you want to dance with me?”
“I’d love to,” Liv said, taking her hand and letting Serenity lead her onto the dance floor while the quartet played a beautiful rendition of Tchaikovsky’s Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy.
By the end of the gala, Serenity and Liv had only a few crumbs to clean up from the dessert table and she tried not to gloat too hard when she caught sight of Joseph Abbott grumpily re-boxing about three dozen cupcakes that had gone untouched. There was no helping the smile that was plastered across her lips, though – the rum in the eggnog and the way Liv swept her onto the dance floor every chance she got were contributing factors to that.
When she and Liv finally left the town hall a little after midnight, their hands linked, it was beginning to snow again. Liv pulled Serenity close to say, “Your brownies totally smoked Abbott’s cupcakes.”
Serenity giggled, the alcohol warming her veins, and then she blurted, “Do you want to go on a date with me?”
Liv looked a little taken aback, or maybe surprised, but her eyes said she was pleased. “I would love that. When?”