by Katie Carver
“It doesn’t work like that,” Ginger snapped.
“Whatever. I’m not giving up on the contest. You can yell all at me all you want, Ginger. I’m not going to change my mind,” he said forcefully.
“So be it,” Ginger said ominously and marched back into her bakery without looking back.
Jake stared at the spot where she was standing for a moment and let the conversation sink in before he walked into the restaurant. He’d have to tell everyone inside that he didn’t hate Christmas. It was at least true, he didn’t hate it, he just didn’t find it as wonderful as everyone else seemed to. He entered the restaurant and felt all eyes turned to him. The smell of charred roast hung in the air and his plans for a grand speech were thwarted. He hurried back to the kitchen frantically and called out, “I don’t hate Christmas!” When he got the roast out, it was burned beyond repair. Jake kicked the oven door closed and threw the oven mitts. Why had he let her get under his skin like that? He’d been yelled at before and never failed to keep his cool. That was how you kept the upper hand, calm in the face of chaos. Ginger definitely fell under the chaos category. She wanted the booth spot and even if he had known, it seemed like a silly reason to retaliate against him.
“Is everything okay?” Sandy asked popping her head through the kitchen door.
“Does it look okay?” he asked angrily and gestured to the burnt carcass on the stove. “Why didn’t you come and get me when you smelled it burning?” Shock lit Sandy’s face and Jake felt a rush of regret. “I’m sorry, Sandy,” he said immediately.
Sandy didn’t say another word and went back to the dining room. Jake sighed. He just yelled at the best hostess he was ever going to have and she didn’t deserve one bit of it. He went after her to the dining room and found her standing near the hostess stand, staring out the window motionless.
“Sandy, I am sorry,” Jake whispered. “I didn’t mean to yell at you. I know you were just being kind.”
“I didn’t smell anything,” Sandy replied blandly avoiding Jake’s eyes. “I didn’t know.”
“The kitchen isn’t your responsibility. It’s mine. I was just angry and I took it out on you like an idiot. Please forgive me. I truly feel awful about how I reacted,” Jake said sincerely.
“Okay,” Sandy said simply. He knew she was upset and she had every reason to be after the way he treated her.
“Can you watch the place for a minute?” he asked hopefully. “I’ll be right back and I promise nothing will burn.” He smiled at her hoping to provoke one in return.
“Sure.” Sandy looked down at the stand.
Jake knew he messed up. He walked down the sidewalk outside the restaurant to Victoria’s Flowers as quickly as he could. He hurried into the store, grabbed a bouquet of roses and went to the counter where Victoria was standing.
“Those are nice. I didn’t peg you for a roses kind of guy, Jake.” Victoria chuckled.
“I am when the occasion calls for it and right now it calls for it.” He gave a small smile. He handed over the money and hurried back to the restaurant where Sandy was still standing at the hostess stand.
He offered her the flowers and smiled. “I’m well aware of the fact that I can be a jerk. I promise to never let something like that happen again.”
Sandy took the flowers and finally smiled. She buried her face in the bouquet for a moment before replying. “You didn’t have to get me flowers, Jake. I knew you were just in a bad mood.”
Jake shook his head. “The very least I could do was to get you flowers. Are we okay?” he asked hopefully.
A broad smile filled Sandy’s face. “Yes. Thank you, Jake.”
“No, Sandy, thank you for not walking right out of here like you probably should have,” Jake said sincerely. He saw the joy on Sandy’s face as she admired her flowers and felt relieved.
He went back to the kitchen to deal with the mess he had made and was grateful that at least he was able to fix the one he had made with Sandy. He was certain he would never do that again, in fact, he couldn’t ever remember a time when he yelled at an employee in all his years in the restaurant business. Somehow, Ginger found a way to bring out the worst in him and he needed to figure out a way to not let that spill over onto other people again. He may have a tendency to be crass and could be a jerk sometimes, but he was never mean-spirited towards people who didn’t deserve it. He wasn’t a pushover and would do whatever was necessary to get something done, but he never let things get out of hand and never at the cost of hurting someone else. Jake didn’t like this new development in his personality. He needed to do something fast to make sure it didn’t continue. He walked over to a metal panel near the sink and opened it. He clicked the switch to off. It wasn’t much, but turning off the loop of Christmas music that had been playing outside the restaurant was a start. If he wanted to be worthy of the town’s generosity and get their votes, he’d have to earn it. There had to be a way he could win over the residents in the town in a way that didn’t involve him becoming someone he wasn’t. He remembered the mayor mentioning in the meeting about the need to check on the older residents in town when the temperatures began to drop. This week was supposed to be bitter cold and he could always start doing that and see where it led. He would just have to hope that wherever it did lead would be enough.
Chapter Fifteen
A few days of decent sleep had put Ginger in a much better mood. The first night she realized the music was off, she slept nine hours and right through her alarm. It was only when Sheriff Sam rang her delivery bell in the morning that she awoke. Even when she wasn’t feeling well, she still made sure he was able to get a muffin and some juice for him. He felt bad waking her, but he had been concerned when the bakery was locked. She was grateful he woke her. She probably could’ve slept a few more hours and wouldn’t have accomplished any of the morning duties. She hadn’t overslept since that first night of silence and things were becoming normal again. Ginger wasn’t sure why Jake decided to stop playing the music and she didn’t dare ask. After their fight, she had avoided him. She accomplished what she went there to do, but then somehow their conversation took a turn for the worse and she ended up yelling. She knew as well as anyone she had a temper, but she could keep it under control in most circumstances. For some reason, she couldn’t whenever she was around Jake. She wasn’t sure why she was even so upset. He couldn’t possibly win the contest. She had years of proof of her town pride under her belt and his only achievement so far was a nightmare-inducing Christmas display. Ginger glanced at her watch, it was near three and she still had a few dozen cookies to make today. She placed the fresh batch of unbaked snickerdoodles into the oven and headed up front. Orders were slower this week, but the lull was just a chance to catch up on other duties. Once it got closer to Christmas, things would pick back up. She busied herself with organizing the upcoming orders for next week. When the timer went off, she pulled out the crisp and light cookies and placed them on a cooling rack. She heard the door chime upfront hurried to greet the customer. To her surprise, it was a kid she’d never met before. She looked out the front window, but no one seemed to be waiting for her and she was alone. The girl crouched down in front of her display case and surveyed the bakery.
“Can I get you anything?” Ginger asked. The girl hadn’t heard Ginger approach and was a bit startled when she spoke.
“I was just looking at your stuff. I was outside and then I smelled the most amazing aroma and had to come to investigate.” The girl spoke forcefully, but there wasn’t a hint of rudeness in her voice.
“I just made some snickerdoodles,” Ginger said and smiled.
“That must be it. I was outside looking at the Christmas display next door and when I smelled the cookies, I forgot about everything I was doing and just had to come inside,” the girl explained. “I’m Kacie. I take it you’re the Ginger from the sign.”
“Yes, I’m Ginger. It sounds like you caught onto my little trick.” Ginger winked. “If someone wa
lks past when I’m baking, I can usually get them to stop in and buy something.”
“It must work a lot.” The girl smiled at Ginger revealing her braces.
She couldn’t have been more than twelve judging from her appearance. She had her dark hair pulled back into a frizzy ponytail and her feet seemed a bit too large for her body indicating she was right in the middle of that awkward phase of life. The girl seemed unfazed by the changes and Ginger silently wished she had been the same at her age. The tall redhead in the class stood out a bit more than she liked to remember.
“Do you have relatives in town or are you just visiting?” Ginger asked.
“Both, I guess. I’m staying at the Inn.” She looked up from the display case.
Ginger knew every kid who lived in town and she wasn’t surprised by the fact she was visiting. There was a lot more traffic from people outside of town these days since the Inn was doing so well. Kacie’s parents were probably down the road in another store shopping. She didn’t fault the girl for getting bored.
“I love the Inn. It’s so pretty there, especially this time of year,” Ginger said.
“It’s great. I love all the Christmas lights and I’ve never stayed at a tree farm before. In fact, I’ve never even been to one before. Don’t you think they need horses there? I think they need horses. It would be a perfect place if only they had a stable.”
Ginger realized it was self-confidence that made Kacie speak so forcefully. “I hadn’t really considered it. Do you like horses?”
“I love them. I’ve been taking riding lessons and I’m getting better. I want to enter shows, but you have to be very good to do something like that. There is a summer equestrian program out of state that I want to attend. Do you ride?” Kacie asked and stared intently at Ginger.
“I can’t say that I do. It takes special skills to do all those tricks and jumping and I have trouble even staying on a horse. Do you have your own horse?”
“No, but my stepdad was talking about getting me one. He just married my mom last year and he’s still at that point where he thinks he has to buy me things for me to like him. I keep trying to tell him that I already like him, but he still gets me stuff. It’ll just take time for him to get used to having a kid,” she said thoughtfully. “My dad is the complete opposite. When my stepdad and my mom said they’d pay for the summer program, he told them I had to earn the money for it if I wanted to go.”
She was pretty astute for such a young girl. Ginger didn’t doubt for a moment that her observations about her parents were correct. “I think it’s better to earn things, don’t you? It seems like you appreciate it more.”
Kacie nodded. “I agree. Kind of like a movie or book with all kinds of twists and turns. You watch the whole thing trying to figure it out and get rewarded at the end when it’s not at all like you thought,” Kacie said. “But I also like those movies where they tell you what happens at the end in the first scene and then you find out what happened throughout the movie to get to that scene.”
Ginger bit back a smile, she didn’t want Kacie to think she was laughing at her because she was thoroughly enjoying their conversation. She was just smiling because it was fun to listen to how quickly Kacie’s mind worked.
“I like those movies, too. If you like twisty plots, you should read Agatha Christie books. Those are some of my favorites. They will definitely keep you guessing until the end.”
“I’ll have to check them out. Thank you for the suggestion.” Kacie smiled happily. Ginger had a feeling she would actually do it, too.
“Hey, do you want to try one of those snickerdoodles? They should be cooled enough by now.”
“Really? That would be great!” Kacie said excitedly.
Ginger went to the kitchen and placed a snickerdoodle on a napkin and brought it back up front for her. Kacie’s eyes lit up with delight when Ginger handed her the cookie. Ginger watched as she took a bite.
“This is so good,” Kacie said with a mouthful of cookie. She finished her bite. “I like to cook, but I’m still learning how.”
Ginger grabbed a bag from the counter and opened the display case. “How about I give you a couple of things and you can try them later and tell me which is your favorite?” She chose a few things and placed them in the bag.
“I don’t have any money,” Kacie said sadly.
“I wouldn’t take it if you did,” Ginger said. “You need to save your money for your equestrian training. When you are a world-class rider, I’ll have you come back and sign autographs for the customers.” Ginger smiled and handed her the bag of goodies.
Kacie happily took them. “It’s a deal.” She opened the bag a little and peeked inside. “If they are anything like the snickerdoodle, I have a feeling it’ll be hard to choose my favorite.”
The chime on the door rang and Ginger looked up to see an agitated Jake barging into the bakery.
“You said you were just going to go outside for a minute and you’d be right back. I had no idea where you were, Kacie. You can’t just wander off like that!” Jake said frantically.
“Relax, Dad. I haven’t been gone that long and I wasn’t wandering. I was talking to Ginger,” Kacie said.
Ginger looked from Jake to Kacie. How had she not noticed the striking resemblance? They even had the same dark eyes and hair. Ginger saw the look of worry on Jake’s face relax upon seeing Kacie safe. Ginger stared at Jake in stunned silence. Her new self-confident, quirky, little friend was Jake’s daughter. Who needed movies and books? Ginger realized real life already had plenty of twists and turns.
Chapter Sixteen
Jake panicked when Kacie was not where he thought she’d be. He was glad she was safe, but to see her happily chatting with the one person in town that he vowed to avoid caused him irritation. He knew they were no longer in the city and the small town was infinitely safer, but she was still just a kid and it was against the rules to not let him know where she was going.
“Kacie, you knew I was cooking us dinner. I went to look for you when it was done and I couldn’t find you anywhere. You don’t know your way around here yet. I don’t want you to get lost,” Jake said sternly. He didn’t really know his way around well either and knew firsthand that it was easy to get lost in town.
“I’m sorry, Dad, but I couldn’t help myself. I was looking at the Christmas decorations you put up and then I got distracted by the cookie smell,” Kacie apologized. “Besides, you are terrible at decorating,” she said and gave him a serious look. “You should have asked for some help. I bet Ginger would have helped if you had asked her.”
“My display is just fine,” Jake said through gritted teeth. He noticed a smile cross Ginger’s lips for a moment. He had a feeling she was enjoying his daughter’s opinion of the disaster in front of the restaurant. “You were supposed to finish wrapping the silverware. If you want me to pay you for it so you can go to that horse school, you have to finish.”
“It’s equestrian school.” Kacie turned to Ginger. “He keeps calling it horse school, it doesn’t matter how many times I correct him.”
“It’s horse school. Now go finish your job or else you won’t be going to horse school.” He pointed to the door. He knew what it was called. A father’s job was not only to raise and nurture, but to also aggravate their children. He was determined to be the best at all three. When Kacie gave him an exasperated look, he repeated his command. “Go!”
“It was nice to meet you, Ginger. Thank you for the cookies. I’ll let you know which one is my favorite. I won’t forget about the books, either.” Kacie smiled happily.
“It was very nice to meet you, too,” Ginger said smiled at his daughter pleasantly as she reluctantly left.
Jake turned his attention to Ginger and instantly became defensive. He was sure she’d have some comment to make about him letting his daughter out of his sight or complain that he had sent her there to distract her. If she thought he’d stand for any rudeness regarding his daughter, she’d be
sorely mistaken.
“I’m sorry she bothered you. It won’t happen again,” he said evenly.
Ginger’s smile faded, but there was no anger in her voice. “She’s great, Jake.”
He nodded in agreement. He didn’t expect the sincerity in her voice. Kacie did have a way of making people adore her, but he was sure the animosity between them would prevent her from noticing. “She is. That’s mostly her mother’s doing.”
“Not from what she says. It sounded to me like you are a big part of that, too,” Ginger said softly. “I didn’t realize you had a daughter, but I guess I don’t know all that much about you.”
Jake knew Ginger was right, she didn’t know anything about him, but in fairness, he didn’t know much about her either. “I don’t get to see her as often as I’d like, but I’m hoping that will change now that I’m here.”
“Does she live nearby?”
“My ex and her new husband moved last year about an hour away from here. Kacie’s mom got a new job and it was a great opportunity for her so she had to go. I just couldn’t bear the thought of being too far away from Kacie, so I moved, too.”
“An hour away is still kind of far. Why didn’t you move closer?” Ginger asked.
“Her mom and I are still friends, but she just got married. What guy would want his wife’s ex-husband following them to a new town?” He gave a little laugh. “They should have their space.”
“I guess that’s true.” Ginger gave a small smile. “She’s really excited about equestrian school.”
“Horse school,” Jake corrected her and Ginger’s smile widened. “That’s all she talks about right now. I’m pretty sure she’ll be getting a horse for Christmas from her mom and stepfather. After that, I’ll really never hear the end of it.” Jake shrugged. “They have the room for a horse, though, and she is really good at it.”