One Summer: ...at Charlie's Diner (The Baker Girl Book 1)
Page 19
“Well, I thought about my parents. But Dad is investing a lot in a design of a new micro-chip, and the real estate market has really turned down. Mom’s appointment book is practically empty. I doubt they’d be investing in anything right now.”
“You really can’t call it an investment. Anonymous isn’t exactly an investor of record. I saw you sketching before we left the diner. A character for your new job?”
Ty reached in his pocket, pulled out the folded placemat, handed it to her. He didn’t look at her just kept staring at the moon.
Star unfolded the paper, pressed out the folds. Lips turning up, her finger traced his pen strokes of a Kewpie doll standing in front of a bakery display case. The glass shelves held plates of cookies—bourbon balls, chocolate-cocoanut rounds. The cookies she baked in the finals of the competition. Sitting on top of the case were three apothecary jars filled with taffy pieces wrapped in wax paper, ends twisted. The little baker girl was smiling, a puffy white baker hat on her head, slipping to the side. She was holding out a striped piece of peppermint taffy.
Reaching for Ty’s hand as she looked at the cartoon, Star whispered, “It’s perfect. After Gran and I get the little bakery set up, I’m framing this. It will be the first thing I hang on the wall.”
“Oh. I’ll draw another one. This has folds, and I dribbled a spot of coffee, and now there’s sand and—”
“Ty, I said it’s perfect. Perfect—folds, spot, and sand. Our night.”
Ty stood, grasped her hand, pulling her up, slowly wrapping her in his arms. His embrace was one to be held in memory—slow and warm. Star reached up, hands on his cheeks, kissing his lips softly.
“I’ll miss you, Ty. Will you send me a message … when you have time? I’d love to hear about the characters dancing through your head.”
“Only if you promise to do the same … little baker girl. It’s been quite a summer … and now we’re … promise you’ll tell me if you get any more anonymous envelopes.” Ty chuckled. “And, I’ll be back for one of your meatball mini-tarts with spicy cranberry sauce.”
“Ty, I’m going to miss you. I mean … really miss you.”
He splayed his fingers over her cheeks, looked into her eyes, brushed his lips across hers, drew her tight.
Standing, not wanting to let go, wanting to remember the moment, etching it into their being, they finally let their arms drop.
Star dug her toe in the sand. Her heart beating so fast she could hardly breathe. Her eyes on the sand. “Ty, will you come home … come home for the holidays?”
“Do you want me to?”
“More than I can say. Will you?”
Tyler gently lifted her chin so her eyes were looking into his. “Yes. I’ll be back for the holidays.”
“Promise?”
“Oh, yeah. I promise!”
The End
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Acknowledgements
Three girl friends took up the challenge to come up with a story line for a diner waitress. They came through with flying colors. Thank you: Marcia Campbell, Peggy Keeney, Jeanne O’Brien, herein known as The Diner Sleuths.
Peggy Keeney – thanks again for hanging in there with me. Your keen eye and astute perspective are invaluable.
Geri Rogers—thanks for the research at the diner, the Butterworth Sisters, the author photo, manuscript review … and, as always, your support.
Molly Tredwell—thank you, my supporter in chief, always looking at the big picture.
Roger and Pat Grady—thanks for your help and honest assessment. I appreciate your time spent on my projects.
Lois Gerber – thank you for accompanying me on a research project—above and beyond the definition of writer buddy.
Journey Into America, The Challenge of Islam, Akbar Ahmed, 2010, The Brookings Institution Press, Washington, D.C.
Saffron Dreams, Shaila Abdullah, 2009, Modern History Press, USA
The American Baking Competition, Season 1, CBS, Reality television, 2013.
Author Notes
With each novel Mary Jane Forbes embarks on a new journey, a journey with old friends, making new friends along the way. She also sets out with a goal to learn more about something currently in the news. One Summer was such a journey. After a few false starts, the three main characters emerged—it then became their journey and Mary Jane held on for the ride.
Copyright
ONE SUMMER
Copyright © 2014/ 2017 by Mary Jane Forbes
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, names, locations, incidents, organizations, and dialogue in this novel are either the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author.
ISBN: 978-0692284872 (sc)
Printed in the United States of America
Todd Book Publications: 9/2014
Port Orange, Florida
Author photo: Geri Rogers
Cover re-design 2017: Mary Jane Forbes
© Cleaper | Dreamstime.com –
Retro Vintage American Diner And Jukebox Photo
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… Holiday Short Story
Will a magical kiss change Bessie’s life forever?
The Christmas holidays arrive on Bessie’s magical mountain. Magical because her village awakes on December first and goes back to sleep at the stroke of midnight Christmas Eve.
Little did twenty-one year old Bessie know that today, when the ten-o’clock train rolls to a stop at the summit of the snow-covered mountain, Matthew, a handsome stranger, will climb down from the coach car and enter her world. Bessie’s father warns her she can only be Matthew’s friend. Time is short on the mountain, and he must leave on the midnight train.
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If you like the Cinderella and Snow White stories, you’ll love Once Upon a Christmas Eve. This short story combines the scent of Christmas cookies baking, twinkling tree lights, and the struggles of young love.
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NOVELS BY MARY JANE FORBES
Bradley Farm / Sadie / Finn/ Jeli / Marshall / Georgie
If you love a series, each book building on the one before, if your curiosity is peaked with the accumulation of clues leading you through mystery intrigue and romance, then the Bradley Farm Series is for you. Follow the lives of the Bradley clan and their
travels around the world. Each book features one of the siblings, a standalone story to be read in any order, but richer in the context of the Bradley family.
Elizabeth Stitchway
Private Eye
The Mailbox / Black Magic / The Painter / Twister
Elizabeth Stitchway, mail carrier, did not know that in the span of a few minutes on this day a hurricane would slam her mail truck into a flooding canal, that a body careening down in the rushing water would be snagged by her half submerged vehicle, or that a stranger would come to her rescue only to disappear before the police arrived on the scene. Little did she know that these events would catapult her into her dream of one day becoming a private investigator.
The Baker Girl Series with Elizabeth Stitchway
One Summer / Promises
Over the summer, Star engages with old friends, enters a baking competition, and finds love. Promises finds Star and her grandmother, and diner friends engaged in opening a bakery. She believes she has finally found true love only to be pulled apart by events, distance, and life-long dreams. She asks herself, “Can promises given in the heat of passion be kept?”
Murder by Design Series
Murder by Design / Labeled in Seattle / Choices
Gillianne Wilder, twenty-one, a girl from the sticks of western Washington, struggles to bring her dream to reality as a fashion designer. Lack of money is a high hurdle. Working as a casino barmaid, she saves her tips to take classes in Seattle. The redhead keeps her eye on the prize, leaving men smitten with her beauty in her wake from Seattle to Paris.
Twists of Fate
The Fisherman / The Witness / Twists of Fate
Commercial fisherman Mac Macintyre’s world is torn apart when he almost loses his life in a storm out at sea. When Dr. Maria Grayson operates to save his life, she soon finds herself in his arms violating her rule never to get involved with a patient. Can Mac and Maria overcome the obstacles and open their hearts to each other as their worlds collide with murder and mayhem?
House of Beads Mystery Series
Murder in the House of Beads / Intercept / Checkmate / Identity Theft
Catherine Hainsworth, a socialite living in Daytona Beach, Florida, finds herself in the middle of a murder investigation. A police captain and an FBI agent enter the scene, both falling for the beautiful blond. Throughout the series, the officers vie for Catherine’s affection as they cope with drug smugglers, terrorists, and even murder in the race for the Triple Crown.
MORE NOVELS BY MARY JANE FORBES
The Baby Quilt The Message
The Baby Quilt
Melanie Beckett has a fear of being abandoned—her mother was killed by a hit-and-run driver and her father disappeared on the same day. She accidentally finds a foreclosed house that matches the only material object from her past—a photograph of her mother and father standing in front of this house holding a baby wrapped in a quilt made of pastel cotton scraps—she is that baby. Drawn to buy the house, she soon discovers a hidden trunk containing the baby quilt in her photo, a pouch with a gold nugget and a locket.
The Message
Nine-year-old Rawly Scott pokes a message into a wine bottle sealing the cork with wax melting on his grandmother’s stove. The next morning he tosses the bottle into the outgoing tide off Newburyport, Massachusetts, watching until it disappears in the sparkling surf. One year later a young French girl, Leigh Dobrev, finds Rawly’s bottle while on the beach south west of Paris. Leigh did as Rawly’s message in the bottle requested—Call me! Coincidences abound: both are with their grandmothers on the beach, the discovery; same age; same first name (Rawleigh, nicknamed Rawly, and Leigh).
SHORT STORIES BY MARY JANE FORBES
Once Upon a Christmas Eve
The Christmas Angel
RJ the Little Hero
Excerpt, Promises
Book 2, Baker Girl Series
Prologue
STAR SPREAD A LARGE towel on the warm Daytona Beach sand. Breathing in the salty air she gazed out over the horizon. No boats. No body-surfers. It was early. A jogger passed. Then a dog walker. Squinting, she tugged at her pink visor blocking the sun’s brilliant rays. She dropped her yellow shirt, stretched out on the towel in her bikini, hands resting loosely on her stomach. Releasing a long sigh, a feeling of contentment washed over her body with the sound of the surf rolling gently up on the sand.
So peaceful.
Charlie’s Diner, where she worked as a short-order cook over the summer, closed yesterday. Her Gran had urged her to take a few hours to decompress before tackling her plans to open a bakery.
The diner.
Her lips spread into a smile as she thought of all of her friends, the regulars at the diner. Benny, his wheelchair always giving him fits at the top of the handicap ramp as he struggled to navigate the diner’s front door. Note to self—make sure Benny can roll into the bakery.
The Butterworth sisters … so much fun with their ever-changing T-shirts announcing a new diet, or new dance class, or new adventure.
Eyes closed, Star grinned thinking how lucky she was that Jane, who funded her courses in culinary arts at the local college, had frequented the diner for breakfast with her niece and her husband—Liz and Manny, private investigators. Star had known them only in passing, but over the summer the two PIs had helped big time with Ash.
Ash …
A brief summer crush? Her heart still skipped a beat thinking about him. But he had moved on and she doubted she would see him again. They traded emails twice and that was it.
A scowl crossed her face remembering the filming of the TV reality series—Amateur Bake-off Competition. She won the bake-off but lost the money. The fifty thousand dollar grand prize never materialized, never awarded to her, thanks to Jim and Stephanie, the competition producers. What charlatans. Although … she was sure the producers didn’t want the pilot TV show to end up the way it did. Still she desperately wanted to win the competition, win the money to finance a bakery business. The dream again elusive.
Elusive until a mysterious turn of events. Someone, an anonymous someone, left an envelope by the diner’s cash register with her name it. After a busy shift cooking up meat tartlets with cranberry glaze, she had opened the envelope and found a check inside. A check made out to Star Bloom for a hundred thousand dollars. The thought of the check still sent shock waves through her system. Who was anonymous? She hoped to find out someday.
She pushed up on her elbows hearing two little girls squeal as a chilly wave rolled over their toes. Sighing, Star turned over on her stomach, her idle thoughts returning.
The money had immediately turned her life from a downward spiral to a spike upward, sky high. She suddenly had the money to open a little bakery. The dream-bubble had not been pricked after all. It was still intact.
Thoughts of the bakery and her to-do list charged into her head. Thank heaven for Mary Bloom, her grandmother. Without Gran, even with the money, Star didn’t think she could pull off a new business.
She rolled over again onto her back. Umm, the sun feels good, soothing on my skin.
Tyler …
Star sat up, hugged her knees as she gazed out at the sparkling surf of the Atlantic Ocean. She missed him. How much she missed him had caught her off guard. The vacant spot he left in her thoughts was overwhelming. The minute he was gone she felt empty.
The bony cartoonist had captured her friendship the first day she stepped into the diner to apply for the job posted in the window. A close bond developed that never left her … his encouragement, help and, of course, his cartoons. Now he was in California, hired by an animation company with a contract from DreamWorks for a piece of a new animated film project.
Thinking of Tyler always brought a smile to her lips and a tug at her heart. Even though he promised to come back home for the holidays she wondered if he really could, if he really meant it, if …
Two tanned Tarzans, surfboards under their arms strolled by. One whistled at the pretty blo
nd in the blue and white polka dot bikini sitting on the beach towel. He elbowed his friend to take a look. Grinning they darted into the water, began paddling out to find a wave.
Following in their wake, two children, holding kite strings tightly in their little hands, ran by, kicking up sand. Star smiled, so many adventures lie ahead for those children …
Refreshed, eager to start her own adventure, Star brushed the sand from her legs, punched her fists through the sleeves of the yellow shirt, folded the towel, and strutted up the beach to Atlantic Avenue to meet Gran. They had an appointment to sign the lease for her new business—Star’s Bakery.
…
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