by Aubrey Cara
“Thanks Sally. I’m sorry I’ve been spacing out so much. I’m not a flake I swear.”
“I know hon, no worries. Macy and I were going crazy with always having to be here. You’ve been a great help. Macy’s even thinking of starting up that yoga studio she’s always wanted. ”
Macy, once a business lawyer, experienced some health complication that set her on a new life journey to being relaxed and happy. Hearing that she had made a contribution of usefulness did make her feel a bit better as she washed her hands and walked out front.
She pushed through the swinging door, out of the cold dough smell and into the sweet rich aroma of the bakery. Warmly embraced by the rich scents of coffee and sweet decadence of the baked goods lining the display cases, she felt all her tension ease.
Nose pressed against the glass, perusing the display of donuts, croissants, scones, baklava, tortes, petit fours, strudel and today’s special quiche, was a young man that looked to be between ten and twelve years of age. With dark hair, dark eyes ,and sharp features he looked to be either Native American or Hispanic.
“Looking for anything specific?”
Not hearing her approach the boy jumped a little as he brought up his big brown-eyed gaze. “Umm, no. Well, yeah, maybe in a way.”
She smiled at his awkwardness. He was a handsome kid but he just looked so flustered. She leaned against the counter grinning and asked, “Okay, so how 'bout you tell me what made you want to come in?”
“Well,” he said this looking around and out the window. “I’m supposed to be getting some coffee and donuts for my old man, but do you think you might need someone to sweep the floors or something? Like a job? I wouldn’t need to be paid or anything. Well, I would like to get paid, but it’s more to show my old man I’m responsible. If I could prove I’m old enough to work maybe then my dad would get me a dog, and I really want a dog. He says he’s not around enough to take care of a dog and that I’m not ready, but he’s not ever around enough to know if I'm ready or not.”
She held up a hand to pause the young man's rambling. She didn’t have to be talked into anything. She was sold on this kid the second he said he wanted to be responsible to get a dog. He stole her heart the second he said his old man wasn’t around a lot. Holding out her hand she introduced herself. “I’m Delia, but most people call me Del.”
“I’m Steven. My friends call me Stevie but I’m trying to get everyone to call me Steven. I think it sounds manlier.”
She cracked a smile, absolutely smitten. “Well Steven, I’ll let you sweep, take out the trash, and stuff like that, but I’m going to have to talk to the owners. I just work here, so I can’t officially hire you. But if Sally and Macy, the owners, don’t hire you I would still let you hang out and help with stuff. We're pretty busy in the morning, but why don’t you come in this afternoon after I’ve had time talk to the ladies?”
Steven held out his hand, “Deal!”
“Ok, how bout that coffee and donuts?”
The bell on the front door jangled, bringing her head up from pouring the coffee in a to-go mug. The sight that met her eyes almost made her hand slip off the coffee pot handle. Striding across the shop's small space, walking past mismatched tables and chairs, was none other than the object of her irksome daydreams. Jake Forrester. Smiling, he didn’t even notice her as he walked up to Steven, ruffling his hair. Steven pulled a face indicating he was much too old for that kind of treatment. “Daaad, not the hair!” Steven complained.
Oh God, she thought, this was Steven's negligent ‘old man’?
“What? Did you order me some coffee? Pick out some donuts for us?”
“Dad, they have everything here! I’m thinking we should try these quiche pockets, they look good. You are always saying we need to be healthier.”
“Mmm those do sound good, what do you…”
Whatever he was going to say cut off as his gaze wandered up from perusing the display case and locked straight on her. A slow smile spread across his face causing her to flush and clear her throat, even though neither had yet spoken. Wearing his navy work uniform with his chocolate brown hair windblown tousled, Jake Forrester looked yummier than anything the bakery was serving. She gulped, trying desperately to slow her speeding pulse.
“I was beginning to wonder if I’d see you again,” he said.
“Did you get the money I sent?” she said with an embarrassing throaty quality to her voice. Oh dear God, Delia thought, snap out of it! Unprepared for this meeting, she inched toward the door leading into the kitchen, the need to bolt growing by the second.
“Yep, got the money you sent in the very nice Thank You card, along with your apology. Did you have to send it through the station? They're still ribbing me about that.”
She winced, “Sorry about that, I didn’t know where else to send it.” Nervously she pushed a stray lock of hair behind her ear and backed another inch hoping they weren’t noticing her slow retreat.
Looking from his dad to her, Steven interjected, “Do you two know each other?
She replied “No” right as Jake said “Yes,” which left them both looking at each other with some disgruntlement.
“So which is it?” Steven asked.
The need to flee was frantic now, her heart sounding loud to her ears. “St-St-Steven,” she was stuttering, never a good sign.“I’ll see you after school. I’m being called from the back, the oven timer is going off.”
Jake looked slightly amused. Steven looked confused, “I don’t hear anything.”
Now making large backward steps toward the kitchen doors and salvation, she called out over her shoulder, “Coming, I’ll be right there!” Giving a nervous laugh, she made one last wave of her hand that looked more like a shooing motion. She quickly pivoted turning right into Sally, who was coming through the swinging door having heard Delia call from the front.
Sally only got out a, “Del, what the?” before Delia, not skipping a beat, said in an over loud voice, “Sally, I said I’d be right there!” All the while half pushing, half lifting the much bigger, baffled Sally through the door. The door barely swung shut before Sally started questioning her.
“What the hell was that? I heard you call from the front.” Noticing her hunched over with her hands on her knees, breathing hard, Sally asked “Are you hyperventilating? Oh, crap Del, don’t have a panic attack on me. Macy is much better with this kind of thing.”
Gulping large amounts of air, Delia shook her head in a ‘no’ gesture and gave Sally a 'one minute' sign with her hand. Mouth opened to tell Sally she was fine she remembered she hadn’t given the Forresters their coffee and pastries they had come in for.
The Forresters. Jake had a son. Well, of course he did, she mused. He was a healthy, virile, gorgeous man. Was there a Mrs. Forrester? She hadn’t noticed a ring, but that didn’t mean anything. Lots of men didn’t wear rings. When Connar was in Asia he certainly wasn’t concerned about having a wife at home. Oh God, how she hoped he wasn’t married.
“Oh, God I don’t want to be a home wrecker,” she said.
“Whose home you been wrecking?” She hadn’t realized she had spoken the thought until Sally broke through her reverie.
“I didn’t do anything,” she said defensively. Nothing except fantasize.
“I never said you did. Are you going to tell me what the heck’s going on?”
“Sally, I promise I will, but right now I need you to go out front. We have customers and I just can’t go out there.”
Sally muttered an “Obviously,” while wiping her hands on her stained apron, walking through the swinging door that led to the front.
*** ***
The large woman with multicolored dreads little Ms. Delia Myers had practically carried through the door, came out front. She was a giant of a woman standing almost as tall as Jake and quite a bit wider. The sight of Delia's panicked flight, and trying to carry this big woman, gave him a chuckle. If Ms. Myers' reaction was any indication he was definitely under her skin. Tak
ing one look at him the large woman made an “O” with her mouth and nodded to herself as if some inner wonderment had been answered.
Chuckling, the big eccentric woman asked, “So gentlemen, what’s your poison?”
Steven’s eyes were huge as he stared up at the bizarre looking woman with her pierced eyebrow, nose and lip, and ordered his quiche.
“Sweetie close your mouth, it’s not nice to stare. Could I get you anything else, perhaps something for the missus?” She said this with a glint in her eye and a false southern charm not missed by Jake.
“Nope, no missus,” he said. He noticed Steven roll his eyes, having heard this before.
“Oh, well that’s too bad,” she said with a beaming smile contradicting her statement. She handed the quiches and coffee over the counter before ringing them up, giving Steven a smile and wink.
He and Steven were at the door when he turned around. He just couldn’t leave without saying one last thing. “Hey, tell Delia I’ll be back in later this week to say hi and catch up. Tell her no running this time.”
The woman behind the counter raised a pierced brow. With lips pursed she said, “Whatever you say Tex,” as Jake turned and walked out.
Stevie turned, “How did she know we’re from Texas?”
Stepping out the bakery door Jake shrugged, “I think it was just an expression.” He took one last whiff of the homey aroma filled air of the bakery, holding it in his lungs so as not to lose it. The smell swirling around him reminded him of Delia’s sweet smell. Try as he might, the smells of the street broke through his olfactory indulgence as he moved down the sidewalk. Not even that was enough to break through his reverie. With his box of quiche and cup of coffee in hand, each step he took he felt lighter, filled with a growing giddiness. He’d finally found her. Well, he thought, more like the universe dropped her in his lap. Delia in his lap, now that’s a nice thought.
A day hadn’t gone by without stray thoughts of her. Two months ago when her thank you card had come into the station he went so far as to trace the return address. To his frustration the home was already emptied out, a for sale sign in the yard. She had fast become an obsession to him.
“Dibs” said Steven, glaring up at his father.
Pulled from his thoughts, Jake realized he had forgotten he was walking with Steven to school. Looking down at his son he asked, “Dibs on what? What are you claiming son?”
“Delia. You can’t have her.”
Jake’s chuckle died as he looked at Steven’s earnest face. “Whoa there buckaroo, you do know you are eleven and you can’t have her either?”
“I like her and I’m going to work with her and I don’t want you to ruin it. That’s what you do when you get involved with women. You ruin them. They go batty. That’s why we had to leave Texas. And I’m almost twelve. I’m not your ‘buckaroo’ any more, Dad.”
“Steven.”
“No Dad, I see things. I hear what’s going on. A deaf blind man would be able to see and hear your effect on women. They get all stupid and drooly around you. You only date them for a week or two, break it off, then it never goes well from there. We’ve been stalked, had our house broken into, firebombed,”
“That was once, and I didn’t realize she had a record for arson.”
Steven just raised a brow, giving his father a look that spoke beyond his years as he kept ticking off fingers, “There was that lady that tracked me down at school because she was ‘concerned’ about you, which brings me to my teacher Ms. Rumchek. Highly inappropriate Dad.”
“A second grade teacher shouldn’t have been where I picked her up. That’s highly inappropriate and misrepresenting!”
“Oh and don’t get me started on that Desmona chick who used to hold me to her bosom and cry every time she saw me.” Screwing up his face in a tragic re-enactment he put his hands to his chest, “Oh, you poor orphan boy, I will be your mother.” Then he went on to ramble in Spanish as Desmona was one to do. “I have flashbacks whenever I catch a whiff anyone wearing that perfume. I’m traumatized dad!”
“Ok, you’ve made your point. No need for the dramatics.”
“That Delia chick was sweet and nice and she smells good Dad.” He couldn’t argue with that. “And she was going to help me get a job there. Then you walked in and messed up everything. She’s going to be different toward me now that she knows I’m your kid, I know it!”
“Steven.”
“I’ll walk to school on my own today, see you later Dad.” Looking near tears Steven took off at a trot, disappearing around the corner of a building.
“Wait, did he say he’s getting a job?” Jake muttered.
“That he did.”
Having been talking to himself, he was startled enough to jump when Old Peg’s gravelly voice answered. He should have been warned of her presence by the cloying smell of cigarettes in the air.
“Yep, I have that effect on men.”
He swallowed his chuckle. “Peg, what are you doing here?”
“On my way to Two Tarts for coffee and to pick up some baklava for later. I got a date with Ole Milburn. You ever try it?”
“Dating Ole Milburn?”
“Don’t get smart mouthed Pretty Boy. You know I’m talking about the baklava. I’d punch a duck in the nuts for that baklava, it’s so good. Those Two Tart gals know what they’re about, catchy name too. So…firebomb huh?”
“You heard that?”
“Hard to miss, handsome.” With that Peg patted his tush and was on her way.
CHAPTER FOUR
The early afternoon customers were all settled in with coffee and pastries while Delia swept and cleaned the area behind the counter. This was her favorite time of day, the rush of the morning having wound down.
The usual crowd sitting around the tables consisted mostly of young twenty-somethings hanging out or working furiously at their laptops. Quickly becoming the hangout for the college crowd living in the area, the laid back atmosphere of Two Tarts gave them a trendy place to congress close to home. Now that it was mid-May, she was sure quite a bit of studying for finals was going on.
Things had picked up after Jake left, giving her no time to reflect on their encounter. Not that she wanted to reflect on how that man made her heart beat pick up with a yearning…she shook herself, yearning to throw something at his head! She had to stop thinking about the man. She was as sure as her mama loved bourbon that Jake Forrester was trouble and would cause her nothing but heartache.
Now that things had slowed down she knew Sally would be curious about this morning. She only hoped the arrival of Macy’s little sister would leave Sally too distracted to interrogate her.
She was to have no such luck as Macy, a plump brunette, and Sally filed out of the back through the swinging door. Sally skipped introductions and went straight to “Don’t think I haven’t forgotten this morning.” Was the woman a mind reader?
“Sal, at least let me introduce Katherine before we have Del tell us about Sergeant Sexy.” Macy said this last bit waggling her eyebrows.
Great does everyone know? Delia gave Sally a mutinous glare.
“Del this is Katherine. She’ll be staying here for the summer, helping out around here. Katherine this is Del, and no hillbilly jokes. Del comes from a small town and probably wouldn’t appreciate your humor.”
Now that she was really looking at Katherine she realized her hair was more auburn red than brown, the curls just brushing her shoulders. Although pleasantly plump, her curves were perfectly placed with a tiny waist bringing together her generous hips, bottom and a chest Del wasn’t sure if she should be envious of or concerned she may topple.
Along with her naturally beautiful face and big bright eyes she reminded Delia of a fertility goddess statue she once saw on an episode of Antique Road Show.
The same height as herself, Macy’s sister was not tall and couldn’t be more than twenty-five. Delia realized there was quite a bit of an age gap between Macy and Katherine.
E
xtending her hand toward Katherine she said, “Hi.”
“Call me Kat, please,” she said, shaking Delia’s hand. To Macy she added, “You know you sound just like mom when you call me Katherine. And I don’t care what you say, I did hear banjos on the way here! I can’t help you chose to live next to a city that implies a propensity for ‘lynching’ in the name, and a state that has inspired more than a few horror films about inbred ‘mountain folk’. Seriously ladies, no one else gets a tingling of trepidation at that fact?”
This caused Macy to scowl, obviously not appreciating any of the comparisons. “West Virginia, those movies are about West Virginia, Katherine.”
Delia laughed. She didn’t mind Kat’s humor. As Kat, smiled a taunting younger sibling smile, Delia couldn’t help thinking she was going to like Kat. She would definitely stir things up a bit.
“Okay, enough with the pleasantries. What’s the scoop?” Sally said.
“Ooooh, yeah,” said Macy turning her gaze to Delia. “Sally said you practically carried her to the back to get away from this guy. So what’s the story?” This said, the three women stared with eager anticipation.
She felt like a cornered rabbit, “No story, really,” she said with a nonchalant shrug.
“Oh, please! Come on Del, we’ve never pried.”
Macy rolled her eyes. They both knew Sally had been subtly prying since day one. Delia cut Sally off before she could get into anything long-winded.
“Okay, okay, but it’s really no big deal. Three months or so ago my now ex-husband Connar sent me divorce papers accompanied with a letter letting me know he was staying in Korea with his girlfriend who recently had their baby.” Just saying those words out loud brought a mist of tears to her eyes she blinked back.
She hadn’t talked about any of this since the one recounting she had given Jake Forrester. Giving herself a mental shake she tucked a stray strand of hair behind her ear with a shaky hand. She continued, rushing through the rest of the story with a nonchalance she didn't feel.
“Anyways, I kind of freaked out and hopped in my truck. I remember I had decided to go to Maine in hopes of running away from myself. I was kind of out of my head. I was somewhere by Hope Springs and another truck hit my truck. Captain Forrester was the officer on the scene. That’s all.”