“All right, you’re hired!” Gen said. “You get one week’s training.”
“That was fast. What made you decide?”
“Of course I trust you because you’re Mrs. Paulsen’s granddaughter, but also Wallace said that if I hired someone today he’d give me the best foot rub of my life tonight. And he gives really good … foot rubs.” She blushed.
“I bet he does.”
Diana bought a baker’s dozen donuts, and headed out the door to Gran’s. She had a job at a bakery which seemed to be the heart of the town. Sooner or later she’d meet every person in town and they’d see that she was just like them. Not an Internet sensation but a real person with feelings.
For the first time since the fire, she thought maybe she might make this work.
Chapter 14
Scott was on his forty-eight off and working a remodeling job with a light crew when he stopped in Ed’s Hardware store for a few lug nuts. It was a bright beautiful clear day in early August which did nothing for his mood since the emails had started. Jake’s sister Megan had sent one last night that had severely dampened his mood. He’d had to go out to the garage and pound his punching bag for two hours.
Still hadn’t done the job.
He was standing in line to pay when he got a text from Sophia: My dad remembered my Mom’s birthday.
Good, Scott replied.
Not good. He started crying. Then Eileen started crying.
Shit, Scott texted back. He had firsthand information on how Mom could bawl when she got going. There was always a lot of hugging involved.
I so need to get out of here.
She added a smiley face, which had to be good. He slipped his phone back into his pocket. Once Scott paid for his purchases, he stopped by the bakery to pick up lunch since Gen had said she wouldn’t be able to stop by the work site today. He waited in line with everyone else.
“…all I’m saying is that it makes me wonder,” Debbie White was saying. “She’s from out of town, you know. Los Angeles. Do I have to say anymore?”
“Loose morals, that’s what it is,” Lorena said. “She has no class.”
“Of course, Brenda is by far the better choice.”
“It’s a no-brainer.”
It was one thing for him to live in this town of busy bodies but he hated to hear anyone gossip about Diana. They didn’t know her at all. Scott cleared his throat and both women turned to him. They had the decency to look embarrassed.
“Scott. Nice to see you,” Debbie mumbled.
“Hi ladies. I know it’s tempting to gossip, but maybe you could for once mind your own business.”
“I’m a friend of your mother’s!” Lorena wagged her finger.
“I’ll tell her you said hello.”
“We’re only trying to look out for you,” Debbie said.
“I can look out for myself, thanks.” He opened the door for them, eager to help them leave. With the shop empty, he turned to Gen. “Sorry, but they had it coming.”
“No worries,” Gen said, handing him a box. “I’m totally Team Diana.”
He shut his eyes. “There are no teams.”
“Whatever you say.” She smiled. “She’s working for me now.”
“Since when?”
“I hired her this morning. She’s going to take the early shift for me. I’ve been so tired lately and Wallace thought it would be a good idea.”
“I know she needed a job. I was going to send her Billy’s way, but this is better.”
Gen nodded. “She sure is beautiful, isn’t she?”
“You can quit matchmaking. I like her, all right?”
“Oh, good! Hey, I’m pretty good at this. My first time out the gate and I picked a winner.”
“Don’t get too cocky. We’re not dating or anything.”
“No, she said she wouldn’t date until she had everything with Mrs. Paulsen settled and found a job and an apartment. Guess she’s two-thirds of the way there now.”
“Right. Look, Gen, we’re just friends. You do know she’s leaving at the end of the summer?”
“That’s what she says.” Gen winked. “But you and I both know you could convince her to stay.”
He didn’t believe that, but even so he didn’t know what he wanted either. Plus he had a few more important things on his mind than great sex with a girl who made him crazy. The Shasta Trinity forest fire had started just yesterday, and they had the rest of the summer to get through. Chances were high that their unit would eventually be called up. There was every possibility that in the driest summer in decades, there would be a hell of a lot more fires to contend with before fall.
Gen placed the order in front of him. “I’d just like to see you happy again. Smiling. Like before.”
Only his immediate family fully understood what ‘before’ meant, even if they never discussed it anymore. He was about as happy as he figured he could be considering the circumstances. What he wanted was a chance to feel useful, a chance to make a difference. At one time, Jake would have understood exactly what Scott meant. He sometimes wondered if Jake had done what he had because he no longer felt he had anything left to offer.
Scott would never let that happen. As long as he had a breath in him, he couldn’t give up trying.
***
Diana’s alarm went off at 3 a.m. and she reached over to hit it, but it wasn’t in its usual place. It kept going off, louder and more insistent. Get up! Get up! Now! The alarm shrieked. Diana rolled around in her sheets, searching, grasping, praying that the noise would stop and she could get back to her dreams.
Scott had been in them, and she’d been in the midst of blowing his mind.
Upstairs, one of her new neighbors hit the floor, a not so subtle hint.
“Yeah, yeah,” Diana threw off the covers and it was only then that she remembered.
Last night, she’d outsmarted herself. She’d put the alarm in the bathroom so that the walk might wake her up enough that she couldn’t hit the alarm and go back to sleep. She staggered to the bathroom, found the alarm and shut it off with a smack. It fell to the floor.
“No apology from me, you bitch.”
Diana showered and dressed quickly, slammed down a mug of coffee and chose to walk to the bakery in the dark. Gen was right in that at this time of the early morning before dawn, she felt like the only person on the planet. Everyone else lay asleep and snuggled in their beds like she wanted to be. She was on an adventure, Diana reminded herself. When she’d dropped by Gran’s yesterday and informed her of the good news, there had been no doubts or concerns. No question as to whether being a part-time baker’s assistant was possibly not the best use of her MFA. Not Gran. She only wanted Diana to be happy.
She wasn’t there yet, but not for lack of effort.
Gen was opening up the shop when Diana arrived at the bakery. Inside, Gen handed Diana her own Southern Sweet Buns frilly white apron, then showed her how to start the industrial sized coffee machine.
“I’ll need all of this for myself,” Diana joked. “What will the customers have?”
Gen seemed too tired to laugh. She sort of gave a halfhearted smile.
“Are you okay?” Diana asked.
“So tired.” Gen yawned.
“Another sleepless night?” Really, why couldn’t Wallace just get happy hour started earlier? It seemed rude to keep Gen up so late, even if it was for the fun reasons.
Gen nodded. “I guess.”
The industrial sized ovens in the back kept the kitchen warm and toasty. Despite the heat of the day, the temperatures had dropped into the high fifties during the night which made standing near the ovens this chilly morning kind of cozy. Soon enough summer would be in her rear view mirror and it would be autumn. She’d be back home, maybe closer to figuring out her life by then.
Gen gave her a quick tutorial of the mixer. “I have batches of flour that I keep ready for some of the recipes to save time. I do the cakes by special order these days. I have an even be
tter kitchen at home that Wallace designed for me.”
Following Gen’s precise recipes, Diana started a batch of bagels followed by some donuts. Then she grabbed another cup of coffee and offered one to Gen.
“No thanks,” Gen said, made a face and yawned again.
To each his own, Diana reasoned and drained her third cup.
By the time six o’clock rolled around, Diana felt like she’d worked an eight hour day. Baking was tough work, but the smells alone were worth the trouble. Within minutes the room was filled with the smells of coffee, fresh baked bread, cinnamon and sugar.
“It’s almost time to open up,” Gen said. “But before that, come with me.”
Diana followed Gen out the back door where to the east the sun rose over a hill. “Baker’s perks. We get to see the sunrise every morning.”
“There’s something I don’t see every day.” The sunrise was a splash of orange and yellow.
“It’s not worth spending your life doing something you don’t enjoy. Right?” Gen said.
“Absolutely,” Diana said, wondering if Gen could know how hard those words had hit. “You love this, don’t you?”
“I’ve always loved cooking and baking for the ones I love. It used to be my parents and my brother Joe. Then it was Wallace and all my friends. Now it’s the whole town.”
“You do have a gift.”
“We all have gifts. My big brother Joe loves to fly, his fiancée Kailey loves color so being a stylist is right up her alley, and Wallace loves to build things because he’s great with a hammer…and a lot of other things.”
Diana laughed. “You have it bad.”
“Yes. I do. For most of my life I’ve had it bad for that man. Let’s go back inside and turn the sign from ‘closed’ to ‘open.’ Probably my favorite part of the day.” Inside, Gen let Diana do the honors of flipping the sign while Gen grabbed a seat at a table, looking pale and a little green.
“Seriously, are you okay? Maybe you should go home and take a nap.”
“No, no. I offered you a week of training.” She laid her head on the table. “Oh this feels good.”
Suddenly it hit Diana. Gen was way too tired for it to be just a lack of sleep. She’d refused coffee this morning and really what person who woke up at this inhumane hour didn’t drink coffee unless—?
“Could you be pregnant?”
“Huh?” Gen lifted her head off the table.
“Pregnant, Gen.”
“Oh my God. That’s it. I’m pregnant! That makes sense. I mean, we’ve been trying but I—” she slapped her forehead. “How did I miss it? Coffee smells yucky and I love the stuff!”
“Now it all makes sense. You’re just going to be more tired than normal no matter how much sleep you get.”
Gen stood up and ran towards the restrooms. Diana stayed behind her, but stood back to give her privacy though she could hear retching through the closed door.
The doorbell jangled and Diana had her first customer. She ran behind the counter. “Good morning!”
“Where’s Genevieve?” The man asked, not too happily.
Probably not a morning person either. “She’ll be right here. But how can I help you?”
The man seemed to consider it, scratching his temple. “All right, I suppose you can help me. I want a large black coffee to go.”
Honored that the man chose to let her handle such a difficult request, Diana poured the cup and placed a lid on it. Gen hadn’t showed her how to operate the register yet, but the man seemed to know the exact amount and threw two one dollar bills on the counter.
“Have a nice day!” Diana called out, doing her best Genevieve impersonation. Perky. Cheerful. Pretty much nailed it.
“Yeah,” the man said and walked out without another word.
Gen emerged from the restroom shortly after he’d left. “I think maybe I need to go home.”
“I think so too.” Diana gave her a worried smile.
Throwing up had only made porcelain-skinned Gen look like a white sheet with orange trim. “I’ll call Sophia to come in after your shift is over. It’s just the early mornings she can’t do. Some kind of class she’s taking.”
Even with a crash course in baking 101 this morning, it probably wouldn’t be enough to get through this day without some help. Diana settled Gen into the back office where she could stay off her feet for a while. A few minutes and customers later, a construction truck pulled up.
“She’s sitting in the back office,” Diana told Wallace from behind the counter where she was pouring coffee and assembling boxes of donuts, crescent rolls and bagels one right after the other as fast as she could.
A couple of minutes later, Gen was carried out by Wallace.
“I can walk, honey,” Gen said.
“Humor me,” he said gruffly as he walked by some customers.
“Genevieve! What’s the meaning of this?” A customer said.
“Will my cake be ready in time?” someone else asked. “You’re the only one who can do it!”
“How sick are you?” someone else asked. “Is it contagious?”
“I’m not contagious anymore,” Genevieve said from the doorway, and just before the door closed she leaned over Wallace’s shoulder and winked at Diana.
When both Gen and Wallace were out the door, all eyes turned to Diana. She wondered how many of them were considering mob rule.
“I thought you were a writer.” A male customer deadpanned.
“Oh, you’re the one in the video my grandson told me about.” A woman smiled. “I’m Suzie. You’re adorable.”
“Well, thanks…” Diana said.
“Are you the woman in the video? No way!” Another man asked. “Are you sure about that?”
“Look guys, Gen hired me part-time because I need the money. Don’t worry, she’ll be back. She just needs a little TLC and something tells me she’s going to get it.”
“You better believe she will with Wallace Turlock taking care of her.” A female customer fanned herself.
“I was the one who called it first. Those two were meant for each other,” Suzie said.
Despite the fact that she didn’t personally want to get married anytime soon, Diana had never been one to deny that love worked out for some lucky couples. She didn’t know what it was, kismet, chemistry, or whether it involved magic fairy dust but whatever it was Genevieve and Wallace had it. They had a deep connection and it showed. Some small part of her envied them. Maybe someday she’d have her ‘Wallace’ too. First, she had a lot of baggage to check and a new life and career to get started. Later she could think about falling in love again.
The rest of the morning passed in a blur of poured coffee and hot ovens. More sugar, more coffee. Whenever there was even the smallest lull in customers Diana used the time to put together more pastry boxes. It was nearly noon before a petite brunette waltzed through the storefront, holding her apron.
“You must be Sophia.”
“Sorry I’m late, but I overslept. I came in just as soon as I got Gen’s message,” she said as she tied her apron on. “So what happened? Did Gen cut off an arm or something? I don’t think she’s ever missed a day since she opened.”
Diana didn’t want to say a word because the way gossip ran around here, someone else might know the happy news before Wallace did. Besides, Diana assumed Gen would still have to pee on a stick and confirm what they both suspected.
“She just didn’t feel well.”
“If you say so.” Sophia made herself at home immediately, and the confidence with which she greeted customers and served them was awe-inspiring.
“Hey, you’re really good at this,” Diana said.
“It helps that I love it,” Sophia said. “And you can take off anytime.”
“Thanks. I’m pretty tired.” Diana untied her apron, and went to stick it in the back office. She clocked out, and then passed by Sophia again.
“Say hi to my brother if you see him.”
Diana
stopped moving. “Why do you think I’ll be seeing your brother?”
“I said ‘if.’ But you two are friends. Right?”
“Yeah, we are.” She wasn’t sure how much Scott had shared with his little stepsister. Her guess would be not much, since all of it was x-rated.
“And you run together sometimes?”
“Exactly. He’s a great trainer.” Among other things. Those other things which frankly, she much preferred.
“Relax. I know that most people think you two are cute together. But I don’t see it.”
“You don’t?” Why did that bother her, exactly?
“Don’t look so surprised. He needs to pick the right girl. It will probably be someone who needs him.”
“And you don’t think I do.”
“Don’t get me wrong, but you don’t look like you need anyone.”
“Thanks I think.” She wondered what Sophia meant by it exactly because she’d never understood how she came off as so put together when the opposite was true.
“Do you work for Gen all the time?” Diana made polite conversation while she gathered her backpack and her water bottle for the walk back home.
“Most of the time I work at my family’s restaurant. I help Gen out here and there when she needs me during the summers. I’m a full-time student at Berkeley.”
“That’s a wonderful school.”
“Yeah.” Sophia didn’t seem too enthused. “It’s all right.”
“What do you study?”
“Business.” Sophia sighed. “My dad has high hopes.”
“I get it. My father wanted me to be a lawyer like he is. But when I picked my school, I chose the one with the best journalism school in the country. When I got accepted into Mizzou, he couldn’t say much about it.”
While the truth was a little more complicated and a whole lot more depressing, Diana thought this version of the truth would serve Sophia the most. She didn’t need to hear about the divorce, and how dad had pretty much stopped paying attention to both Diana and Mandy when he’d moved out. It had been part of the custody agreement to help pay for college and Diana figured, the only reason her dad had helped at all. The law demanded it, and he respected the law above and beyond anything else.
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