THE STARLIGHT HILL COMPLETE COLLECTION: 1-8

by Bell, Heatherly

  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 better 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.

  “Really? What happened?”

  “He developed high blood pressure but he lived. I figured I was going to have to get through law school, not him.”

  “I wish I could do that.”

  “You can,” Diana said. “Just tell him how you feel.”

  Sophia fondled the cash register and wrinkled her nose. “I don’t want to let him down. Things are different for me.”

  “I doubt it. My father tried to make me feel like I’d let him down. Maybe it’s true that I did, but you know what? Would it have been better to flunk out of law school? Or graduate and be miserable? I don’t think so.”

  Sophia stared at Diana. For a moment it occurred to her she might have said too much, and was about to take it all back. Diana didn’t know Sophia’s situation, and everyone had to arrive at their grown-up conclusions in their own time. At their own pace. She was about to tell her that, but some more customers came in and Sophia gave all her attention to them. Diana waved goodbye and Sophia gave a half-hearted wave back.

  After her shift at the bakery, Diana took Gran to Sitercize at the Senior Center, to the drugstore for her medications, then back home to box up more of Gran’s treasures and organize them in the garage. By the end of the day Diana just wanted a shower, sleep and chocolate. Definitely no running tonight. She’d miss Scott pushing her around the track, but Diana might have burned ten pounds at work this morning. The best thing about the job was she had no time to sample any of the sweets.

  She opened the door to her studio, and sucked in a breath when she saw Scott standing in her kitchen. Naturally it was warm in her tiny studio, and he didn’t have a shirt on. He was stirring an amazing smelling sauce. The smells of garlic and sauce swept over her, teasing out a familiar longing. Comfort food. The man had great timing.

  “That smells amazing. How did you get in?”

  “Way too easy. Tomorrow I’m buying you a deadbolt.”

  She was strangely turned on by all that effort on his part. The idea of Scott breaking into her place reminded her that he had a not so stellar past she didn’t know much about. More than that, she was searching her brain to remember the last time any guy had cooked for her. Ever. And coming up with big a fat zero.

  “You can cook?”

  “You’ll rarely meet a firefighter that can’t.”

  She came closer, and the tomato sauce smells became more enticing. She spied basil and fresh cut tomatoes on a cutting board and her empty stomach quivered. Not to be left out, her womb contracted when she got a good look at Scott’s naked back, tapering down to his long legs covered by jeans sitting low on his hips.

  “I’m exhausted. A baker’s life is no piece of cake.”

  “That’s funny.”

  Diana kicked off her shoes. “I wasn’t trying to be.”

  “Hope you’re hungry.”

  While working hard to ignore the man’s hotness factor, currently at dangerous levels, Diana nodded. How would he react if she jumped him right now?

  “Go take a shower. By the time you come out, dinner will be ready.”

  “So this is just you, being friendly?”

  “And hungry.”

  “Good thing I am hungry. But I should take that shower first,” she said and removed her top in the kitchen.

  She didn’t know what the hell she was doing, but tonight s
eemed like as good a time as any for session number three. Diana might be in brand new territory, but Scott made her feel sexy. And also, maybe a little bit crazy. To his credit, he didn’t say a word but also kept his eyes riveted to her as she next pulled off her jeans and kicked them out of the way. Watching her, he continued to half-heartedly stir the sauce.

  She removed her bra. He smiled, dipped his finger in the sauce and licked it off.

  “It’s dangerous to be naked near an open flame.” His gaze took a slow slide down the length of her body and he set the spoon down.

  “Says the man cooking without his shirt on.” She slid the panties off.

  His control seemed to snap in half, and he shut the stove off. “Okay, let’s go.”

  “Where are we going?” she laughed as he picked her up and swung her into his arms.

  “The shower. You obviously need help getting there.”

  “You’re coming?”

  “Oh hell yeah. I’m coming. And you’re going to come too.”

  * * *

  This time Scott wouldn’t be rushed.

  Even if Diana never failed to surprise him, the strip tease by the stovetop was a whole new level. Part of him had wondered if he should stop her, but another more significant part was too mesmerized to try. If he’d made so much as one false move, she might change her mind. But she hadn’t, not until every piece of her clothing had been removed. It was all he could do not to take her right there by his spaghetti sauce.

  He carried her into the tiny bathroom, and turned the water on in the shower stall. It didn’t seem large enough for him let alone the two of them. But where there was a will, he’d find a way.

  Diana was busy trying to take his pants off from behind him, so he turned around and gave her a hand. He shrugged his jeans and boxers off, then eased her into the hot shower.

  “So hot! Get in here!” She reached for his hand and pulled him in.

  He ducked as he stepped inside so the shower head wouldn’t hit him in the head. That move put him nearly eye-level with her breasts, so he took full advantage by drawing one soft nipple into his mouth. Diana moaned and arched against him. Not wanting the other nipple to get jealous, he switched sides.