Claire glanced back at the store. The papered windows seemed to glare at her menacingly. Where had she heard of Bradford Breads before? Weren’t they some sort of chain? Chain stores were always the bane of the small business owner. Better recognition, lower overhead, and therefore, lower prices.
“Claire?” Maxi was staring at her. “Surely you aren’t worried about them. They don’t sell pastries like you do.”
“Yeah,” Jane agreed. “I went to one of the stores up in Bar Harbor years ago. They make good bread but no pastries, and certainly no sandcastle cakes. It’s a totally different product. Besides, no one can hold a candle to your baked goods.”
Her friends were right. She only sold a few types of bread. She was overreacting. She plastered on a smile so her friends wouldn’t worry. “You’re right of course. It’s just a little disturbing that a bakery would move in across the street from another bakery.”
Jane shrugged. “Maybe not. Since you don’t sell bread, it could be a strategic move. Once the customers get their pastries at Sandcastles, they can pick up fresh-baked bread at Bradfords.”
Or skip buying pastries and just get the bread.
Claire pushed the thought away. Now she was being paranoid. “I suppose you’re right. Nothing to worry about at all.”
The response appeared to put her friends at ease, and they left. But as Claire picked up the tray and made her way back into the bakery, she couldn’t suppress that seed of worry that insisted on pushing its way into her thoughts.
“Did Claire seem overly bothered about that bread store, or was it my imagination?” Maxi glanced back over her shoulder at Sandcastles as she and Jane walked down toward the beach, where they would part ways.
Jane grimaced. “Maybe I shouldn’t have mentioned it.”
“She would have found out anyway. I just hope she doesn’t do something drastic. She’s probably back at the bakery researching Bradford Breads right now.” They turned down Beach Street, and Maxi took a deep breath of sea air. At the end of the street was the ocean with its crashing waves and white sand beach. Jane’s inn was a quarter mile down the beach, and she liked to walk back at the edge of the surf. Maxi’s house was up on the cliff, and she would walk home on a path called the Marginal Way, which skirted along the very edge of the cliffs. It was all very beautiful and leisurely, but that was part of her problem. Maxi had too much leisure time.
Jane’s pace slowed. “What do you think she would do?”
Maxi shrugged. “Who knows? You know Claire: act first and think about the consequences later.”
Jane laughed. It was a running joke between the three of them that Claire could be impulsive. The funny part was the Claire didn’t always see it that way. Maxi supposed they each had their own quirks, and it was great that they could try to steer each other in the right direction when those quirks took over. Jane liked to play it safe a bit too much, and Maxi supposed she was a little too easy going, too accepting of people’s inconsiderate behavior, too ready to sacrifice what she wanted to please everyone—like James, for instance. Troubling thoughts of her marriage caused her to frown.
“Maybe we need to call an evening meeting and feel her out a bit more. You know she wouldn’t want to bother us with her worries, and I want to be there to help her if she needs it.” Jane’s kind words pulled Maxi away from her selfish thoughts.
“Good idea. But I don’t think we should make too much of the bread store. Let’s just pretend we want to get together after a stressful day or something. If we build the store up too much, that might worry her even more.”
“It won’t be hard for Claire to believe I need a break after a stressful day. I’ve had plenty of those lately,” Jane said.
Maxi’s heart melted with sympathy. She knew Jane was conflicted about what to do with Addie. She’d been trying to give her gentle guidance, but the truth was Maxi had no idea what she would do in Jane’s situation. At the age of eighty-one, her mom was as sharp as ever. “I’m sorry you’re going through all this. I wish I could do more.”
“Thanks, I don’t think there’s anything anyone can do. I just have to do the best I can. Besides, we all have our troubles.”
Maxi looked away from Jane’s probing eyes. She wasn’t surprised her friend had noticed that something was off. They’d been close for too long for her not to see it, but Maxi wasn’t ready to voice her troubles yet. In fact, she wasn’t even really sure that she and James had troubles. Maybe they simply needed to adjust to life being the two of them again.
They stopped at the beach, and Jane slipped her sandals off. “Okay, I’ll send a text later today.”
“Perfect. I’ll be looking forward to it.”
They said goodbye, and Maxi headed off toward the path.
Chapter Two
Claire tried to focus on baking, but one name kept creeping into her thoughts.Bradford Breads.Huffing out an exasperated breath, Claire shoved the latest batch of snickerdoodles into the oven, dug her smart phone out of her pocket, and opened the browser.
Twelve store locations.The new, yet-to-be-announced location would be the “baker’s dozen” joked the website. Her jaw tightening painfully. Claire clicked to view the menu.
Breads, breads, and more breads: artisanal breads, multi-grain breads, dinner rolls, sandwich rolls, banana bread, chocolate zucchini bread, vegan and gluten free bread, cheese breads, breadsticks. None of it, not a word as she scrolled through the admittedly delicious-looking professional pictures, made any mention of pastries.
That made her feel better. She looked through the doorway of the kitchen to the café at her bakery cases filled with frosted delicacies. Her eyes came to rest on what she was famous for—her sandcastle cakes. The one-of-a-kind cakes looked like edible sandcastles. Never mind that it took three times as long to make than any other cake. Claire loved hand-cutting the turrets and battlements and pressing the colored sugar crystals to the fondant—a painstaking process. The cakes were popular and set her bakery apart. It was worth the effort. She bet Bradford Breads didn’t have anything special like that.
She was making too much of it, just like her friends had said. She just had so much tied up in Sandcastles. Any threat was blown out of proportion. She didn’t just sink all her money into it. She’d sunkherselfinto it too.
The clang of metal followed by a muffled curse came from somewhere near the back of the shop. That would be Sally Littlefield, the town handywoman, who was looking into the cause of the water stain that had appeared on the ceiling corner near the coffee station.
