‘They’ve done us proud.’ Celeste came through to join Jade. She ran a hand across the display unit, feeling the wood beneath its covering. She called back to the boys in the kitchen. ‘You’ve done an amazing job, thank you!’
Melissa came through next and admired this part of the transformation. ‘Harvey’s loving every minute of doing this, you know. So is Linc, for that matter. And I can’t wait until opening,’ she smiled. ‘I saw Tracy yesterday and she’s counting down the days.’ Tracy had been Melissa’s friend for years and was a frequent customer to the bakery. Jade and Celeste were still making rolls and loaves for Tracy to serve at the inn and would continue to do so for the rest of the time their business was shut. Tracy prided herself on giving guests fresh ingredients and local produce wherever she could. She even got her eggs from Nola, whose daughter lived locally and had a lot of land out the back of her cottage. They kept the chickens there, supplying a handful of people in Heritage Cove, including the owner of the Heritage Inn.
‘I made the delivery to Aubrey House and they were thrilled with the selection of food,’ Celeste told her sister as they both stood marvelling at the transformation so far. ‘And they’re already talking about the Christmas party this year so we might get that gig too if we’re lucky. I did suggest Etna do it alongside us but she told me she doesn’t need the extra work at that time of the year.’
‘She works hard enough as it is,’ Jade agreed as they went back into the kitchen. She caught Linc’s eye. ‘Whenisshe going to retire?’
He put down the drill he was using. He looked good in jeans today despite the dust all over them and covering the front of his charcoal T-shirt. But Jade had decided it was going to have to remain a case of look, don’t touch, because she had a business to relaunch, too much else to focus on.
‘Let me see.’ He put a pencil behind his ear after he used it to mark a place at the back of the pantry cupboard, ready for shelving Jade presumed. ‘Today’s Sunday, tomorrow’s Monday…never?’
‘Much as I love our business, I don’t think I’ll be doing this into my seventies,’ Celeste concluded before adding, ‘Right now I vote we grab coffees for the workers and ourselves and we’ll bring them back here to enjoy in the garden.’
‘That sounds just what I need,’ said Jade before making a note of the coffees the boys wanted, and when Linc accidentally brushed her arm with his when he prompted her to make sure Etna made his extra hot and didn’t forget to add a double shot this time, she quickly found her purse and got out of there so he wouldn’t register the way she’d reacted, like she was glad, like she wanted him to do it again.
Once they’d collected and delivered the beverages plus a bacon roll for each of the workers – on the house from an insistent Etna – the sisters and Melissa unfolded three deck chairs in the garden and positioned them in the shade. Despite the banging from inside the bakery and kitchen, it was nice to relax and take a bit of time out, but it wasn’t long before the girls got onto the pressing issue of conjuring up a business name for the bakery.
‘The sign writer needs to know,’ Celeste prompted. ‘Why is it so hard to think of anything?’
‘Not hard,’ said Jade, ‘more like impossible.’
‘Surely it’s not impossible,’ said Melissa, earning herself a look from both sisters.
‘We’re just going to have to go with Heritage Bakery.’ Celeste shook her head in the absence of any better ideas. ‘People know it, it says what it is, it keeps the tradition.’
‘Lucy struggled to come up with the right name for her business when she took over,’ Melissa put in. ‘She wanted to honour its place in the Cove and retain its character and traditions. We’re a bit set in our ways around here,’ she added with a smile.
Lucy, who was now a bona fide local, had come to the Cove to stand in for Fred Gilbertson, the village blacksmith, on a temporary basis. She’d ended up buying the business from him when he retired, falling in love with Harvey’s brother Daniel, and had become as much a part of things here in the village as anyone else. Her business had a simple sign on the side of her workshop that said“Lucy’s Blacksmithing” and that was it even though she was more of an artist than the sort of blacksmith Fred had been. She’d kept the workshop as it was, adding in some display areas for her work, and she even still had the old forge.
Jade wondered whether fighting against tradition was the right way to go or whether people in the village would prefer them to keep things the way they were. ‘Perhaps you’re right, maybe we should stick with Heritage Bakery.’
‘We’ll have to if we can’t think of anything.’ Celeste tilted her head back to get a few of the sun’s rays on her face, prompting Jade to ask if she should be doing that when she didn’t have sunscreen on. She tutted at her sister’s fretting and told her she wouldn’t do it for long.
‘Don’t be defeated,’ Melissa carried on. ‘I can tell that changing the name is what you’ve both always wanted, and as long as it fits, everyone will get used to it. You’re going to all this effort to put your stamp on the place – there must be a name that’s perfect for you. The place will look more or less the same from the front and hasn’t lost an ounce of character, but what you sell has already changed vastly from the items the bakery once produced – with its cream horns and not-particularly-tasty vanilla slices that I’m pretty sure weren’t always freshly baked – so out with the old and in with the new when it comes to a name.’
‘She’s right,’ Celeste sighed.
Harvey’s voice carried from the inside of the kitchen. ‘What about The Twisted Sisters?’ They must’ve been talking louder than they realised.
‘That could work,’ said Celeste, meeting a look of disapproval from Jade.
‘Buns of steel?’ Melissa sniggered.
‘Sensible suggestions only.’ Jade sipped from an ice-cold can of lemonade; she’d been working too hard, getting too hot, to indulge in a coffee.
‘Why don’t you think about your favourite things?’ Linc had come outside to retrieve the spirit level from the open toolbox.
Melissa smiled at him. ‘Good idea.’ She gave him an admiring glance when he bent down to pick something up off the floor and she winked in Jade’s direction as he went back inside.
‘Don’t get any ideas,’ Jade sniggered.
Melissa leaned forwards and whispered, ‘He’s not Italian, but he’s hot.’
‘Why not suggest him to Celeste?’ Jade defended, not wanting to talk about the Italian who’d once been in her life. She’d told them too much in the pub that night, but no more.
‘Oh, I think he’s already got his eye on one of us,’ Celeste said knowingly, ‘and it isn’t me.’
Jade moved the conversation on. ‘Maybe he has a point. Perhaps we need to think about what we like. What are our favourite things at the bakery?’
