Jade went over to her baking corner with its separate oven wide enough to fit two or three tins inside, deep enough to fit more depending on what she was baking. Before, she’d either had to fit in with whatever was going on in the other ovens, or wait. This corner area was spacious and Harvey had been the one to suggest the shelving above and the carved-out centre section at Jade’s eye height. It had a slanted wooden backboard and weighted pieces of string so that she could lean a recipe book in place and hold pages open as she worked. No more finding tins or using anything she could get her hands on to keep the book in place as she baked, this was perfect. Her hands would be able to work, her eyes could see the detailing and look up at the recipe.
Jade made her way around the kitchen. The enormous ovens had been pushed back into place and cleaned outside as well as inside. She could already envisage loaves and rolls baking in the different sections and the scent wafting everywhere when they were ready. She ran a hand across the smooth, clean front of the trusty bread slicing machine. The old machine they’d inherited when they bought the place had been smaller, its position on a benchtop. It was rickety, hard to use and rusty in parts, and it was no surprise when it gave up on them within a fortnight of them opening their new business. The girls had invested in this top-of-the-range free-standing machine capable of slicing hundreds of loaves every hour, not that they needed that kind of capacity throughout the day but its reliability during the morning baking rush was welcome. They usually filled the shelves with the most popular sellers they knew would go within the first couple of hours of opening, then baked and kept shelves stocked throughout the day, easing off mid-morning, going with demand throughout the afternoon and winding down come the approach to closing. Jade imagined the warm, yeasty smell in the air and the heat from the ovens, loaves passing from back to front as they were sliced thick or thin as appropriate before being bagged, chitchat echoing around the bakery floor and smiles exchanged as customers caught a glimpse of the girls in the kitchen busying themselves with an order.
The aluminium benchtops were pristine and Jade could already see each of them emptying flour onto the surfaces, spreading it around, taking dough and kneading it, shaping out rolls and loaves ready for the tins and trays, all the while talking about whatever came to mind. They were both good at that, talking and working, it was probably why they worked well in business together. If one of them found it hard to multitask, this relationship might very well never have got off the starting blocks. When Linc had asked whether Celeste minded that Jade was going to give more focus to the cake baking and make it a real part of the business rather than an aside as it had been up until now, it had solidified the fact that it was quite the opposite. Both girls knew the business had to evolve as they saw fit and Celeste had actually said in words that it was good there was some kind of divide. Celeste was perfectly capable of baking cakes, she’d done it often enough, but it was Jade who had the passion and talent to take their cakes to the next level.
Celeste brought her own talents to the business and as Jade walked through to the bakery and admired the glass-fronted display cabinets, the beautiful wooden shelving ready to house their products, she thought about how much research her sister put into this business, how it was Celeste who often went the extra mile. They both put the effort in, but it was Celeste who had been more experimental, trying out different fillings in the middle of loaves that somehow just worked. Celeste was always the one well aware of what items were the most popular and those that were the least, adjusting their workload and schedule appropriately. They both handled the accounts side of the business between them, but it was Celeste who had made contact with local businesses and services in the area who’d gone on to put in bulk orders on a regular basis. And in turn Jade took care of the legal side of their business. People were always surprised to hear just how much documentation was needed when it came to running a bakery, but it was a legal requirement to have written procedures in place to ensure food safety. Jade ensured licences were up to date, that they were always ready for a health inspector to stop by and that they’d never be caught off guard and their reputation would remain intact.
‘You’re quiet,’ Celeste remarked as Jade came back through from the bakery.
‘I’m still taking it all in.’ She’d been off in her own little world walking around the space that was fresh and ready for them. ‘Sometimes I can’t believe this is all ours. We went from being little girls wanting a bakery of our own – to this.’
Celeste began to laugh. ‘There were a few steps in between, remember, like totally different careers for the both of us. This is harder in some ways but easier in others.’
Jade put her arm around her sister and hugged her. ‘It’s because we have drive and passion – that makes it easier.’
They went back through to the bakery itself, chatting about how customers would soon congregate choosing whatever they liked. In here they’d even carved out a space in the very corner with a couple of stools where Jade would be able to talk to people enquiring about cakes for special occasions. It had some bench space with a wooden top that matched the wood of the shelves, and there’d be room for her to open up folders and show examples of her previous work to generate ideas, as well as her ledger with dates and outlines of the customer’s requirements to ensure she delivered. She had another pad of plain paper too and with a pencil she usually offered up sketches if a customer had particular cakes in mind, to ensure they were thinking along the same lines.
Celeste walked along behind the display cabinets, each with an internal thermostat to ensure they maintained the perfect temperature for whatever was inside and interior LED lighting that would soon highlight pastries, delicate cupcakes, pains au chocolat, croissants, iced buns – all the things that deserved to be shown off. They were often the items people hadn’t even come in for. Customers would drop in to fetch a loaf or couple of loaves for the family and they’d be unable to resist the treats staring back at them.
‘The bakery has our stamp on it now.’ Jade stood by the window that was still covered in paper, preventing anyone from seeing inside until it was time for the grand opening. Her eyes welled up at how much this bakery meant not only to them but to the residents of Heritage Cove. When the girls had mentioned they were doing it up, or people had passed by as they closed the bakery for the last time until the reopening and pinned a notice on the door to say what was going on, there were a few concerned residents checking they weren’t going to become part of a chain bakery, that they weren’t changing the façade too much, that they weren’t going all new age with this. And, now, Jade couldn’t wait for opening day because she and Celeste had done every single one of them proud.
‘I can’t wait to get baking in my dedicated cake area,’ Jade smiled, earning herself a nudge from her sister.
‘You’ll get there eventually but for now, enough dreaming, more doing.’ She went out to the kitchen and lifted up one of the cleaning trugs they’d left on the benchtop nearest the door and pulled on a pair of Marigolds.
Jade found her own Marigolds and cleaning trug, because her sister was right – it was time to get practical, to ensure everything was perfect in anticipation of the opening. She started with the cake corner. She wondered if the sides of her face were going to start hurting she was smiling so much, but the hard graft at last took over. She squirted cleaner and wiped the already gleaming tiles behind the benchtop with a damp cloth and it wasn’t long before her mind drifted back to Linc the night before last and their walk down to the cove.
She was glad they’d gone down there but she didn’t know whether she was glad they’d almost kissed. The moment had been over so quickly on her part when she thought about what she was doing. She knew Linc didn’t fit in with her life plan. Not at all. She couldn’t get involved with anyone right now. But his touch had felt so good, had left her skin tingling as he moved her hair away from her face. She’d almost wished he’d do it again when they said goodnight but she’d shut herself inside the cottage and leant against the back door for a moment knowing she couldn’t get that close to him again. She’d gone upstairs and flung open the window to let out some of the summer heat the room was holding on to. She never minded birdsong, the repetitive strains of the song thrush that carried on until all hours as though these birds assumed the residents of the Cove needed singing to sleep. But that night she’d only just climbed into bed when she heard a gentle sound coming from somewhere and it wasn’t a bird. At first she’d thought it must be from a radio or a CD drifting from another open window somewhere but when she looked out and saw a light on in Etna’s flat in what she knew to be the spare room – Linc’s room – and his window flung open too, she realised it must be him on the guitar. Etna had told her he played when he wasn’t too busy, but Jade hadn’t realised he played this well. It wasn’t a tune she recognised, but it was beautiful. A little melancholy but not in a miserable way – in a way that soothed and hinted there was more to get to know about the newcomer to Heritage Cove.
She tried to refocus and cleaned the tiles, the worktop, the shelves, the front of the oven that, when she opened it, was so new it even had a tag still on one of the shelves inside. She pulled it off and then turned her attention to the cabinets on the island in the middle of the room. Everything had been left pretty clean anyway but it was like moving into a new house or a rental property – you always wanted to do a once-over yourself – and with it being their business, they weren’t going to cut any corners.
When Jade’s stomach growled because it had been so long since breakfast, they were pretty much done. ‘I think we need a quick break.’
‘Good idea.’ Celeste tugged off her Marigolds and began to wash her hands at the sink. ‘I’ll go and get us a coffee each and something to eat from Etna’s tea rooms before we start bringing in the boxes of equipment to wash everything.’ She was drying her hands on the paper towels from the dispenser on the wall when she suggested, ‘Unless you’d like to go.’
‘Happy for you to go.’ Jade took off her own Marigolds and lathered up the soap between her palms but her sister was watching her. ‘What’s that look for?’
‘Are we going to talk about the other night and a certain someone who might just be at the tea rooms now he doesn’t have an excuse to be here?’
‘He’s working at the waffle shack, remember.’
‘You know that for definite?’
Jade shook the excess water off her hands and plucked a towel from the dispenser herself. ‘No, I don’t. But there’s nothing to talk about. Really,’ she added at her sister’s look of doubt. ‘I showed him the cove in all its glory, then I went home. And he didn’t need an excuse to come here. He was working on the renovation.’ Celeste didn’t look convinced. ‘You go and I’ll bring in a couple of boxes and some tea towels. It’ll take us a long time to wash everything.’
‘Fine,’ replied Celeste, before heading to the cottage to get her purse, but not without yet another knowing look. Sometimes it was all it took and words didn’t matter, and Celeste wasn’t dumb, she knew her sister well enough to see there was an attraction between her and Linc, no matter how much Jade pretended there wasn’t.
Jade began to bring some of the boxes in from the cottage and left them inside the doorway until she had quite a stack. They’d have plenty of room to do this massive washing-up session at least, with benchtops on either side of the main sink and the central benchtop as well as those running around the edge of the kitchen. And then they’d be able to find new homes for every utensil, every piece of crockery.
Glad she hadn’t worn jeans just because of the gloominess beyond the window this morning, Jade wiped the sweat from her brow and wasn’t sorry to see Celeste appear around the back with food, coffees and news of Linc. Not that Jade showed she was at all interested in the last item, but of course she didn’t mind hearing what her sister thought of the newcomer to the Cove.
‘He’s in there again. The apron quite suits him.’ Celeste handed her the takeaway cup of steaming latte.
‘I thought Etna was back last night.’
‘She was back late so she’s unpacking and putting on a wash while Linc steps in at the tea rooms.’ She unwrapped a ham and mustard roll. She’d got Jade the same, as well as a slice of Etna’s cheddar, pancetta and thyme quiche to share.
‘She’s learning to trust others with her business, that’s a first.’ Ravenous, Jade ate most of her roll barely taking a breath.
