Page 8 of Pick Me This Time

4

DAPHNE

The bakery at Northfield Farms had become my second home. Last fall, I’d only helped out for pumpkin spice season and I’d been looking forward to doing it again all year.

Now that it was here, I was savoring every moment, never happier than I was doing this job I had right then.

After high school, I’d gotten a degree in education and I’d followed in my mother’s footsteps to become a teacher. I’d taught second grade at Allisburg Elementary for a few years and I’d loved it, but after helping at the bakery last year, I’d decided to make a change.

My parents were getting older and they were almost ready to retire, and while I’d been teaching, I hadn’t had much freedom to help them out. Once I’d realized how much I enjoyed baking and being a barista, it’d hardly felt like a sacrifice to take a break from teaching for the time being so I could be more available to my parents.

Plus, I got to learn all about baking from June Gracen while I was working here. She was an excellent pastry chef who had taught me everything I knew so far and she kept showing me new recipes every single day.

Since I’d always enjoyed baking, it was like a dream come true to be able to learn from someone like her. An opportunity I’d grabbed with both hands.

Smiling as I restocked the shelves, I hummed to myself under my breath and tried my best to focus on the work instead of the boy. The boy, however, was refusing to leave my brain for so much as a moment.

It’d only been about an hour since I’d dropped Sterling off at the garage, and since I’d had no warning that it was him I would be collecting, I couldn’t even really blame myself for not being able to stop thinking about him.

He and I had never been friends, but for as long as I could remember, he’d always been there—at our house with my brother. At school. Around town. Even here, shooting the breeze with his mother after school when I’d come with mine to pick up bread, pastries, or eggs.

Sterling North had been that guy when I was growing up. Everyone in town had loved him, but at school, he had been a demigod. The most popular, most handsome guy who had graced our halls. The quarterback for the high school team who had also been senior class president. He’d even graduated with a one-way ticket to the Stanford School of Business.

Every girl had wanted him and every boy had wanted to befriend or become him. Eric and the third leg of their tripod, Jake, had been closest to him, though. He’d been loyal as anything to those two, and together, they’d been the kings of Allisburg.

Jake and Eric had stuck around after high school, but Sterling had spread his wings and left without a second thought. No one had blamed him, but things hadn’t been quite the same around town since he’d left.

Jake and Eric had taken it hard. For years, it’d almost been like they’d been limping, one of their limbs suddenly amputated. In time, they’d learned to live with it but I knew it’d been a learning curve for them.

A group of girls came in and headed for the coffee counter, and I shook myself out of my thoughts as I set down the basket of pastries. Striding over to the counter myself, I smiled at them and positioned myself at the fancy coffee machine.

“Good morning, ladies. What can I get you?”

They all returned my smile and placed their orders, and while I made their lattes, June came out to keep restocking the shelves. Once the basket was empty, the older woman winked at me, her green eyes sparkling and the crow’s feet around her eyes deep as she grinned.

“Will you hold down the fort out here while I go get a new batch in the oven?” she asked.

I nodded, and she shuffled around the counter and tucked a strand of blondish gray hair behind her ear that had escaped from her bun. Once I’d handed over the lattes, the girls took off, and as they left, Rachel came in.

My best friend, she and I had met in the library at school in our freshman year and we’d clicked immediately. We’d been inseparable ever since.

With her long blonde locks, big blue eyes, and bigger boobs, Rachel had received a lot of attention back then. Even from the older boys.

Jake Garrison, the same Jake who had been my brother’s other best friend, had eventually been the one who had won her heart and they’d gotten married a few years ago. Her belly was bulging now with their first child, and her hand rested gently on top of it as she pulled off her sunglasses once she was inside the bakery.

She beamed at me. “My daily fix, wench!”

I laughed. “Coming right up, mama. How’s your back?”

“Breaking,” she said decisively, complaining with a smile still glued to her lips as she sank down on one of the stools at the counter. “My ankles aren’t doing so well either. I think I’ve lost them, actually. I’m now the not-so-proud owner of cankles for the first time ever.”

My nose wrinkled in sympathy. “Your ankles will be back soon enough and that little one in there is going to make it all worth it.”

She flipped a lock of that golden hair over her shoulder before she smiled again. “I know. It just doesn’t make it any easier right now. But I will survive.”

“Sure, you will.” I made her decaf mocha latte and pushed it across the counter. “Before you know it, you’ll be ready for number two.”

Her eyes widened and she snorted as she tried to hold back laughter. “Jeez, have you been talking to Jake? You sound exactly like him. I told him he can carry the next one.”