Page 5 of Maggie’s Match

Chapter Two

Maggie wiped the sweat from her brow with the sleeve of her shirt. She had flour and sugar all over her apron, along with a huge dab of smeared butter.

She was more of a mess now than she’d been earlier that day when she and her cousin had prepped and painted the walls of the building that would be their new bakery.

She knew it was risky opening up a bakery so far away from home, but Becca was up for the challenge.

Becca’s mother and Maggie’s dad Billy were half-siblings. Maggie and Becca were the same age, so they’d gravitated towards each other at family reunions and had grown inseparable.

Becca and her older brother Bentley, or Bent as family called him, had spent a few fun-filled summer weeks with her family in Fairplay when they’d been younger.

Maggie and her sister Aubrey had even spent some time out at Broken B Ranch, Becca’s family’s place just outside of Austin in a small town called Bottle Creek, population just under ten thousand. Still, the town was close to the city and directly on the main highway, so it got enough through traffic to be a hot spot.

She and Becca had exchanged recipes for as long as either of them could remember. Becca had spent the past two years in college and had returned home after a rather nasty breakup with no real career prospects.

Maggie had suggested that she should open a bakery of her own, but Becca didn’t have the funds to do so. That got Maggie thinking about franchising her own business. After all, she had enough money in her business account to open a new location if she wanted to.

She’d been thinking about opening a second store in a building in Tyler, but helping Becca out seemed like the better start. That way, her second store would be in the hands of someone she loved and trusted.

Besides, she needed the time away from Fairplay and her obsession with Rick, who she knew would be returning home.

Her heart couldn’t take another trip on the roller-coaster ride that was her infatuation with him. Besides, she figured it would do him some good to know that she wasn’t still there pining away for him.

Okay, so over the past few days she had purposely posted a few photos of her with a guy that had shown her some interest. She’d allowed him to flirt with her, and she had even flirted back. After all, she wasn’t dead, and it felt nice to know that other guys found her attractive.

Besides, even though she’d been waiting her whole life for Rick, she’d realized recently that Rick wasn’t waiting for her.

It had stung. But for her own mental health, she needed to spread her wings. To look to someone other than a man she was positive would never come around.

Yes, he was moving back to Fairplay. But for how long this time?

Over the past several years, he’d returned more times than she could count. Mainly for school breaks. After he’d finished with school, he’d stuck around for almost a full year, during which time they’d returned to the same old dance they’d settled into his last year of high school.

Even though he’d been her first, sexually, she hadn’t been his. She’d known that going into the relationship.

Most of his family hadn’t even known they were an item. Hell, most of the town hadn’t, per her request.

She didn’t need all the haters or well-wishers that always came with relationships in a small town. Half of the population was rooting for you to break up, the other half was planning your wedding. No thank you.

Which is why not even her sister Audrey knew about her and Rick. Not one hundred percent, at any rate.

People in town speculated about them for years, until Rick tricked her into going to one of his family functions the year before. Then the word was out.

As she’d expected, everyone in town claimed to have known about the relationship the entire time. Immediately, she heard everyone’s opinions on weddings, babies, and well, basically everything to do with their relationship.

Ricky must have gotten much the same, and it had obviously spooked him, because shortly after that night, he’d taken the job in Tyler and had disappeared once more.

That was the last time she’d seen him. The last time he’d left her. Taking her heart and all hope of them ever having something more to Tyler with him.

She’d thrown everything she had into work at her shop, baking until she had calluses on her fingers and blisters on her feet. Her back hurt so much most nights that her sleep was affected.

Then, thanks to a visit from Becca a few months later, she’d finally woken out of the trance. During that visit, they had started plotting, and since then she’d done everything she could to open their joint bakery.

She and Becca had argued over the name. Maggie had wanted to call it Becca’s Bakery. Becca hadn’t felt right about putting her name on it since Maggie was basically fronting the entire cost to open the shop. Becca had some money from her savings she was throwing at the start-up. Because of the uneven amounts, Becca wanted to just call the bakery Maggie’s, like her current place in Fairplay.

It was the only thing that the cousins disagreed on. They had finally settled on each having their first initials in cursive as a logo, at least for this location. They were still debating trying to come up with something else, but until they did, M&B’s Bakery it was.

“Why didn’t you wait for me?” Becca asked, coming into the kitchen, her long jet-black hair tied up in a messy bun.