Page 2 of Suddenly Yours

I told myself that it was just a coincidence that we were both a disappointment to our parents. I, of course, remembered the way he had always shown up for me when the rest of the world fell apart.

And Silver Cove?

Well, it felt like a place where I could finally breathe again. A place where I could build something of my own. A place where no one expected perfection from me except myself.

A place where Sweet Expectations, my tiny dream of a bakery, could finally become real.

Besides, I got to be close to my brother, his new wife, and my best friend in the entire world. Cade had been right about everything in life so far, including Levi. Not that I was going to tell him that. I didn’t want him to get a big head.

For the first few months after I’d moved into town, we had worked side by side on turning my building into my dream bakery.

I’d sold my shares of my parents’ business to my brother, who had taken over Sharper Image Dance Company the year before. I had just enough money to open my bakery and rent a couple-room apartment a few blocks away.

Was I going to live there forever? No. Did I have enough money to purchase my own place? No. But that was a problem for another day.

Today was the official grand opening of Sweet Expectations and I had more than enough problems to deal with. Such as the fact that my daydreaming about the bakery had just been interrupted by the sound of my mixer breaking.

Chapter One

Missy

I had dough all over my apron and flour on my face, and my fingers were so slippery with butter and oil that whenever I tried to flip the button on the secondhand industrial mixer that I’d purchased less than a month ago, they kept sliding right off.

Once I finally managed to flip it, the machine made a loud clicking noise and refused to move.

“Do not do this to me,” I warned the machine and the universe at the same time.

In response, it started up, groaned once, loudly, clicked… and stopped.

I smacked the side of the metal machine with my palm. “I swear, I will toss you into the dumpster if you quit on me on opening day.”

As if offended and worried, the mixer suddenly sputtered back to life, coughing flour dust into the air like it was taunting me. The thing had it out for me. I didn’t trust it, but still, I’d take what I could get.

That’s when the oven beeped behind me.

Not a good beep.

A something-is-wrong kind of beep.

The “you’re doomed” sound that all metal objects make before exploding or turning off for the last time.

I spun around just in time to see the display flash a hostile error code and then go black.

“Oh great,” I muttered. “Just what I need. Appliance mutiny.”

Everything had worked fine the last few weeks as I’d gotten ready for today. They’d been perfectly nice machines since I’d purchased them. Why today? Why now?

It was just my luck, that’s why. Murphy’s Law.

I heard the back door open and when I glanced over, all my tension disappeared.

My brother Max walked in. Technically his name was Wyatt Maxwell Sharpe, but he was Max to me and anyone he liked.

Beside him, his wife of a little over a year, Cora, glided through the doorway like the dancer she was. The duo moved as if they were entering a stage on opening night of The Nutcracker instead of the kitchen.

Since they were both diehard professional ballet dancers, it made total sense.

Even at four in the morning, they appeared chipper and happy. Then again, both of them used to rise this early for practices all the time.