AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Chapter Two
“And you won’t believeit, the starter kit is only ninety-nine dollars!” my mom said, when I stopped at her house in the morning before heading to work at the local café. Her eyes were frenzied and bright behind her reading glasses, which hung on a chain so she didn’t lose them. I’d gotten her this particular pair for her birthday last year.
I rubbed my forehead. “Mom, we’ve been through this before. Do I need to show you the FTC website again?”
I loved her, but she fell for scams as easily as I fell for hot people that hated commitment.
“Don’t you want to support me?” she said with a pout. Here we go again.
“Yes, but not like this.” We sat down to the table as she set a plate of biscuits and gravy and a bowl of fruit in front of me. There was also fresh coffee with my favorite caramel creamer steaming in a pottery mug. If I had to suffer through another one of her sales pitches, at least I had a delicious breakfast to get me through it. One thing I could say for my mom: she could cook. I’d grown up completely spoiled in the food department. I was the only kid who’d brought three flavors of macarons to the bake sale.
“I really think you could be good at it. You have too many jobs,” she said.
“Right, and I don’t need another one,” I said.
Temporarily defeated, she pursed her lips and sat down with me. From experience, I knew that she was only taking a break. She’d be back to trying to win me over in no time. I’d played this game too many times before.
She sipped her coffee and hummed to herself for a few minutes while I waited for the other shoe to drop.
Mom inhaled through her nose and spoke. “Do you think Wyatt could come over and take a look at the sink?” Hello, second shoe. I stifled a groan of irritation.
I set my fork down so I didn’t throw it across the room. “Mom, you know we’re not together. He doesn’t have to come fix things anymore. If you want him to fix things, then you date him.” She choked on a sip of coffee.
“Paige, that’s ridiculous,” she said, one hand fluttering in the air as if brushing away the suggestion.
No, what was ridiculous was sometimes I thought my mom had liked Wyatt more than she liked me. I mean, there was a reason I’d thrown all my sense out the window and fallen for him. Wyatt Witmer was a charmer, through and through. He’d completely won her over and sometimes I would come over to visit her and find him hanging a picture or messing with her TV or doing some other house thing that my mom apparently needed a man to do, and my heart would melt all over again and all the red flags would get shoved to the back closet of my mind again.
My dad had left when I was a toddler and Mom never really settled into doing things on her own. I had wished and wished that she would find someone to take care of her, but that person never materialized, so I took up the mantle as best I could.
Sure, I couldn’t keep her from getting sucked into marketing scams, or fix her leaky sink, but I knew how to call a repairman and help her organize her taxes, and make sure the mortgage was paid. I did the best that I could, and I always would. When Wyatt was around, it had been nice to have someone else help out.
“I can call someone to fix the sink,” I said, getting up to take my empty plate and bowl to the sink. I really needed to get to work. My to-do list was longer than a CVS receipt.
“No, no, it’s fine,” she said, blowing me off and finishing her coffee. She always did that. Acted like things were no big deal and then was astonished when stuff inevitably broke.
I kissed her on the cheek as I gathered up my stuff. “I love you, I’ll let you know about the sink.” Time to make my escape.
“Okay, think about the business opportunity!” she called as I walked through the door and shut it behind me. I didn’t respond.
* * *
I was sofull from breakfast that I didn’t feel like eating again until the early afternoon, so I packed up my laptop and stuff from the café, and headed to Sweet’s Sweets, the local bakery my best friend Linley Sweet’s family owned.
“Hey, Martha,” I said to her mom, who was behind the counter. “Is she in the back?”
Martha beamed at me, and it was like looking at Linley in the future. That apple fell directly from that tree. “Hey Paige, go on back. She’ll be glad to see you.” I pushed through the Employees ONLY door and found Linley humming as she rolled out a massive rectangle of dough on the long stainless counter that took up most of the middle of the room.
“Hey, whatcha making?” I said and she jumped as she looked up. She had flour on her glasses, but that was nothing new.
“Hey, Paige. What’s up?”
I pulled up a stool and watched as she finished rolling out the dough that turned out to be for cinnamon rolls, but these were no ordinary cinnamon rolls. Sweet’s always did seasonal cinnamon rolls and these were the summer peach rolls, with fresh peaches, peach jam, and a cream cheese frosting. Later in the summer they’d switch to wild Maine blueberry, which was always my favorite.
“I’m going to destroy my ex,” I said, watching her spreading out a huge bowl of freshly sliced peaches on the dough. She paused, peaches dripping from her hand.
“Okay? Explain.”
I laid out the plan while she finished filing the dough. Watching her roll it up was literally my favorite part, so I was glad I’d gotten here when I did.
