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ChapterTen
Peyton
Ten Years Later…
I finish closing down the bakery while my kids run in circles around the kitchen. I let them have the leftover cookies that didn’t sell today and that’s already proving to be a mistake.
“Kayla! Kristen! Let’s go girls.” I call as I make my way to the front door.
I hear their tiny feet stampede through the empty restaurant and smile as I see their red curls bouncing behind the counter. They practically grew up in this place and I think they might know their way around better than I do.
Hunter and I got married a month after he proposed. I could barely get him to wait that long but I wanted to be able to plan something and wait for my parents and Harley’s to come back to town. We ended up getting married on the beach where he had proposed and Harley and I catered again. It was small and intimate, much the same as Harley’s wedding, but it was all I needed.
We ended up buying a house a couple of doors down from Harley and Cooper’s place. Harley had her first baby a week before I found out that I was expecting and living so close to each other ended up becoming a blessing. There was always someone right down the road to help out with babysitting and it made play dates a breeze since we just had to push a stroller a couple of houses away.
Harley and I expanded even more after the bakery and Beachside Café became a success. Now we own another bakery and coffee shop on the north side of the island, close to the hotels. We also opened an ice cream stand on the beach and another outside of the nature preserve. Those had been Hunter’s idea and he was right. Both places make a killing with the tourists.
We finally got some people in to help out at all of the places and we only work about 6 hours a day now. Harley still likes getting up before the sun so she mainly works at the bakery and I usually handle lunch and dinner at the café. A lot of chefs jumped at working at one of our places when they found out that Hunter was involved. He had helped to make some other chefs famous at his restaurants in Charleston and his reputation traveled here.
I corral the girls outside and then into the car and we head down the beach to our house. We’re headed home to meet Hunter. It’s our week to babysit all of the kids while Harley and Cooper have a date night. We had gone out last week to a new place that opened in Charleston. We got dinner and then booked ourselves a room at a nearby hotel. This week we’ll have to wait until all of the kids are asleep before we can sneak off for our own playtime.
When I pull up outside the house, Harley and Cooper are already there getting their own kids out of the car. The girls scream when they see their friends and they’re out of the car a second after that. I laugh as they all run inside before I walk over and give Harley and Cooper a hug.
“Have a fun night.” I say with a wink before they get in their car and drive off.
I turn and see my own husband leaning against the doorframe smiling at me. I smirk as I make my way up the path to him. Even after all these years, he can still get me hotter than anything with just one look.
“How was your day, Pey?” He asks once I’m close enough.
“Long and you weren’t in it nearly enough.”
“Let’s see if we can fix that.”
He drops a kiss on my lips before we both head into the house. This wasn’t how I pictured my life turning out but I’m glad that Hunter came into my café on that stormy night and that he became obsessed with me after just one look.
