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And hopefully, she’d feel the same way.
* * *
Out of all the times I’d walked into Nora’s bakery, I’d never felt as uneasy as I did now. My stomach churned. My wolf whimpered behind my ear. And when I reached for the door, it took everything I had to push through.
“What if she says no? What if she sends us away?”
She won’t.Kate wouldn’t do that to us.
And yet, the longer my wolf paced in the back of my mind, the more I worried.
Was I clean enough to work in the back? What about my hair? What if she couldn’t find another apron? Would I have to sit out?
On and on my thoughts went, spiraling out of control until Kate finally closed the shop for lunch.
“Phew. Mrs. Garris sure likes to talk,” Kate said as she turned the sign hanging in the door.
“She does that to all of us,” I said with a tight laugh. “She’ll talk your ear off if you let her.”
“Oh, I know. She was in here last week and would’ve held up the line if a nice gentleman hadn’t pulled her away.”
“He looked a bit like Einstein, right?” I asked as we sat opposite of each other.
“Yeah. How did you know?”
“That’s Mr. Yardly. He’s a science teacher. They’re also married. Or they used to be anyway. They bicker a ton, but deep down, I can see they still have feelings for one another.”
“If I ever find someone, I hope I can be that lucky.”
“Because of the bickering?” I teased.
“All of it.” Kate got a faraway look about her, then explained. “I was three when my dad ran off. I’ve always hoped my mom would remarry, but for whatever reason, she keeps holding out for him.”
“I’m sorry.”
Kate waved my concerns away. “It’s okay. I think we’re better off without him, honestly. I just hate seeing her so sad sometimes. Nora’s her best friend, and even though my mom’s found other people she likes, no one’s worked out for her. I guess in that way we’re the same. I try to reach out and accommodate others, but back home, it’s like no one cares.”
“I’m sure they appreciate it. I do.”
“Around here is different. When I look back on my time as a kid, the small place we lived in for two years makes my skin crawl. But what you have here?” She exhaled hard. “I don’t know. It’s reminding me of everything I miss. It didn’t seem that great in the beginning, but now that folks have started to open up to me–”
“You want to go back.”
Kate nodded. “It reminds me of the friends I made on campus. We all lived in the same building, so it was super easy to catch up and hang out. And everyone got along, which is super rare.”
“So, are you a procrastinator or do you need to get things done as soon as possible?”
“The second one. I can’t stand having things hanging over my head. It makes me nervous if I put something off for too long. You?”
“I’m about half and half. It depends on my mood.”And my nerves.
“It’s funny. We’d get together to study and I’d spend most of my time baking for everyone else. They called it brain fuel, which thinking about it now, was probably why we got along so well. They’d ask me questions, quizzing me while I measured everything out. It was fun, almost like a game show.”
“And now, I bet you think about those questions whenever you bake.”
