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“Don’t feel guilty,” Gina said just before she touched her mouth to Blake’s. He kissed her in such a familiar way while also keeping things exciting and new between them. He didn’t sayI love you, but Gina certainly felt loved by him as he pulled away.
“See you in the morning, sweetheart,” he said, opening the door behind her.
Gina slipped out into the evening air, the darkness enveloping her the very moment she stepped into it. The cabin next door—where Todd and Kyle lived—shone with light, and her movement caused Blake’s bulb to flare to life too.
He followed her to the top of the steps, and while she continued down, he called, “Text me when you get home so I know you made it.”
“Yes, sir,” she said over her shoulder. She made the drive and went into her apartment. A sigh pulled through her whole body as she did, but it contained only happiness. She loved this small space that belonged to her, and she threw her bag over the back of the couch as she went past.
“Thank you, Lord,” she said to her empty kitchen. She opened the fridge and took out her favorite peach soda. “Bless Blake and Azure tonight, and help us all to…make it.” She wasn’t sure exactly what she meant by that, but she did want to “make it” work with Blake this time.
She couldn’t help thinking of Becks and Luke, as well as her mom and dad, who’d weathered many storms of life together. Gina didn’t want to continue rocking back and forth on her solo sailing vessel. She wanted a co-captain—and he came in a tall, cowboy body, with a dark beard and dazzling midnight-sky eyes, and a quick smile, a loud laugh, and a family ranch to run.
* * *
“They liked the cinnamon rolls,”Starla said a couple of mornings later. “They’re gone.”
Gina looked up from icing her banana cake. “They are? I made four dozen.”
“The lodge is full this weekend,” Starla said, setting the last cinnamon roll pan on the dishwashing station. The man who stood there, Abraham, looked at it with distaste and then started spraying it with hot water. “They don’t get sweet stuff every day.”
“Yes, they do,” Gina argued. “I make raspberry muffins and chocolate chip pancakes every single day.”
Starla gave her a grin and picked up the tiered trays of English muffins, bagels, and breads they’d decided to put out should all the cinnamon rolls get eaten. “Different guests.”
“I can make more tomorrow.”
“Don’t worry about it,” Starla said over her shoulder. “If the word gets out about the amazing cinnamon rolls that are gone in the first forty-five minutes, they’ll come down to breakfast earlier.”
“The dining room is packed,” Nash said from his spot at the back of the kitchen. “We don’t need a rush right when we begin.”
Starla ignored him, and Gina flicked him a glance before she went back to her maple frosting. Her duties for breakfast had finished once service started, as she wasn’t dealing with waffles or pancakes today. She’d moved on to the lunch box desserts a couple of hours ago, and she needed to finish icing her cakes, cut them, and put them in the plastic containers before she moved on to dinner.
Well, that wasn’t entirely true. She already had the chocolate mousse cake in the oven, with the custard cooling in the walk-in fridge. The life of a pastry chef moved in layers, as she had downtimes during baking she filled with making frostings and fillings. Then, during cooling time, she had to work on putting together more batters and toppings.
Gina could move around the kitchen with ease now, as she’d been here for almost three months. She wasn’t the newest employee in the kitchen anymore, and she threw a look over to Olivia, who currently fried more sausage links while also manning a grill full of bacon.
“Biscuits,” someone called. “Dill butter and honey butter.”
“I’ve got the butters,” Gina called, bending to the small fridge below her station. Sometimes she needed to chill something instantly the moment she finished making it, and she pulled out a big tub of both the dill butter and the honey butter.
She took them over to Jill, who acted as one of the runners that morning. “Here you go. How are the bacon corn muffins holding up?”
“Great,” she said. “We have about a third left.”
Gina nodded, proud of her savory muffins. She’d stuffed the batter with bacon, sweet corn kernels, and shredded cheese. Some people put herbs in the batter, but she liked to infuse it into butters instead, and they’d put out three types that morning: Dill, parsley and lemon, and honey butter.
“Biscuits,” Ashley said, setting down the pan of biscuits that went with the sausage gravy they served on the bar. She smiled at Gina, who’d actually taught Ashley how to make the biscuits, and went back to her station.
“Gina,” Mindie called. “Your timer is going off.”
Gina turned and hurried back to her oven. There had been a slight scuffle when someone had turned off her timer once without telling her. Another when another chef had turned it off and then taken out her cake. Since those disasters, Starla had told everyone to keep their hands off Gina’s timers and ovens and to simplycommunicatewith her, so they didn’t have blackened black forest cakes or raw honey bars.
She bent to open her oven and check on the pineapple upside down cakes. Today’s lunch dessert menu included fruity cakes, and she’d chosen to do a trio of choices for guests who’d ordered a grab-and-go lunch. Banana with maple frosting, the pineapple upside down cake with a cinnamon-flavored powdered sugar, which gave it something special, and a white-chocolate raspberry swirl cake which looked as elegant as it sounded.
Gina sometimes hated to put it in a “lunch box,” but the comment cards about the lunches had been the best they’d been in months, so she wasn’t complaining. No one else was either, and that made a sliver of happiness move through her. Her skills were admired and valued here, and she’d never thought that would happen in Chestnut Springs.
She continued to work through the morning breakfast service, and she managed to get her fruit cakes all cut, boxed, and delivered to the tables for the grab-and-goers on time. As the food disappeared faster than she could even believe, she blew out her breath and tightened her ponytail.
