AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I’ll take Sebastian Stan or Manny Jacinto! I’m not picky!”
“I said, good night!”
“Sinqua Walls! Oh, sweet heavens, the way I would love to lean against Sinqua’s walls!”
A few years ago,Mama and Daddy opened their dream bakery in town. Hailee’s Bakery. If I ever doubted that I was spoiled, having them name a bakery after me was enough proof that I was forever loved. They’d even converted the space upstairs into an apartment for me to live in during my undergrad years. They’d wanted me to be able to focus on my studies and save up my money from my job at Starlight Inn instead of worrying about rent. My gratitude for my parents was through the roof.
Plus, living above a bakery wasn’t the worst thing in the world. It always smelled like heaven. After years of hard work and dedication, they’d made their dreams come true. The bakery was an instant success in town. So much so that Mama had to hire more workers. With the big festival happening the following day, I volunteered to help Mama with the baking the night prior. I knew she’d probably had her hands full, and she never wanted her employees to work overtime.
Walking into Hailee’s Bakery always felt like walking into Willy Wonka’s factory. The sweet aromas could be smelled hundreds of feet before you even reached the store. The quite large and spacious location sat right on Lake Michigan’s coastline.
Something about walking into the shop and smelling the baked goods was so reassuring. It was a sign of perseverance of sorts. Mama and Dad waited years for the right location and finally got it.
“Is that pumpkin loaf I’m smelling?” I asked as I guided my way through the shop and landed in the kitchen, which looked like a culinary war zone. Flour and pots were everywhere. The countertops had been transformed into a decorating area with frosting, piping tools, and sugar cookies galore.
I sniffed the air. “And lemon bars!” I gleamed, walking over to my favorite dessert ever. As I reached down to grab one, Mama slapped my hand. “Don’t you dare, Hailee Rose. Those are for the festival.”
I pouted and took a seat on a barstool at the counter. “You didn’t make one extra pan of lemon bars?”
She narrowed her eyes toward me, took off her gloves, and walked into the pantry. When she reappeared, she came out with a tray of lemon bars and placed them right in front of me. “Only eat one if you haven’t had dinner yet. You’ll spoil your appetite.”
I grinned ear to ear and rubbed my hands together. “These are dinner.”
“Hailee, don’t you dare eat all that sugar and no real meal. Speaking of… you should go get yourself dinner. You didn’t need to come and help me. I’ve got this covered.”
I glanced around at the destruction of Mama’s house and smirked. “You do know you need all of this done by tomorrow, right?”
She placed her hands against her hips and sighed before wiping the back of her hand against her forehead. “I am a little overwhelmed. Your dad was helping, but you know he can’t bake to save his life. He burned two pans of cookies. I sent him to the office to do some admin work.”
“Well, let me underwhelm you and help.”
Relief washed over Mama’s dark-brown eyes as her shoulders dropped. “Great. You’re on sugar cookie duty. You are filling in the Oscar-shaped cookies, writing quotes on three dozen cookies, and then doing the edible stickers of Aiden’s face on three dozen.” She paused and wrinkled up her nose. “Are you okay doing this, sweetheart?”
“What do you mean?”
“You know…spending the next few hours plastering Aiden’s face on cookies.”
I smiled and shoved a lemon bar into my mouth. “Anything for an up-and-coming baking company,” I joked, trying to push off the thoughts of staring into the edible blue eyes of my first and only love.
Was it going to be awkward? Yes.
Was it going to bereallyawkward? Absolutely.
Would I do anything for my parents? One hundred percent. Even when it came down to sticking edible prints of Aiden onto her world-class cookies.
“It’s fine, Mama. It’s been years since Aiden and I were even a thing. He’s moved on. I’ve moved on. It’s nothing but ancient history.” Minus the random text message from a few months ago, but she didn’t have to know about that.
She walked over to me, kneeled a bit, and stared me in the eyes, searching for any truths I was hiding from her. Detective Penny Jones was on the case, searching for any reminisces of heartbreak that I still carried around with me about a relationship that ended years prior. Then she smiled, kissed my forehead, and thanked me for being the best daughter ever.
I reached down to grab another lemon bar, and she teasingly patted my hand again. “No more sweets until after dinner. I’ll order Chinese. Go tell your father food will be on the way soon.”
She walked out of the room to order food, and I shoved yet another piece of a lemon bar into my mouth. Then, I headed to the back office, where Dad seemed to live lately.
“Knock, knock. Hey, Dad.”
He looked up from his paperwork and smiled wide. “Well, if it isn’t my favorite daughter.”
“Your only one.”
