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Her head cocked to the right, and she stared into his eyes for a while longer than was comfortable. But he didn’t look away. “I have thought that. The way things changed. But I can’t imagine what it could be.”
The back door opened, and Keaton Bennit carefully entered the bakery. “I have to run. The Sheriff is asking for a meeting before the town hall meeting. I understand you and your team will be around right after lunch.”
Tate nodded, “Yes, sir. We’ll be there.”
Keaton stepped into the room further and kissed Lara on the temple. “I’ll stop by later, Lara. Don’t stay too late, with them boys as wild as they are right now.”
“If you’d arrest them, none of us would have to worry about them.”
“Don’t start again, honey. I’ve got enough to deal with.”
He waved to them both and disappeared through the doorway leading to the back.
Tate looked around once again. “Do you need help with anything?”
She chuckled. “You offering to help me clean?”
Shrugging, “Yeah. I guess. I mean, I have a little time before Spencer gets here.”
She turned and grabbed a new garbage bag and lined the empty can. “It’s almost as if I’ve fallen into an alternate universe.”
He laughed. “You don’t believe in that stuff, do you?”
“No, but it would explain a lot of things these days.”
“I’ll give you that.” He walked to the far side of the bakery and picked up a couple of the colorful chairs laying on their sides. Finding a broom against the wall, he began sweeping the floor and Lara walked behind the bakery counter and pulled all the baked goods from inside and tossed them in the garbage can.
“It makes me sad to see all that going to waste.”
“Me too. But I can’t risk that broken glass or debris didn’t touch them. Plus, with the dust we’ve been stirring up with the sweeping and the flour filling the air, they won’t taste the same. I’ll start fresh in the morning.”
“How early are you going to start?”
She tossed a pan of cookies into the garbage and shrugged. “Around two or three a.m. I guess.”
He shook his head, and his phone rang.
“Vickers.”
“Mr. Vickers, this is Baxter Fenshaw. I’m a construction manager at Fort Abraham. I’d like to change our meeting from later this afternoon to two thirty today.”
“I think we can make that work, Mr. Fenshaw.”
“Baxter. Call me Baxter. I’ll see you then. Come to the construction office on the grounds. I’ll wait for you here.”
“Confirmed.”
Spencer’s truck rolled to a stop near the front door. Tate stood his broom against the wall and turned to help Spencer bring in the camera equipment. Lara stopped tossing items into the garbage and glanced out the window.
“I think we need to discuss payment again, Tate.”
“Look, we have the equipment, and you need it. We can always order more if we need to. Let’s just say we’ll install it. If you like it in a few months, we’ll talk about payment. If you don’t like it, you can find another system you prefer, and we’ll take ours out.”
Her smile was small, tentative, and nervous. But Spencer entered the bakery, stalling any further discussion of payment.
“Holy shit. They did a number here.”
Lara brushed her hands together. “It was worse. Believe it or not, I’ve cleaned some of this up. But I focused on the kitchen first, so out here took a backseat.”
