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His voice was soft and steady when he spoke to her, and his unshakeable calm immediately started putting Sarah’s worried mind at ease.
“But what if they steal all our customers?” she pressed, unable to completely let it go. “What if no one wants to come to Sweet Thing anymore?”
“There’s no way that could happen.” William chuckled lightly, shaking his head. “People love Sweet Thing! Just because a new bakery is opening up, that won’t change. I mean, look at it.” He gestured to the TV screen. “It’s completely different than what we have going on. So it isn’t like they’re copying us or anything. It’s just that now, we’ll have a little bit of friendly competition. And I don’t think that will hurt us one bit.”
Sarah kept her eyes locked on William’s, studying his face for any sign that he might be exaggerating or underplaying his feelings on the matter. He wasn’t typically one to lie to her, even to keep her calm. Actually, she couldn’t recall a time where he hadeverlied to her.
And in this moment, his handsome features were calm and steady. When he spoke again, his shining blue eyes were filled with nothing but honesty, support, and love for her.
“You have built something truly amazing with Sweet Thing,” he said proudly. “The people of this town not only love your drinks and your baked goods, but they loveyou. And no other bakery will ever be able to compete with that.”
Sarah blew out a breath, the knot in her stomach unwinding. She leaned into him, resting her head on his shoulder as she closed her eyes.
“Thank you,” she murmured. “I guess I needed someone to talk me down. So thank you for being my rock. You’re always so calm, and you help me see things from a different perspective.”
She felt William nod, and then he turned his head and pressed a kiss to her hair.
“Thank you for being my light,” William said, and gratitude washed through Sarah all over again. He pulled back to look at her and gave her a small smile. “Are you feeling better? If you are, I’m going back into the kitchen and finish up with dinner.”
“Much better. Thanks.”
Sarah sat up, but before he could stand, she leaned in to steal a quick kiss. As William returned to the kitchen, she grabbed the remote again and changed the channel, deciding that it would likely be best for her to find something entirely different to watch. She could catch up on the local news stories some other time.
She flipped through the channels until she spotted a rerun of one of her favorite sitcoms and settled on that.
Nestling back into the fluffy couch cushions, she blew out a contented breath.
William is right, she told herself.People love Sweet Thing.
And she knew that if she continued to pour her whole heart into her work and to treat her customers like family, then there was nothing that could ever truly compete with the business and home she had created.
CHAPTERTEN
Zach jiggled his leg impatiently, the sofa creaking underneath him as he continued to shift restlessly. He glanced out the large bay window at the front of the house, taking a quick look at the weather. For what felt like the first time since he’d arrived in Snowy Pine Ridge, the sky was a bright, cloudless blue, and the sun was glinting off the snow.
Wanting to get a better look at the town and the landscape surrounding it, Zach pushed himself up off the sofa and began walking toward the front door. He pulled on his coat and draped his scarf around his neck before slipping on his boots and striding out into the brisk winter day.
The moment the front door shut behind him, he turned to lock it and then stood on the front porch for a moment, breathing in the cold air as the smell of snow filled his nostrils. He couldn’t stop himself from casting a quick glance toward the guest house on the other side of the yard. Smoke floated out of the chimney and trailed upward into the sky, and he could smell the scent of the burning cedar. The old-fashioned little building combined with the blanket of snow and the smell of the wood all came together to form a beautiful, cozy picture. Zach wondered if Colette was nestled inside.
Shaking that thought from his mind, he started to walk toward his car before stopping and pursing his lips.
Maybe I’ll walk instead, he thought to himself. While the air around him was cold, he felt completely protected inside his thick coat, and everything was so beautiful. He couldn’t think of better weather for a winter walk through town.
He stopped at his car just long enough to pull a pair of warm gloves from the center console and pull them on before starting on his journey toward the town square.
He tucked his hands into his coat pockets as he walked, his breath floating up before him in tiny little puffs. It wasn’t long before he reached downtown Snowy Pine Ridge, and he found himself enchanted all over again by the charm that the town held.
The white-capped mountain in the distance loomed over them, silently watching as the sun gleamed down upon the peaks. The snow on the ground glinted in the early afternoon light, glistening in an array of crystals and varying hues of blue and white. People walked from shop to shop as they chatted merrily, some of them nursing hot drinks with a pink, polka dotted coffee sleeve.
He turned down one street, catching sight of a large town square that was dominated by a massive Christmas tree. It was such a lovely, quaint sight that his hands nearly twitched with the urge to paint it. Instead, he satisfied himself with snapping a picture on his phone before walking farther into the town. After another few blocks, he spotted a sign for an ice-skating rink and followed where it pointed.
He passed by the outside of the rink, watching as kids and adults alike teetered on the blades and struggled to keep themselves upright, while others performed tricks that seemed to defy the laws of physics.
Everywhere Zach turned, he felt like there was something new that he ached to paint. A mother and daughter building a snowman beside a gazebo wrapped in twinkling lights, the front of a house decorated in an ornate Christmas wreath that hung under a large piece of mistletoe, the rosy-cheeked children with red noses who ran by him pulling sleds, racing to the nearest hill so they could begin a snowy adventure.
It was a bit overwhelming, how different things were here in comparison with Rochester. He had always thought of himself as belonging in the city and had found himself enamored with a fast-paced life and late nights filled with neon lights.
But here in Snowy Pine Ridge, time seemed to move differently. It was slower, somehow. People stopped to greet each other on the street, they smiled at strangers and told them to have a lovely day, and they all seemed to be filled with a perpetual Christmas cheer that he couldn’t help but be impressed by.
