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“Go ahead and sit down,” she said, pointing to one of the tables nearest to the front counter. “I’ll have your surprise in just a second.”
He did as he was told, eyeing the display case as he walked past it. Mindy had always been phenomenal in the kitchen, and as he looked at the beautifully decorated pastries in the case before him, he realized she’d only gotten better with the passing years. Everything inside the pastry case looked phenomenal.
“What’s the surprise?” he asked, plopping down onto a chair and scooting it closer to the table.
Mindy took a second to answer, and he glanced toward the kitchen, trying to see what she was doing, but her body blocked his view of whatever she was doing with her hands. A moment later, she turned around, holding an ornate serving tray that had about five pastries on it. They were all different, but each one was beautiful and intricate.
“I made you a sampler,” she said with a smile, coming out from the back and setting the serving tray down in front of him. “A couple of my regulars’ favorites, a couple of mine, and something new that I want to try out and haven’t put on the menu yet.”
Noah’s eyes raked hungrily over the offerings before him, and his mouth watered as he wondered where he should dig in.
“What are they?” he asked, his stomach giving an embarrassing little growl that Mindy, thankfully, ignored.
“This one is a bear claw,” she said, pointing to the twisted pastry that smelled strongly of cinnamon and brown sugar. “Then you have a morning bun, a strawberry galette, the blueberry crumble muffin, and something I want to try out—a chocolate, pistachio, and mint croissant.”
“These are incredible,” he murmured, entirely unable to keep the awe out of his voice as he plucked the bear claw from the tray, deciding that it’d be better to sample each item and just work his way down the line of pastries.
Noah took a bite of the bear claw, and the flavor of it exploded across his tongue. He couldn’t help it, his eyes closed of their own volition and a small groan of delight found its way to the back of his throat. He couldn’t imagine any of the others being better than this as he savored the rich, cinnamon infused treat.
But when he moved on to the next item on the tray, it was even better than the bear claw. He chewed slowly, finding himself in genuine awe of the talent the woman before him possessed. He glanced at Mindy, who was standing near the counter, hands pressed to her lips as she watched him with a bit of trepidation.
“Min,” he murmured, unable to keep the appreciation from his voice. “These are incredible. Mind-blowing. Truly.”
Her brow creased, and her brown eyes shone as she cocked her head to the side, her blonde ringlets glinting in the light.
“Really?” she asked, clearly worried that he’d just been appeasing her.
But Noah didn’t have a chance to give her any more positive feedback as he took a bite of the strawberry galette, because it was so good that it struck him entirely speechless. Mindy must have noted his reaction and recognized it for what it truly was, and she grinned.
“You know,” he said around a bite of pastry, “you could make a killing owning a bakery like this in Boston.”
“I do just fine here,” she answered, and he thought he caught a hint of defensiveness in her tone.
“I’m sure you do,” Noah amended quickly, worried that he’d offended her. “I meant it when I said this was amazing. But, well…”
His words trailed off as he tried to decide how to phrase what he wanted to say next.
“Well, what?” she prompted, and he could feel her bristling.
“It’s just that this town is so small,” he said, furrowing his brows as he tried to make sense of why she would be offended by him telling her that she’d be successful in a place even bigger than where she was now. “And I know I saw another bakery not far from here when I pulled into Snowy Pine Ridge the other day. In a town this size, the competition has to have an impact on you. And you told me that you only got established a couple years ago. If that bakery has been here longer, then it can’t be easy to drum up customers in a town as well-established and loyal as this. Clearly, your pastries speak for themselves—”
“They do,” Mindy interrupted, and now Noah didn’t need to guess whether or not he’d offended her. It was clear as day that he had. “And I’m going to cut you off right there. Because, yes, it was hard to come here and get everything off the ground, but I can already tell you have the wrong impression of the type of town Snowy Pine Ridge is. Because never once did the people here make me feel like I didn’t belong, or like I didn’t have a place among them. And the other bakery? My ‘competition’?” She made air quotes around the word. “The owner is one of my absolute best friends and has been since very shortly after I opened Baking Fiend. We collaborate with each other. Learn from each other. Run deals that bolsters each other’s businesses.”
Noah swallowed, the bite of delicious food turning to ash in his mouth as he realized just how grievously he’d gotten things wrong.
“Thatis the kind of town Snowy Pine Ridge is,” Mindy continued, narrowing her eyes at him. “And that’s something you would have realized if you hadn’t come in here with your own preconceived notions of what was wrong with this place and how to make it more like your precious Boston.”
He tried to speak, but he ended up just opening his mouth and gaping at her as his mind scrambled for what to say. Mindy glanced at the clock on the wall and shook her head, a bit of her anger seeming to deflate.
“Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to open up the store.” She paused for a second, tightening up her apron strings and smoothing her hands down the front of it. “You can stay and enjoy your pastries for as long as you’d like.”
Noah still couldn’t figure out what to say to salvage the situation as she headed toward the front door and turned the sign from CLOSED to OPEN. The moment that the door was unlocked, a customer appeared. Noah recognized him as the gruff man from the town hall meeting two days prior, and he listened in as Mindy greeted the white-haired man with a friendly smile.
“The usual today, Rudolph?” she asked, all the anger draining from her face as she grinned warmly at her customer and situated herself behind the counter.
“Yup, you got it,” the old man grunted as he approached the register, fishing out his wallet from the pocket of his faded blue jeans. “Where’s Allison?”
Rudolph glowered in Noah’s direction when he noticed him at the table, and Noah tried not to shift uncomfortably in his seat.
