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She wheeled around, letting out a shocked breath when she saw the giant branch that had just come crashing through the front window of Baking Fiend.
“Oh, no,” she breathed, frozen in place for a moment as she took in the damage. Then she shook herself out of her stupor and strode quickly to the counter, grabbing her phone from where she had left it mere moments before.
She selected Noah’s name from her contact list and immediately pressed “call,” her mind racing as she waited for the line to connect.
“Hello?” Noah sounded a bit confused when he answered—probably because she had just texted him.
“I’m so sorry,” she said, realizing that she was speaking in a rush but unable to slow her words. “I have to reschedule our plans tonight. Something… came up.”
He could clearly sense the panic in her voice, because his tone immediately became concerned.
“What’s wrong? What’s going on?”
Mindy could hear shuffling on the other end of the line, and she closed her eyes, imagining that he was beginning to pace. A soft smile tugged up her lips at his obvious worry, despite the stress that was rushing through her.
“It’s all right. I’m all right,” she assured him. “I just need to take a raincheck for today. Is that okay?”
Noah hesitated before asking, “You’re sure you’re all right?”
“I’m sure,” Mindy answered, trying to put as much confidence as she could muster into her tone. “So, the raincheck?”
“Okay,” he agreed. “Raincheck it is.”
They said their goodbyes, and she hung up the phone, turning around to stare at the gaping hole in the front of her business. Not knowing what else to do, Mindy let out a long sigh before walking to the storage closet in the back of the building and pulling out a broom and dustpan.
She made her way over to the window, beginning to sweep up the mess that had spread across the floor as she tried to keep her spirits up. Humming “Merry Christmas, Darling” under her breath, she focused as hard as she could on cleaning everything up, losing herself in the steady motion of moving the broom back and forth as she tried to gather all the broken shards into a pile on the floor.
Just as she was making her third trip back to the trash can, carrying the dustpan carefully so that the glass within it wouldn’t spill out onto the floor, a knock sounded at the front door. She turned toward it quickly, worried that another gust of wind was about to send something else crashing through her windows. But when she saw a figure silhouetted against the glass, her pulse began to slow.
Hurriedly, Mindy dumped the glass into the trash can and then rushed back to the front door where Noah stood, waiting patiently for her to open it.
“What are you doing here?” Mindy asked as he stepped into the empty bakery.
“You sounded upset, and I knew better than to wait for you to ask me for my help.” He gave her a pointed look. “So I decided to come here for myself and see what was going on.”
“But we agreed to a raincheck.” She shook her head, although she couldn’t deny that she was so grateful to see him.
He chuckled. “Well, the raincheck is right now. Tell me how I can help.”
For a moment, she considered telling him not to worry about it, that she could deal with it on her own. But she was touched that he had come, and she didn’t want to reject his offer of assistance. And besides, it truly would be a lot easier to take care of this if she had help.
“There’s another broom and dustpan in the back,” she said with a small smile. “Grab it, and let’s get this glass up. Then we’ll work on covering up the window.”
He nodded, shrugging off his coat despite the cool air coming in through the opening the branch had created, then walked toward the back. He reappeared a moment later, carrying the broom and dustpan she’d indicated, a determined look on his face.
They fell into step easily, both of them working side by side as they cleaned up the glass and the sticks that had scattered over the floor during the impact. When that was done, which happened much more quickly now that Mindy wasn’t working alone, they began delicately extracting the branch from the window, all while trying not to send more glass skittering across the bakery floor.
It took some maneuvering and lots of teamwork, but eventually, they were able to get the branch out with minimal additional damage. Their final step was to place a bit of plastic tarp over the hole and tape everything up, sealing it as best they could against the elements until Mindy could have someone come out to replace everything.
When she and Noah were finished, they took a few steps back, eyeing their handiwork.
“Well,” Mindy said appreciatively. “It’s not perfect, but it’ll get the job done.”
“That’s all we need for now,” he responded, turning to face her.
She reached for one of the brooms so that she could put it away for the evening, and Noah made a move to grab it at the exact same time. Both of their hands came to rest on the broomstick, their fingers brushing against each other’s and sending tiny bolts of electricity skittering across Mindy’s skin.
Their eyes locked, and the electricity between them seemed to spark through the air.
