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Avery didn’t get it.
No one in my world understood the fact that I was drowning in lace and dinner forks.
“Nothing. Never mind,” I replied.
Avery chuckled. “Thank God. I was starting to worry about you there, Vi.”
FOUR
2005
TUCK
“Look at this one,Lenora. The most perfect baguette I think I’ve ever seen.” I held up the warm bread in my hands, beaming. “Hot damn! Would you look at her?”
Flour covered every inch of me as I watched Lenora stand with her hands on her plump hips, smiling brightly. “Well, I’ll be, Tuck Anderson. You did it. What did you do differently this time?”
“I didn’t rush it. I let it rise overnight and then some, letting it take its time. You can’t rush a good baguette, Lenora.” I winked at her, knowing that she’d been telling me that for years, but I had always been too impatient to wait.
I’d been working at Lenora’s bakery, The Baking Tin, for several years. I had perfected a honey challah, made bagels that the whole town devoured, and a pumpkin roll so good that it was sure to be a talking point at any Thanksgiving table, but the baguette had always stumped me.
Until today.
“You must have had a really good teacher, I expect,” Lenora said as she began to place the donuts and blueberry scones into the glass counter for the morning crowd.
I grabbed one of the strawberry-iced yeast donuts and took a big bite, half of it disappearing into my mouth. “She is exceptional. They call her The Queen of Baked Goods.”
Lenora chuckled and patted my shoulder. She and her husband, Teddy, were my hometown’s sweethearts. The most generous couple in all of Aveline. Teddy was the town veterinarian and Lenora kept everyone stuffed full of fresh bread and treats. They treated everyone like family. That was the Aveline way though; everyone within the town’s border was family, and we all protected each other.
That mindset was the sole reason I’d never gone hungry.
The town had always taken care of me.
My father worked at Poe Miller’s hardware shop by day and worked very hard on a bottle of Jack every night. He was a gruff man, and we’d had a rocky relationship for as long as I could remember. It seemed like the sooner I could be independent, the better—for both of us. The Baking Tin job allowed me to buy my own shoes when I needed them, food when I wanted it, and cover basic finances without having to ask him for anything.
My mother had died when I was ten after a long battle with cancer. She’d been a waitress at the Aveline Cafe and had a smile that would light up any dark room. The townspeople, even eight years later, often made a point to tell me she’d been the prettiest girl in Aveline. Watching her beautiful smile fade into oblivion when she died had been the hardest thing I’d ever done.
I’d started hanging around the bakery after I lost my mom, but hadn’t officially become an employee until I turned fourteen. I’d thought I would just run the cash register and help clean up after hours, but Lenora had another idea.
She’d said I had hands that were made for baking.
Not exactly the compliment most fourteen-year-old boys would have wanted to hear. It certainly hadn’t been the most manly thing for my hands to be doing.Couldn’t she have said they were hands for chopping down trees or tuning up the engine of an old muscle car?But she’d been right, and once I started baking, I couldn’t stop.
Lenora wiped her hands on her apron and spoke up, bringing me back to the present. “Keep up the good work, Tuck, and you’ll be taking over my bakery one day.”
I flipped over the sign indicating we were OPEN and shook my head. “As much as I’d want to, I don’t know that I’ll be coming back here to stay. Who knows what I might find after my contract is up.”
Lenora batted her hand. “I know. I am proud of you and your plans. It’ll just be hard to see you go. But sometimes we have to let our little birdies out of the nest to fly, don’t we? Wishful thinkin’ that you’d stay around here when there’s a whole big world out there.”
“I just want to be better,” I replied, lowering my head before adding, “than him.”
“You’re a good man, Tuck, and you’re smart. And no matter what you do, no one can take that away from you. Not even him.” She paused, looking intently into my eyes, and smiled subtly. “You’re nothing like him, you know? You don’t even look like him. You are all your mama… And your mama, well, she was as good as they come.”
The door chimed, and in walked our first customer of the morning.
I walked to the register after giving Lenora’s hand a squeeze to signal that I appreciated her, and I put on a big smile. “Mary Anne! Are you ready for that poppyseed bagel?”
FIVE
