Page 4 of Suddenly Yours

The three of them paused and turned in unison to look at me. I raised my chin slightly and threw up my hands. “Not now at any rate.”

Cade’s eyes softened a little, and I noticed concern mixed with that warm something I kept pretending I didn’t notice whenever he looked at me.

“Don’t worry,” he said gently. “We’re here now. I’ll take a look at this, then you can spend the rest of the morning bossing us around like usual,” he teased.

And despite the chaos, the disasters, and the possessed appliances… I grinned.

I had hired a woman named Meredith Kennedy to help in the kitchen, but unfortunately she had already arranged to be in Boston for her son’s wedding the week of the bakery’s opening. I still needed to hire someone to work the front. Maybe two someones? I guess I was waiting to see how well opening day went before looking for employees.

Cora walked over and grabbed one of my spare aprons and tied it around her perfect dancer waist. “Where do you need us?”

I blinked at her and thought for a moment. “Um… everywhere?”

Max snorted as he grabbed a broom and started cleaning up the flour mess. “That tracks.”

Cade straightened from turning the oven back on and rolled up his sleeves. He shot me a look that made my stomach do a slow, traitorous flip. “Give me ten minutes,” he said. “I’ll get this beast running smoother than the two of you dance.” He motioned to Max and Cora.

“Nothing is that smooth,” Max said, and winked at his wife.

I had Cora take over filling the trays of cut donut dough as well as moving trays from the oven to the cooling racks. She moved trays, lined parchment paper, and organized the baked goods in the cooling racks like she’d been working in bakeries her entire life.

I jumped back to working with the dough, shaping, rolling, filling, folding, my hands moving on muscle memory alone as butter melted, sugar browned, and cinnamon and vanilla scents filled the air.

Cade, who apparently had secret oven-repair superpowers, managed to get the temperamental beast humming again. “You’re welcome,” he said, patting the panel like he’d just revived a soldier on the battlefield.

“Thanks.”

“I’m a god when it comes to fixing things like this,” he joked.

“Hey, you were the one who broke your dishwasher trying to ‘fix’ it in high school,” I pointed out. “God?” I snorted. “More like dweeb.”

He grinned but then winked at me. “I’ve grown since then.”

I wanted to disagree, but I knew all too well how much he’d “grown.”

The kitchen got into a rhythm with Max reading orders off my scribbled prep list, Cora filling and sliding trays in and out of the oven, and Cade fixing all the machines that had decided to revolt that morning, or cleaning up after they’d made a mess.

By the time the clock hit five-thirty, the display cases were piled high with croissants, turnovers, Danishes, biscuits, muffins, donuts, small cakes, and a few experimental pastries I wasn’t totally sure were legal. I offered pre-made breakfast sandwiches but figured I could take special orders once I’d hired more help.

I wiped my forehead with the clean part of my apron. “Okay. I think we’re almost⁠—”

My phone’s alarm chimed.

Six. Sharp.

My breath caught. “Oh no. I’m not ready.” I glanced around in a panic. Everything seemed to be in place, yet something was missing.

Cora peeked through the window of the door that led to the front dining room and gasped. “Missy… you have a line outside.”

“A line?” I felt a rush of joy.

“A long line.”

Max walked over to look then whistled. “I count at least thirty people.”

Cade came up behind me. “I told you they’d show up.” His voice was warm and soft at the edges. “This place looks amazing and smells like heaven.”

“Whatever isn’t ready, we’ll work on behind the scenes. No one will know you’re not at one-hundred-percent today. It’s like our wedding—guests didn’t realize the mistakes,” Cora said as she took my brother’s hand in hers. “We were the only ones who knew.”