Page 3 of Rock with You
At least it might help take her mind off the bakery’s troubles. Closing early today wasn’t going to help her pay the bills. Neither was the lousy weather that had driven away most of her afternoon customers.
The bakery’s phone rang, and she walked over to answer it. “A Piece of Cake Bakery. How may I help you?”
“Carly?”
She almost swallowed her tongue when she heard the butter-smooth voice on the other end of the line. “Yes?”
“It’s Sam.”
Sam. She felt herself grinning like an idiot. Why in the world was he calling her? And apparently she and Sam Weiss were on a first-name basis now? Gah. “Oh, Sam…hi.”
“Do you make deliveries?”
No. But for him? “Sure. When?”
“Tonight.”
Um… “I’m closing early because of the weather, but I could drop something off on my way home if you live in town?”
“Weather?”
“Yeah, this rain is supposed to start freezing soon.”
“I didn’t know.” His voice…it did all sorts of weird things to her insides, stirring her up and melting her down at the same time. “Never mind then. I don’t want to put you at risk.”
Oh, no way was she missing out on this opportunity. “No, it’s fine. The roads aren’t supposed to get slick until later. What did you need delivered?” At least her voice wasn’t doing that Minnie Mouse thing this time.
“Whatever you can spare,” he said. “I’ll take anything you’ve got.”
Wow. Was he having a party or something? In this weather? “Okay. How many people are you feeding?”
“I’ll take some of everything you have. I’m at 245 Twisted Branch Lane. And feel free to tack on a rush delivery fee, whatever you need. I appreciate it.”
“No problem.”
“Bye, Carly.” With a click, he was gone.
Carly stood for a moment, staring at the phone. Had that really just happened? Sam Weiss was here in Haven, he was throwing some kind of party at his house, and he wanted her to bring the sweets? With, like, two minutes’ notice? None of it made any sense, but business had been slow today because of the weather, and she was struggling to turn a profit on a good day. So if he wanted to pay her for all of today’s leftovers, she would be happy to deliver them to him. And if it meant the chance to see his house and Sam himself again? All the better.
In theory.
In reality, she’d probably be shy and awkward, but either way, this would make an amazing story to tell her friends at their next Girls’ Night Out.
She hustled into the back for delivery boxes, then set about filling them. An assortment of cupcakes. Honeyed pecan tarts. Several different kinds of cookies. Black forest brownies. Carrot cake bites. A whole candied lemon pie—why not? She slipped it into a box.
In case any of his guests would be spending the night—and with the ice they were expecting, some of them might not have a choice—she packed up several boxes of breakfast offerings as well, including all of her remaining cinnamon buns. She felt slightly presumptuous as she started carrying it all out to her car because, goodness, she’d packed a lot of boxes. The biggest order she’d ever assembled, and completely on the fly.
This day was officially bizarre.
Sam had good timing, though. If not for the slow business day and closing early for the weather, she might not have been able to pull this off for him on such short notice. By the time she’d loaded her backseat and trunk with delivery boxes, she was cold and wet, but the rain was still just rain so she should have no trouble getting to his place before the roads turned slick.
Since she hadn’t had a customer in almost an hour now, she went ahead and flipped the sign on the front door from open to closed and locked the door. If she had time, she really needed to stop at the market on her way home for a few ice storm supplies. PB&J fixings. Batteries. Wine.
But first things first. In the bathroom, she fixed her bedraggled appearance as well as she could. She brushed her hair and freshened her makeup. She’d have to keep on her practical winter boots; there was no way around it. The ground was saturated with a full day’s rain, and her feet would be soaked through while she unloaded her car in anything else.
Here goes nothing.
Swallowing down a ridiculous burst of nerves, she locked the back door and hopped into her car. She was on her way to Sam Weiss’s house! Would it be creepy if she took a sneaky picture of him with her phone while she was unloading all the goodies? Her friends were never going to believe this actually happened without photographic evidence.