Page 7 of Gumdrops and Garland
“We’ll find it,” I promised, leaning back on the chair while he cleaned up the plates and put them in the dishwasher. When he finished, he walked over and took my hand.
“You should probably go back to bed. I need to turn in too. I have to work in the morning.”
I nodded and he turned off the light then led me from the kitchen and up the stairs to the bedrooms. What I found most curious was how he never let go of my hand the whole way there.
“Morning, Mel,” I called out as I hung up my coat and purse in my office then grabbed my apron and tied it on. “What’s in the oven today?”
“Buns,” Mel said, laughter on her lips. I raised a brow. “Not that kind of buns! Noel is barely a year old. Besides, two kids are enough for us.”
I chuckled and got to work panning buns, because they indeed needed to go into the oven. “When one of those kids is Holly Hadley, I totally get it.”
She pointed her rolling pin at me, throwing flour around in the air. “That girl is like living with a Marine sergeant and Barbie at the same time.”
I pictured it in my head and then gave her a quick wink. “You’re not wrong, but we sure do love her. I can’t imagine her any other way.”
“I can,” Mel said, a faraway look in her eye. “I can remember what it was like to imagine everything about her. I will take every ounce of drill sergeant and Barbie she can hit me with from now until eternity.”
I tossed the pan of buns onto the proofing rack and leaned my hip on the baker’s bench. “I guess that’s a great way to look at it. After so many years without her, you have a different perspective.”
When Holly was a newborn, Mel’s parents kidnapped her, and it wasn’t until four years ago that Mel found out where Holly was and that she needed a home. Mel and Mason had picked her up, brought her home to the diner, and she’d been part of the family ever since. It was a shocking day for the people of Bells Pass to meet a little girl who looked just like her mommy, but it was also a wonderfully wholesome and happy day.
“How is your different perspective going?” she asked, tossing a loaf of French bread on a pan. “You are definitely less tired this week. I guess Lance’s place agrees with you.”
To avoid eye contact with her, I grabbed another bread pan and started cutting loaves. “It’s been nice not having to drive so far every day and to know that I have a safe place to go at the end of my shift.”
“I noticed a little spring in Lance’s step this week again too. What say you?”
I shrugged and kept at my job so she couldn’t see how much I hoped that spring in his step was because of me. “He likes having someone else living in the house. We usually don’t see each other unless it’s late at night, but I think it’s more the idea that he’s not completely alone in the house that makes him more relaxed. He’s never lived alone, so I’m sure it’s an adjustment.”
“Well, all I’m saying is, I’m glad you are both benefiting from the deal. The city can’t get that new housing done fast enough it seems. Last year, it was Becca who needed a safer place to live and this year, it’s you.”
“And not that many years ago it was Shep, you, and Ellis. It does feel like the universe conspires against single people who try to stay in this town after high school.”
“Or maybe the universe is conspiring in a different way,” she pointed out, her eyebrow raised.
I slid the pan of bread onto the rack and wiped my hands. “A different way?”
“Matchmaking,” she said with a wink and a nod. “I’m starting to see a pattern.”
“Well, your pattern is about to fall apart then, Mel. For the last sixteen years Lance has given me nothing but a cold shoulder. We’ve managed to move past that a little bit, but I’ll be moving out of his house as soon as an apartment opens. We are not the new couple of Bells Pass.”
“If you say so,” she said, but her grin said she didn’t believe me.
“Hey, can I run something by you?” I asked to change the subject. “It involves taste testing.”
“Well, duh,” she said, her laughter filling the space. “Whatcha got?”
I held up my finger and went to the cooler, pulling out the hidden cake I’d put there yesterday. It needed to sit for a day before I cut it, so now was the perfect time to try it. I brought it to the bench and sliced it up, handing her a piece on a napkin.
“I give you gumdrop cake.”
“Gumdrop cake? Does it taste like fruitcake? If it does, I might gag.”
I snorted and picked up a piece for myself. “Of course not. Try it.” I took a bite and closed my eyes, moaning softly in my throat while I chewed. “Damn, I’m good.”
Mel was chewing with her eyes closed and I knew the minute the flavors all melded together for her. Her eyes popped open and she grinned. “This is delicious! Holly would go banana sandwich for this. You really do have an addiction to gumdrops, don’t you?”
I patted my ample thighs. “The thighs don’t lie, baby, Neither does my nickname.”