Chapter 17

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

Paige took a deep breath, standing at her baking station in one of her favorite classrooms. It was her very last class at Flourish Baking School, and her professor was walking from station to station, tasting everyone’s final projects and explaining to the room what each student had done well and what needed to be improved on.

She glanced at the clock, her heart thumping in her chest. In just a few more minutes, she would be done with school. It was a bittersweet feeling—she’d loved her time at the baking school, and she’d made friends that she wanted to stay in touch with for the rest of her life—but her time at school ending meant that something new could begin. It meant that she could move back to Blueberry Bay and begin her own bakery.

This was always supposed to be a staircase, not a destination, she thought, looking around the classroom at her friends and feeling a rush of nostalgia. And now I’ve climbed it, up to where I wanted to go.

She had to suppress a smile, she suddenly felt so excited. Her professor stepped up to her baking station next, and sampled her final project, which was a lemon meringue pie decorated with miniature macarons.

“This is wonderful, Paige,” her professor said warmly, and turned back to the whole classroom. “Paige mixed the meringue just the right amount for both kind of bakes. And her flavors are excellent.”

Paige inhaled, feeling thrilled. Her professor continued to walk around the room, sampling bakes, for another few minutes. Finally, every station had been critiqued, and the professor stood at the front of the room, smiling at her students.

“Well, everyone, you did it. Congratulations. You’ve just finished baking school.”

At that moment, the bell rang and the room erupted into cheers. Paige and her classmates hurried into a group hug, and for the next half hour, they talked and hung out and tried each other’s final projects. Lots of people told Paige that her lemon meringue pie was the best one they’d ever had.

After they’d all finally spilled out of the classroom together, Paige wandered the school for a while, finding other classmates and professors that she wanted to say goodbye to. Finally, feeling full almost to bursting with a bittersweet ache, she made her way back to her studio apartment, which she’d already packed up for the most part. She put a few remaining items into boxes, finished cleaning, and then started to load up her car. Since it had been a furnished apartment, she didn’t have to bring back any furniture, just her belongings, and the process didn’t take as long as she’d expected it to. Soon she was standing in an empty apartment with a full heart, taking a deep breath and feeling ready to take the next step in her life.

She left her apartment for the last time, leaving her keys at the front desk. As she walked to her car, she glanced in the direction of Flourish Baking School, which she could partially see in the distance.

“Goodbye,” she whispered, smiling quietly to herself. She took one more deep breath, and got into her car.

Blueberry Bay, here I come, she thought, and a grin spread over her face.

She made the drive back carefully but as quickly as she safely could. She couldn’t wait to see Josie and be back in town. She’d been waiting for this moment for a very long time, and she was so excited to finally have made it that she felt a little bit as though she was dreaming.

At last, she pulled up in the parking lot of Josie and Wesley’s apartment building. The plan was for her to stay with them for a few weeks until she found her own place in Blueberry Bay, and even though she didn’t want to intrude on their newlywed life, she had a feeling the three of them were going to have a blast together.

The second she parked, she climbed out of her car and called Josie.

“Hey, sister!” Josie sounded beside herself with excitement. “When are you going to be here?”

Paige did her best to sound tired and disappointed, which was hard because she was practically squirming with happiness. “Hey, Josie, I got kind of delayed.”

“Oh. Oh, well, that’s okay.” Josie sounded as though she was trying to hide disappointment. “I know you had a lot going on today. How much later do you think you’ll be?”

“I think,” Paige said, practically tiptoeing across the parking lot toward the front door of the building, “that it will be… as long as it takes you to come downstairs because I’m outside!”

“What?” Josie shrieked. “You—you—ahh!”

Paige laughed, and Josie hung up the phone. Less than a minute later, Josie burst out of the front door of the building and practically tackled her sister in a hug.

“I’m so happy to see you!” Josie cried, rocking her back and forth. “Congratulations on finishing baking school! I’m so proud of you.”

“Thank you!” Paige grinned from ear to ear. “I’m so happy to be home.”

“Come on upstairs and eat some dinner, and then we can all unload your car together. I made a white pizza with spinach. I know you love that.”

“Oh my gosh, yay! But how did you time it out so perfectly?”

Josie laughed as they started upstairs together. “Oh, I didn’t, I made it this afternoon. We just need to heat it up quick.”

“Amazing.” Paige’s stomach grumbled in anticipation.

Wesley met them in the hallway and gave Paige a big hug. “Welcome home, Paige!”

“Thank you! Thanks for letting me crash your home.”

“Hey, it was your home first.”

“True!”

Paige and Wesley shared a grin.

“We’ve been so excited about you getting back,” Josie admitted. “We’ve been planning your homecoming for a long time.”

“We bought all your favorite snacks,” Wesley said as they started toward the apartment door, which was ajar. “And Josie deep-cleaned your room and put like seven different scented candles in there.”

“Wow.” Paige grinned at them both, sighing happily. “It feels really good to be back.”

Josie wrapped her arm around Paige’s shoulders as they stepped inside the familiar apartment. It smelled incredible, like cooking food, and it soon became clear that Wesley had had the foresight to pop the pizza into the oven to warm as soon as Josie had gotten Paige’s call.

“Look at these sisters,” he joked, grinning at them as he shut the apartment door. “Reunited. A powerful force. I’ve just become superfluous, outnumbered by sisters. I am no longer needed.”

They laughed at his joke, and Josie was quick to respond, “Oh yes, you are.” She wrapped her arms around him, and Paige joined the group hug.

“We’ll keep you around, Wesley,” she teased. “Don’t worry.”

“Why thank you.” He gave a small, exaggerated bow.

They ate a delicious meal of the white pizza with homemade French fries and a salad with blue cheese and black olives. As they ate, they caught up on each other’s news, swapping stories and laughing together. Paige’s chest glowed with a warm feeling, and she thoroughly enjoyed the meal, being very hungry from her long day.

When they were finished eating dinner, they went down to Paige’s car and brought up her bags and boxes. With the three of them working together, the task took only a few minutes. They stacked everything in a corner of Paige’s old room, and then Wesley volunteered to clean up the kitchen while Josie helped Paige unpack.

“Thanks, sweetheart,” Josie said, giving him a quick peck on the lips as he was leaving. “I owe you one.”

“No, you don’t, it’s my turn,” he said, grinning at her, and disappeared.

“Wow, aren’t you two adorably domestic?” Paige teased. “Taking turns doing the dishes, huh?”

Josie blushed, and Paige couldn’t help laughing over how cute her sister was being.

“If that makes us adorably domestic, then I guess we’re adorably domestic,” Josie said, patting her cheeks. “We take turns cooking dinner and doing the dishes.”

“Yup, definitely adorable.”

They started to unpack Paige’s belongings together, which were mostly clothes and books.

“How are you feeling about everything?” Josie asked, getting a tender tone in her voice which meant she was going into big-sister mode.

“Good,” Paige said, smiling at her. “I mean, it’s bittersweet for sure. I’m sad about saying goodbye to my friends, and I loved my time at school. And I loved that little apartment! But I’m so ready to be back here so I can start my next adventure.”

“That’s my girl!” Josie grinned at her. “And congrats on getting hired to make Caitlin and Michael’s wedding cake. That’s huge.” Her eyes gleamed, as if she was proud of the hand she’d had in getting Paige hired.

“It is,” Paige said. “I’m super excited about it. But I’m nervous too,” she admitted, laughing breathlessly. “It’s such a big deal, and I’m worried that something will go wrong. Caitlin is planning on telling everyone that I’m making her cake, which is so sweet of her, and it should help spread the word about my bakery business really well. But what if the cake doesn’t turn out well, and then all those people think, ‘Okay, let’s not hire her’?”

“Paige.” Josie looked her sister square in the eye. “Do you know how to bake?”

“What?” Paige stammered, confused by the question.

“Do you know how to bake?”

“Well, yeah, of course I do.”

“Then bake the cake. Taste part of it to check the flavor and the consistency, and if you don’t like it, make another one. But I know you. I know you’re going to be careful and focused, and you’re going to create an incredible cake that everyone is going to love to eat.”

Paige let out a breath, feeling relieved by her sister’s words. “You’re right. I can do this. I made some pretty amazing wedding cakes in class.”

“That’s the spirit! Don’t let your nerves get you down. You may not own an actual bakery yet, but you are absolutely a professional. And now you’ve got a diploma to prove it.”

Paige scampered across the room and gave her sister a hug. “Thank you. I feel much less nervous already.”

“Good,” her sister said, grinning at her. “Now let’s finish unpacking so we can watch a movie and eat the chocolate ice cream I bought.”

“Ooh, really? That’s an incentive if I ever heard one.”

The two sisters continued to work, chatting about what movies they could watch. Paige felt tired but happy, and a feeling of peace washed over her. There might be challenges in front of her, but she trusted herself to accomplish them, and that was a good feeling.

Gwen rubbed her eyes, fighting back a yawn. It had been a long day at the clinic, and she was still there. She was just finishing up in her office, and she turned off her computer and carefully reset everything on the surface of her desk.

She stepped out into the lobby of the clinic, where Heidi was also getting ready to leave.

“I’m ready for a bubble bath and a glass of wine,” Heidi commented. “Pink Moscato. It’s been a long day.”

“You’re not kidding,” Gwen said, smiling at her and feeling grateful that all she had to do to get home was climb a staircase. “Thanks for all your hard work today.”

“You too! It was kind of nice to be so busy for a change—although I have to admit, I hope it doesn’t stay this way all the time. I’ve been enjoying sitting here reading books in my downtime.”

For a moment, Gwen didn’t say anything. She was struck by the realization that she was starting to enjoy her new slower place of life a little bit as well. The revelation surprised her—had she really changed so much in such a short amount of time?

“Sounds like fun,” she said, smiling at Heidi after a moment.

“What about you? You’ve been keeping busy with all this extra time we’ve had,” Heidi said. “Are you still volunteering at the elementary school? Little Clams?”

“I am,” Gwen said, feeling her heart lift up at the thought of it. “I’m going to go back there tomorrow morning to help Isaiah out with some painting. We’re painting a lot of the classrooms in fresh colors, like green and blue. It’s going to look really nice.”

“You should ask him to take you out on that boat again after,” Heidi said, grinning a touch slyly.

“What boat?” Gwen teased.

“Oh, I don’t know, maybe the one you’ve been talking about almost nonstop ever since you went on it. Adrenaline suits you, Dr. Dunaway.”

Gwen’s mouth popped open—she was surprised by Heidi’s comment. She had never considered herself to be the kind of person who was suited to adrenaline. “I don’t know about that.”

“Hmm, so maybe it’s not the boat you’re so excited about.” Now Heidi’s smile was decidedly sly. “Maybe it’s the captain of the boat.”

“What?” Gwen protested, feeling herself flush.

“Isaiah Dunlap, the heartthrob of Blueberry Bay. You’ve been spending a lot of time with him, and I’m not going to lie, you seem much happier than usual. So come on—you should ask him to take you out on that boat again. Maybe it will be like a date.”

“I—no—I’m not interested in him like that,” Gwen stammered. “I’m not going to ask him to take me out on the boat again.”

The nurse lifted her eyebrows and cocked her head to one side, giving Gwen a skeptical look.

“What?” Gwen protested. “What’s that look for?”

“It means that what you think of him is written all over your face,” Heidi said, grinning. “You like him, and you want to get on board with his optimistic, fun-loving ways even if it is against your nature.”

Gwen’s mouth popped open again, ready to protest, but the words died on her lips. She couldn’t deny it—she did find Isaiah fun and attractive and a great person to be around. She got butterflies whenever she thought about him, and that made her nervous. And she had to admit that she was now more nervous about the whole thing than ever before, since he’d acted a little strangely the last time she’d spoken with him. She’d been noticing the budding chemistry between the two of them, but the way he’d been acting the last time she saw him made her wonder if maybe he’d decided that they weren’t compatible after all, and he needed to stop being flirtatious with her.

I scare people off, she thought. No man wants to be with someone who’s as particular as I am.

Shaking off her disappointment at the thought, she said firmly, “I didn’t come here to get into a relationship. I mean, I just got out of one. That’s not part of the plan for me.”

Heidi smiled knowingly, resting a hand on her hip. “Hey, sometimes things don’t go according to plan. Sometimes you need to embrace the unexpected.”

Gwen smiled back, but she didn’t comment on Heidi’s words. Internally, she knew that what her friend was saying made a lot of sense, but she didn’t feel ready to admit that out loud.

“You keep thinking about it,” Heidi said breezily, lifting a brow at Gwen and grabbing her purse. She seemed to sense that the conversation wasn’t going to go anywhere else that night, but Gwen got the impression that her friend planned on bringing the whole thing up again another time. “I’ll see you soon. You can tell me all about how the painting goes tomorrow.”

“I’m sure it’ll be fairly uneventful,” Gwen said. “Paint drying is supposed to be one of the most boring things to watch, isn’t it?”

“Yeah, but you won’t be watching the paint dry,” Heidi said mischievously. “See you tomorrow!” she called out cheerfully before Gwen had a chance to protest, and slipped through the front door.

Gwen watched her go, feeling her stomach fill with butterflies. She was excited to see Isaiah the next morning, and she was nervous too. Part of her wanted nothing special at all to happen the next day, because that would mean that she could start to forget all about her crush on him and try to focus on other things. But the rest of her hoped that she would have news to share with Heidi after all.