Chapter 1

CHAPTER ONE

Lyla

O ne Year Later

"I'm going to have to ask him for a job," I mumble, looking again at my budget. There's absolutely no way I can make this work. I had hoped I could until at least Christmas, but here I am; two weeks from it, and I can't afford my supplies order.

"No, you aren't." My best friend, Kayla, says as she puts a hand on my shoulder. "You always make it work."

But this time I won't. It's staring me blatantly in the face. My account is very close to zero, and there are no savings to rely on this time around. I've used it all up. My credit cards are maxed, and I'm behind on those payments. This isn't going to be the most wonderful time of the year. Not this time. "It's not going to work, Kayla. I'm sorry, but I'm going to have to close today. My bank account says I can't afford anything else to get us through. I've been holding on by the tips of my fingers, and I just can't anymore. I'm not even sure I'll be able to pay you for all the hours you've worked this week," I admit, my throat tightening with unshed tears.

"You know I do this because I love it, not because you're paying me enough to live on," she jokes. Her husband is a businessman, and she only works to get out of the house. That's not to say she isn't talented. She is, but this was never a definite for her. Not like it is for me.

"I appreciate that." I let some of the tears fall.

My dreams are going right down my cheeks too. When I started Holly Jolly Bakery, it was with all the stars in my eyes and dreams in my heart. I was ready to tell Lincoln Morrison to kiss my ass, and I would never work for him again - not after the way he used my last name as a marketing tactic. It worked, too. At least through Valentine's Day.

After that, the bottom dropped out of the sales, and I could never recover. I've been hanging on by a thread since, and I can't do it anymore. Every night, I stay up late at night trying to think of ways to get people to come in. I got myself an online presence and tried that for a while. I worked with other vendors to do small business Saturday's in the downtown area, but absolutely nothing has moved the needle on our sales.

Kayla wraps her arm around me. "Let it go if you need to, Lyla. This has been your dream. I'm so sorry that we couldn't make it work."

"It's not your fault," I sob, letting the emotions flow through me. "My dreams were bigger than I was prepared for."

"No, no, they weren't. Your dreams were bigger than this town was prepared for, Lyla. Sugar Creek is small. We both knew that."

We did, but I'd still thought that it would be big enough to support two bakeries. Especially during the winter when skiers descend on Sugar Creek. We're not far from Vail, and there are a bunch of locals who choose to purchase that way, but I was wrong. "You know what?" The words push out past my tight throat. “I don’t believe I’m going to open today. Instead, I’m going to beg Lincoln for a job.”

The mere thought makes me sick to my stomach. Before he’d started using my last name as a marketing tactic, I’d looked up to him and aspired to be like him when I went off on my own. Instead, he’d become someone I didn’t recognize. I'd rather work at the grocery store then to go see him tomorrow, but I have to eat.

"I wish there was something I could do," she blows out a breath. "Tommy doesn't work in the food industry, though."

"Thanks for at least saying it. Others wouldn't be that nice, Kay."

"They don't know you the way I do. If you need to go home, then do it. Let me open the store today. I'll sell what we have left, and you can wallow in whatever you need to."

There's a part of me that argues. It says I need to be here, to see this through. Even if watching the downfall will kill a portion of my show, I need to do it. But there's another part of me, the sensitive one, that put everything she had into this business, that says don't do this. Let it go, do it with grace, however that looks, and start tomorrow fresh. "Okay." I wipe away the tears. "I'm gonna go home."

She escorts me out the back door, even putting me in my car, and watching as I drive off. I feel as if I'm leaving for college, and she's my mom seeing me off. But as I turn onto the road behind the bakery that will take me in the direction I need to go for my apartment, the tears fall in earnest. The doom of failure washes over me, and I'm scared I'll never become what I've envisioned. All those hopes and dreams? They feel like they're never going to come true, and I wonder why I even bothered.

When I get to my apartment, I trudge up the stairs and open the door. I'm heading to my couch, and as I do, I take off my clothes and then snuggle under my heated blanket, waiting for sleep to come. I'm not sure if it will, but it's all I can hope for.