Chapter 4

4

DAPHNE

T he bakery at Northfield Farms had become my second home. Last fall, I'd only helped out for pumpkin spice season and I'd been looking forward to doing it again all year.

Now that it was here, I was savoring every moment, never happier than I was doing this job I had right then.

After high school, I'd gotten a degree in education and I'd followed in my mother's footsteps to become a teacher. I'd taught second grade at Allisburg Elementary for a few years and I'd loved it, but after helping at the bakery last year, I'd decided to make a change.

My parents were getting older and they were almost ready to retire, and while I'd been teaching, I hadn't had much freedom to help them out. Once I'd realized how much I enjoyed baking and being a barista, it'd hardly felt like a sacrifice to take a break from teaching for the time being so I could be more available to my parents.

Plus, I got to learn all about baking from June Gracen while I was working here. She was an excellent pastry chef who had taught me everything I knew so far and she kept showing me new recipes every single day.

Since I'd always enjoyed baking, it was like a dream come true to be able to learn from someone like her. An opportunity I'd grabbed with both hands.

Smiling as I restocked the shelves, I hummed to myself under my breath and tried my best to focus on the work instead of the boy. The boy, however, was refusing to leave my brain for so much as a moment.

It'd only been about an hour since I'd dropped Sterling off at the garage, and since I'd had no warning that it was him I would be collecting, I couldn't even really blame myself for not being able to stop thinking about him.

He and I had never been friends, but for as long as I could remember, he'd always been there—at our house with my brother. At school. Around town. Even here, shooting the breeze with his mother after school when I'd come with mine to pick up bread, pastries, or eggs.

Sterling North had been that guy when I was growing up. Everyone in town had loved him, but at school, he had been a demigod. The most popular, most handsome guy who had graced our halls. The quarterback for the high school team who had also been senior class president. He'd even graduated with a one-way ticket to the Stanford School of Business.

Every girl had wanted him and every boy had wanted to befriend or become him. Eric and the third leg of their tripod, Jake, had been closest to him, though. He'd been loyal as anything to those two, and together, they'd been the kings of Allisburg.

Jake and Eric had stuck around after high school, but Sterling had spread his wings and left without a second thought. No one had blamed him, but things hadn't been quite the same around town since he'd left.

Jake and Eric had taken it hard. For years, it'd almost been like they'd been limping, one of their limbs suddenly amputated. In time, they'd learned to live with it but I knew it'd been a learning curve for them.

A group of girls came in and headed for the coffee counter, and I shook myself out of my thoughts as I set down the basket of pastries. Striding over to the counter myself, I smiled at them and positioned myself at the fancy coffee machine.

"Good morning, ladies. What can I get you?"

They all returned my smile and placed their orders, and while I made their lattes, June came out to keep restocking the shelves. Once the basket was empty, the older woman winked at me, her green eyes sparkling and the crow's feet around her eyes deep as she grinned.

"Will you hold down the fort out here while I go get a new batch in the oven?" she asked.

I nodded, and she shuffled around the counter and tucked a strand of blondish gray hair behind her ear that had escaped from her bun. Once I'd handed over the lattes, the girls took off, and as they left, Rachel came in.

My best friend, she and I had met in the library at school in our freshman year and we'd clicked immediately. We'd been inseparable ever since.

With her long blonde locks, big blue eyes, and bigger boobs, Rachel had received a lot of attention back then. Even from the older boys.

Jake Garrison, the same Jake who had been my brother's other best friend, had eventually been the one who had won her heart and they'd gotten married a few years ago. Her belly was bulging now with their first child, and her hand rested gently on top of it as she pulled off her sunglasses once she was inside the bakery.

She beamed at me. "My daily fix, wench!"

I laughed. "Coming right up, mama. How's your back?"

"Breaking," she said decisively, complaining with a smile still glued to her lips as she sank down on one of the stools at the counter. "My ankles aren't doing so well either. I think I've lost them, actually. I'm now the not-so-proud owner of cankles for the first time ever."

My nose wrinkled in sympathy. "Your ankles will be back soon enough and that little one in there is going to make it all worth it."

She flipped a lock of that golden hair over her shoulder before she smiled again. "I know. It just doesn't make it any easier right now. But I will survive."

"Sure, you will." I made her decaf mocha latte and pushed it across the counter. "Before you know it, you'll be ready for number two."

Her eyes widened and she snorted as she tried to hold back laughter. "Jeez, have you been talking to Jake? You sound exactly like him. I told him he can carry the next one."

I shrugged and flashed her a coy smile. "Eric might've mentioned something to me."

"Of course, he did." She moaned as she took her first sip of her drink. "You know, this is the best thing about pregnancy so far. I'd never have gone for anything decaffeinated otherwise. I've also been craving grilled cheese sandwiches with pickles and maple syrup. I sure hope that goes away once I pop this little one out."

Watching her frown and shake her head, I hesitated to ask, but I was too curious to keep it to myself for much longer. "So, uh, did you know Sterling is back in town for the reunion?"

My friend's eyes popped wide open and all remnants of her earlier smile vanished. "No. Is he really?"

"Yep. I picked him up from the airport myself just a little while ago. Eric couldn't make it, so he asked me to go instead."

Rachel took a beat to process what I'd said before her teeth sank into her lower lip. "I wonder if Jake knew he was coming."

"I'm sure Eric would've told him," I said. "Although I had no idea who I was picking up until I saw none other than Sterling North walk through the doors, so maybe Eric didn't tell Jake either."

"It wouldn't surprise me if he kept his mouth shut about it to my husband. You know how upset he was when Sterling didn't show up for our wedding. I mean, we had his suit ready to be fitted and he just called and said, ‘sorry. I have to work.' He was supposed to have been a groomsman for one of his best friends, for heaven's sake."

It had been three years since, but judging from the stormy expression in Rachel's eyes, neither she nor Jake had forgiven Sterling for canceling at the last minute. Eric had been pretty pissed about it himself, and it hadn't even been his wedding.

Rachel shook her head. "I hope he's ready to apologize, is all. If not, we're going to be in for an interesting time while he's in town."

Thinking back to his behavior at the airport and in the car earlier, I had to wonder if he even cared enough to apologize. He sure hadn't been interested in catching up with me, and while Eric and Jake had been like his brothers once upon a time, I just didn't know if that Sterling was still in there somewhere.

Giving her a noncommittal shrug, I reached into the basket behind me and set one of June's strawberry pastries down in front of Rachel. "Eat that. It'll make you feel better. It doesn't have pickles, but you know how much the baby loves strawberry."

She inhaled a deep breath and dropped her head, closing her eyes and shaking her hands out at her sides. Then she finally looked at me again. "You're right. It's their fight. I need to stay out of it. It just makes me so angry that he hurt my Jakey so much, but the baby does love strawberry and so do I, so thanks. We needed this."

Picking up the pastry, she took a big bite and then changed the subject, talking to me about the colors they were considering for the nursery walls instead. When she was done with her latte and her snack, she stood up and smiled at me.

"Thanks. As always. Hey, are you closing up here today?"

"Yep. At seven, so if you want some more of any of that, just be here before then and I'll have it ready for you."

"I'm always going to want more, but one a day is what I've promised myself." She glanced down at the beach-ball-size swell of her belly. "Any more than that, and I really will be rolling before this baby is born. Do you want to meet up after work? Jake's meeting Eric after some planning committee thing for the reunion."

"I can't tonight," I said apologetically. "Dinner with my parents, but we'll catch up tomorrow?"

"Sure," she responded easily, then slid her sunglasses back over her eyes and waved goodbye. "I'll see you tomorrow then. If family dinner finishes up early, give me a call, okay?"

"Will do," I said, watching her hobble back out to her car.

I smiled, so jealous of what she had with Jake and the fact that they had a baby on the way, but still so happy for them that I could barely contain it.

Life in Allisburg was good.

Despite what Sterling North might think of us and our little town, and despite his lack of enthusiasm for being home, I loved it here. Our town and our people were the best, and while we'd once thought there was a Sterling-sized hole in the very fabric of our communal being, he could go suck an egg.

We'd been doing just flipping fine without him and we'd keep doing fine once he left here all over again.