Epilogue

“All right,” Sylvie said as she secretly slipped an extra chocolate chip mini-cookie into the bag before handing it to the bright-eyed little girl in front of her, “you enjoy your honey cake. And make sure you have a wonderful winter vacation.”

“We will!” the girl trilled, before handing Sylvie the payment her mother had given her. Together, she and her parents made their way out the door, dressed warmly against the early winter chill.

A gust of cold air blew in as they left, and Sylvie shivered a little despite the warmth of the bakery. It wasn’t only a shiver of cold, though – it was a shiver of anticipation.

Glancing at the clock, she bit her lip as she realized she still had three minutes left until she could technically clock off. She’d opened this morning, so she was ready to be done by one in the afternoon, when she’d officially hand over the front of the shop to Emily.

Ordinarily, she didn’t look forward to the end of her work day, since she enjoyed running the bakery and liked being here.

But…

But things had been a little different for the last couple of months.

Of course, she still adored running her little bakery. It was her dream come true, after all. But ever since a little garden shop had opened up down the road – just where Johnson’s Pies and Bakery had once been, in fact – she’d had a good reason for looking forward to the end of her shift.

“I can see you watching that second hand,” Emily laughed as she appeared from out the back with a tray full of fresh apple roses – they’d had an unexpected run on them this morning, so Emily had baked some more for the afternoon rush. “You can go now if you want to.”

Sylvie hesitated. “Well… I don’t know…”

“Oh, stop being so by the book! I think I can manage a couple of minutes extra by myself, Sylvie,” Emily said as she began arranging the apple roses in the open display by the window, the better to tempt passers-by. “I know you want to go see him, and quite frankly, I think it’s adorable. It’s about time you got yourself a guy. So I’m more than happy for you to run off and see him a little early.”

Sylvie bit her lip, wanting to argue a little more – but in the end, the temptation was just too much.

“Thanks, Emily, you’re a gem,” she said, as she threw on her scarf and jacket, and pulled her woolen hat down over her head.

Here on the mountain, the winters came early and cold, though Sylvie was used to it by now. Winter holiday-makers were already beginning to arrive, renting out the cabins that dotted the mountains – and a lot of them wanted to buy freshly baked cakes after a day of hiking, skiing further up on the peak, or just relaxing at home. Her little bakery was thriving.

It helped, she supposed with a smile, that she had her own fancy sign now to attract business – though it wasn’t so much fancy as it was magic, with her sandwich board somehow having sprouted a full bloom of beautiful pink and white flowers, which grew with lush green tendrils from the wood frame around the blackboard. Fancy or not, it was definitely eye-catching, Sylvie thought with a smile as she passed it.

It didn’t take her long to make her way down the street, despite the chilly winds that were blowing. The smile hadn’t left her face, but she found herself smiling a little harder as MacEwan’s Plants and Garden Supplies came into view.

Gale had taken up the lease on Gareth Odilon’s old bakery, which, true to his word, had closed down a week after their chat with him. Sylvie hadn’t heard anything further about it, so she had to assume Gale’s little chat with his father had gone as Odilon had promised as well.

Thank goodness.

She hoped he’d learned his lesson. As much as she wanted to, she wasn’t able to think of Gareth Odilon as evil. Just… stupid, and without much of an idea of how the real world worked. She was still utterly flabbergasted that he’d thought running her out of business wouldn’t be any particularly big deal for her.

Anyway, I don’t want to think about that right now,Sylvie thought, a skip in her step as she made her way through the front gate of the garden supplies shop.

Right now, what she wanted to think about was –

“Whoa.”

Sylvie stopped in her tracks, eyes widening as she caught sight of Gale, wearing nothing but some well-fitting jeans and a flannel shirt with the sleeves rolled up, lifting a forty-pound bag of soil over his shoulder as if it weighed nothing in order to stack it up in the corner of the shop. The muscles of his forearm and shoulder rippled as he heaved it up to the top of the pile, before wiping the sweat from his forehead with the back of his hand, leaving the most adorable streak of dirt in its wake.

“Hey, you got a little something just… there,” Sylvie said with a smile as she made her way over to him, pointing to his head. “But leave it. It looks cute. You’ll have customers lining up just to take a peek at you.”

Gale laughed softly as she reached him, leaning down to give her a quick peck on the lips, pulling back a little when she chased his mouth with hers for something more. “I’m a little sweaty right now,” he said apologetically.

“Well, maybe I like that,” she replied, letting a wicked grin twitch at the corner of her lips. “Did you ever think of that, huh? That I like you when you’re all hot and sweaty?”

“You may have mentioned it once or twice,” Gale admitted with a smile, leaning down again and letting her capture his lips with hers, kissing her deeply, as if they hadn’t seen each other in a month instead of only a few hours.

If her mouth hadn’t already been busy kissing, Sylvie would have let out a contented sigh. These last couple of months had been just like a dream. Her bakery was doing better than she ever could have imagined. Gale had found his calling as a nurseryman. Brioche, the big orange blob of a cat, had two laps to painfully knead for at least twenty minutes before he chose one to sit on.

And me and Gale…

Well, Sylvie wasn’t sure what had to be said, there. They were mates. She felt more safe and loved with Gale than she ever had in her entire life. She knew he’d always be there for her, no matter what. Just like she’d always be there for him.

“What time do you finish up here?” she asked breathlessly, when she could finally bring herself to pull away.

“Hmm,” Gale said, sounding just as breathless, his gray eyes looking down into hers. “Well, technically, I shouldn’t really finish until five. But I do have a break coming up, so –”

“Oh! I’m not interrupting anything between you two lovebirds, am I?”

The sound of a voice from the doorway made Sylvie and Gale jump apart, trying their best not to look like they’d been about three seconds away from tearing each other’s clothes off.

Blushing, Sylvie cleared her throat and straightened her hair as Eula James swaggered her way across the shop floor, a knowing look in her eyes and a magazine in her hand.

“Uh, no, of course not,” Sylvie said, once she could force herself to speak. “We were just, uh, talking.”

Eula snorted through her nose, shaking her head. “There’s no need to be so demure in front of ol’ Eula,” she said, with a hearty laugh. “You think I haven’t seen it all before? It does my heart good to see young people so in love.”

She waggled her eyebrows at Sylvie, who could feel her face turning even redder.

“Besides, I consider myself responsible for the two of you getting together,” Eula loftily informed them. “If I hadn’t told Gale here to stop by your bakery, why, you might never have met.”

“That’s true,” Gale said. “Best recommendation I ever got.”

“You only said that because you thought he was Aubrey Z., and you wanted him to review my bakery!” Sylvie protested. “You didn’t have romance on your mind at all!”

“Ahh, but didn’t I tell you he was a handsome one?” Eula said, prodding Sylvie in the ribs. “Hmm?”

“All right, yes you did.” Sylvie rolled her eyes, shaking her head. She should have known it was useless to argue with Eula. “Thank you.”

“Anyway, that’s not why I’m here.” Eula slapped the magazine down on the shop counter. “I came here because I was sure you hadn’t seen this yet, considering it only came out today.”

Frowning, Sylvie looked down at the magazine. She recognized it right away – Dish Plate, one of the swankiest food and baking magazines in the country. The price was a bit too much for her to cough up for it regularly, but she loved going through its silky pages, filled with plush photos of luscious-looking food and drinks, whenever she had a spare moment at a drug store or newsstand.

“It’s a magazine?” she said, looking up at Eula.

Eula sighed, as if Sylvie were being a bit slow. “Turn to page sixteen.”

Still a little mystified, Sylvie picked up the magazine, flicking over the pages until –

“Oh. Oh wow.”

Sylvie had to read the words at the top of the page several times over to make sure she wasn’t simply hysterically hallucinating. But no – even after seven re-reads, the words remained the same: We commissioned the renowned and mysterious Aubrey Z. to hit the road, reviewing hidden gems of American food: first up, a tiny bakery, secluded in the mountain town of Girdwood Springs…

Sylvie closed her eyes. When she opened them again, the words were still on the page: they still said Sylvie’s Sweets and Bakery, and there was definitely only one Sylvie’s Sweets and Bakery in Girdwood Springs.

Sylvie swallowed.

She couldn’t let herself read Aubrey Z.’s review. What if they’d hated it? What if they’d thought her bakery was no good? She didn’t think her heart could take it if every line talked about how much she sucked and how her cakes were no good –

“Sylvie, oh my God. You have to read this.”

It was Gale’s voice that snapped her out of her terror at last. Her heart thundering in her ears, she forced her eyes open again, flickering them down over the review.

… Sylvie’s Sweets and Bakery is everything a hometown bakery should be… the ricotta and pear cheesecake I tried was light and airy, but had enough body to leave you feeling satisfied, with a subtly nutty base and soft punch of cinnamon aftertaste… the apple cake I tried was a perfect blend of tart fruit, sweet spice, and soft cake, dusted with sugar… but the star attraction is undoubtedly the honey cake – seven layers of silky gingerbread, sandwiched between soft-as-a-cloud whipped honey and cream, it shouldn’t exist outside a dream…

Sylvie closed her eyes again. She couldn’t read any more or she was worried her heart might literally explode, or her head might fly off her neck, or – or something –

Tears pricked at the backs of her eyes.

I never imagined this would happen… but then, I never imagined any of this would happen…

She felt Gale’s hand wrap around her shoulder, a moment before his lips pressed against the top of her head.

“Congratulations,” he whispered, his breath warm against her ear. “Though I never doubted that if Aubrey Z. ever did taste your cakes, this is exactly what they’d write.”

“Well. I won’t intrude on you two lovebirds any more,” Eula said with a laugh. “I just wanted to come in and give you this. This copy’s for you, Sylvie – maybe you can frame it and hang it up on the wall of the bakery.”

“I think I’m going to go buy five more,” Sylvie said, her voice wobbling a little. “One for every room of the house.”

“Well, I think that’s a fine idea! If you don’t toot your own horn, who else is going to do it? Well, except Aubrey Z., I suppose.”

Booming out a laugh at her own joke, Eula swayed her way out of the shop again, the door slamming closed behind her.

Sylvie stared down at the review again, still not quite able to believe her eyes.

Did Aubrey Z. really come into my shop? And I didn’t even notice?!

Quickly, she ran back through as many customers as she could remember in her head – Was it the white-haired granny with the cardigan? The wine-drinking guy?! The woman with the red hair??!!

She had absolutely no idea. It could have been any of them – or none of them.

“I guess that’s why they’re so mysterious,” she mumbled to herself. “If you could tell, they wouldn’t have much of a career as a mysterious food reviewer.”

“What was that?” Gale asked, glancing down at her.

“Nothing. It was nothing,” Sylvie said, shaking her head. “Just… still trying to take all of this in.”

“I’ll bet,” Gale said, smiling down at her. “Seems like you’ve got something to celebrate, though.”

“Mmm. You’re right about that.” Sylvie turned back to him, wrapping her arms back around his waist. “And who exactly is going to help me celebrate?”

“Oh. Is it me? I’m pretty sure it’s me,” Gale laughed. “I really hope it’s me.”

“Got it in one,” Sylvie said, tilting her head back and closing her eyes as he leaned down to kiss her.

Perfect,she thought, as Gale’s hand came up to cup her face, sending a thrill of warmth right through her. Everything is absolutely perfect.