Laurel pressed her lips together. “We can’t say.” Her gaze slid over Zoe’s shoulder and to something, or someone, out the window.
“Maybe you’d like some manly maple bars?” Zoe stepped behind the counter to consider the rapidly aging donuts and to also, nonchalantly, glance at the skateboard-toting boys on the sidewalk. Quickly, while trying to play it cool, she counted the boys. Laurel and Hannah couldn’t be interested in all of them, but just to play it safe, Zoe slipped five of the most handsome donuts she could find into one of her signature Bonny Baker bags.
“Is there such a thing?” Hannah quipped.
“I don’t know,” Zoe said, “but if there’s not, there should be.”
“Those are my dad’s paintings,” Hannah pointed out.
Zoe smiled at the paintings of nearby Santa Ynez Valley. “Yep. They look good here, huh?” She closed the bakery bag and handed it to Laurel.
“Why are they here?” Hannah asked.
“Your dad said I could use them to liven up the joint. What do you think?”
Hannah flipped her hair over her shoulder but didn’t answer. She elbowed Laurel. “Come on. Let’s go. I’m not sure this was a good idea.”
Not a good idea?How could free donuts be anything but a good idea? Zoe, aware that she’d done something wrong but not sure what, watched the girls leave. Good idea or not, Laurel still had the bag of donuts clutched in her hand.
The girls and the donuts had the boys’ immediate attention. Laurel and Hannah strode down the sidewalk, smiling and laughing as the boys fell into a ragtag line and trotted after them. Which ones were the girls interested in? The blond with the shock of hair falling over his forehead and into his eyes? The one with dark, curly hair and a thick build? The tall and lean one with enormous feet that made him look like he was wearing clown shoes?
Zoe got the mop out of the closet, rinsed it out, and began her closing-up chores. She liked to leave the bakery as pristine as possible since she always had to wake with her feet running in the mornings. She loved working in the bakery, but sometimes, like now, watching the kids out the window, she remembered that she hadn’t always wanted to run a bakery.
Travel tempted her. She saw lots of people coming in and out of the bakery, but most of her discussions included the wordshow manyandthat will be so many dollars. No one really wanted her opinion on the state of the government or her thoughts about the economy...or anything, really. Her life seemed like it was being measured out in bite-size moments.
She rolled her shoulders, knowing she couldn’t complain. How many people had successful small businesses in sunny Southern California? But what good was it to live in perpetual sunshine when you never got to go outside during the daylight hours?
She needed another assistant.
But could she afford one? Yes.
What if she hired someone to work two or three days a week?
But then what would she do? This was the crux of her problem. She’d spent so many years working, she no longer remembered what it meant to have fun. What did she like to do? How did she define leisure? She no longer knew.
#
ETHAN SLIPPED INTOthe first available seat in the crowded auditorium. All around him, other parents took their places. Some looked happy, proud, and nervous, while others wore patient but bored expressions. A lanky boy with blond hair and green eyes caught his gaze and quickly looked away.
Why did he look familiar?
He spotted Zoe and Courtney across the room in center aisle seats. Courtney waved him over, motioning to a chair beside her. Ethan stood and made his way toward them.
Courtney wore tight jeans, clunky high heels, and a fuzzy sweater—the sort that looked as if it would itch—while Zoe was in a pair of jeans and a faded blue T-shirt and sneakers. She had her hair tied back in a ribbon and her face scrubbed clean. Even though Ethan suspected Zoe was quite a bit older than Courtney, tonight she looked younger.
The kid with the blond hair ducked behind a program as if trying to hide from Ethan.Strange.
“Does Hannah have a part?” Courtney asked.
Ethan took a seat beside her. “Yes. She’s a rosebush.”
“Ah. Laurel is a face card,” Courtney told him. “This is a strange play, isn’t it?”
“Actually, I love Alice and Wonderland,” Ethan said.
“Me too,” Zoe said.
The lights dimmed and music began to play.
