Had she gotten him all wrong, jumped to conclusions about his intentions with setting up a bakery across the street from hers? Sandcastles was a symbol of her success, a part of her, but was she too close to her business to think straight? Jane and Maxi certainly thought so, and they’d never steered her wrong before.
And then there was the attraction. Rob certainly was easy on the eyes, and working with him wouldn’t be a hardship. Though, Claire didn’t want to take things any further than business. Peter’s betrayal still stung, and she didn’t want to open herself up to that again.
Claire felt a pang of guilt for not admitting to Rob she indeed remembered him from fifteen years ago. At first, she’d been afraid it would give him the upper hand to know she recalled that night, and her ego had been bruised. He hadn’t bothered to contact her.
Now that she knew about his mom getting sick, it made sense that he never returned. He had more important things to deal with than finding a girl he kissed once in the moonlight.
Claire was feeling pretty positive when she finally settled onto her Vespa and cranked the key. But as the engine purred to life, doubts crept into her thoughts. Why was he working so late at his bakery? He’d said he was baking bread, but why couldn’t he get that done during the day? It wasn’t like he had to wait on customers like she did. He wasn’t open yet. Maybe he preferred to bake at night.
But he’d fixed her pipes, which enabled her to stay open. If he really wanted her to fail, wouldn’t he have just claimed he didn’t know anything about plumbing? Claire didn’t know if she was being overly suspicious. She needed advice before she made any decisions about teaming up with Bradford Breads. Would that be a good marketing move, or would it be a mistake?
Luckily, Claire had an expert in marketing at her fingertips. Tammi. Claire would call her as soon as she reached the shop.
Doubts tickled her stomach in the predawn light as she drove to the store. The gray sky was starting to lighten when she parked her Vespa and walked the short distance to her bakery. In the early morning, before anyone else was out, she could hear the ocean waves and smell the sea. As she was about to unlock the door, movement across the street caught her eye. Rob. Claire stopped short, her key halfway to the lock on the front door. Doubts warred with a warm, fuzzy feeling in her stomach. It swarmed like butterflies taking flight as their eyes met across the street.
He lifted his hand in greeting. With nervous electricity zinging through her, she did the same. As he disappeared inside his store, she turned her back to enter hers.
Although the shop was dark and empty, the quiet reminded her of their evening together the night before, filling in some of the blanks in their lives since they’d first met. Of the way he’d fixed the leak in her pipe. And that friendly wave that, for some reason, filled her with energy.
As she stepped into the kitchen and groped for the lights, she fiddled with the zipper on her purse, in search of her phone. Hopefully Tammi would answer and be able to talk.
As the phone rang, garbled in her ear, Claire crossed to the table in the kitchen and dropped the oversized tote bag she carried onto it. She took stock of the kitchen.
Everything was neat and tidy, exactly as she had left it. She had muffins to bake this morning as well as croissants to finish and put in the display case.
“Hello? Mom?”
Claire smiled at her daughter’s voice. The quality of the call was a bit tinny, but warmth bloomed in her chest even so. When Tammi had gone to college, Claire had gotten used to not seeing her every day, but it was still hard. She never felt she had enough time for Tammi when her daughter came home.
“Hi, honey. Do you have a minute? I could use some advice.”
“Advice?” Tammi sounded instantly more alert, maybe even excited.
“I told you about the bakery going up across the street, didn’t I?”
“Yes…”
“Well, the owner came in to talk to me. We’re both having sales tomorrow. His is a two-for-one on bread, and mine is buy one cupcake, get two free. He said he wants to work together to send customers across the street to each other’s stores.”
“Oh! Cross-promotion.” Although she didn’t say as much outright, Tammi sounded approving. A note of hesitation crept into her voice as she asked, “Does he sell cupcakes too?”
“No, his store strictly sells bread.”
“Well then, I don’t see how you have anything to lose. What sort of cross-promotion did he have in mind?”
Claire leaned her hip against the counter, her mind returning to that late-night conversation. “He wants to set up a table in each other’s stores with free samples and flyers pointing to the sale.”
“That sounds like a great idea! Nothing like a free sample to get people to try out your goods, and you make great cupcakes, Mom. I’m sure you’ll have customers stampeding across the street to take you up on the sale.”
Claire laughed at that image. Her daughter had been the eternal optimist and her biggest cheerleader ever since Claire had opened her bakery in the charming, old building. “I don’t know about that. But you think I should take him up on the offer?”
“Yeah. It sounds like it would cost you nothing and gain you a lot. Do it!”
A knot of tension unwound from between Claire’s shoulders at the cut-and-dried answer. Now she didn’t have to keep wallowing in indecision. Tammi knew more about marketing and promotion than Claire did. If her daughter said to do it, then she would do exactly that.
“Thanks, baby. I don’t want to keep you from your vacation.”
“Love you, Mom.”
