*
We closed at six ten.
The bakery looked like a battlefield, with flour dusted over every surface, empty boxes stacked high, and the last of the orders finally gone.
Marcy stretched and groaned.“We survived.”
“Barely,” I said.
“And we’re not cleaning this up until tomorrow,” Jessa said as she rolled her shoulders.“I’ll come in half an hour early,” she promised.
“Same,” Marcy agreed.
I normally would have argued, but I was so done.Thank God we only had three more days.
Marcy grabbed her coat.“Go home.Rest.Let Saint take care of you.”
“He’s coming over for dinner, not to take care of me,” I argued.
She eyed me.“I don’t have it in me to point out the obvious, Belle.Just go home, and don’t stay here to clean up.”
“I promise.”
She didn’t look convinced.“I’m not leaving until I see you leaving.”
“Salt, Pepper,” I called.“Time to go home, boys.”They both raced to the counter where I put their leashes.I hooked them on their collars, checked to make sure all of the ovens were off, and headed out the door.
Marcy locked it behind me.“Now go walk over to that hunk of a man and don’t think about the bakery for the next eleven hours.”
“Hunk of a man?”I asked, confused.
“Belle.”
My heart leapt at the sound of Saint’s voice.Pepper let out a happy bark, and Salt’s butt wiggled like Saint was his new best friend.
“Night,” Marcy and Jessa called.
Saint jogged across the street, and as soon as he stepped onto the curb, Salt and Pepper attacked him.
“Boys,” he cooed.“Did you miss me?”
I had to bite my lip to not say I did.
“I thought you were meeting me at my house?”I asked.
“I know you walk to work, and I figured you would be too tired to walk.”
Something about the way he said it—simple, certain—made my chest ache.
I was exhausted, and I did not have it in me at all to walk ten feet, let alone four blocks.
The ride to his place was quiet, with the dogs settled in between us on the bench seat.Pepper sniffed the air, and Saint patted his head.“You smell the pizza in back, buddy?”he laughed.
When we got inside, warmth wrapped around me instantly.
“You can take your shoes off and get on the couch,” he said.“Dogs too.”
I laughed and kicked my shoes aside.“The boys need their dinner, too,” I said.
