“Not a bit, Gracie.” A talented baker and a good friend, Amanda was by far her most reliable employee. “I’ve got the pies handled, too.”
“You’re the best. And if it stays this slow, feel free to close up early.” Gracie leaned her palms on the counter, looking around at the tables, for once not doing a head count on the customers.
Not today. She didn’t want to think about work today, just the date that would start in ten minutes.
A couple rose from a table near the window and Gracie automatically pushed off the counter to clear the cups and plates they’d left behind.
“I got it,” Amanda said, putting her hand on Gracie’s arm. “You’ll get chocolate on that beautiful top.”
The door dinged, opening to new customers, so Gracie smiled at Amanda. “I’ll fill this order, then. Thanks.”
She turned to greet the customer, blinking in shock at the sight of Bianca Hampton, who was intently perusing the glass display, eyes on Amanda’s last batch of buttercream cupcakes.
“Oh. Hello.”
“Hi.” Bianca didn’t look up, shifting a few shopping bags—all from high-end boutiques on Main Street—from one hand to the other. “I’ll take a red velvet cupcake. And a cream puff. Oh, throw in that chocolaty ganache tart thing, too.”
“That’s Olivia’s favorite,” Gracie told her.
The other woman finally looked up, sucking in a breath. For a heartbeat or two, she stared over the glass display case, her expression blank enough that Gracie thought she didn’t remember meeting this morning or riding to Snowberry Lodge together.
“Oh, it’s you,” Bianca said. “Uh…Gloria?” she guessed, making a face. “Sorry, I’m terrible with names.”
“Gracie,” she supplied. “It’s nice to see you here. Is Olivia out there, or…” She looked around. “With you?”
“She stayed at the lodge to play with her little friend.”
“Benny. My son.” Gracie tried to smile politely, but struggled. Had Bianca already ditched Olivia? Hours after arriving?
“Right, Benny. I just…” She threw a look over her shoulder in the general direction of Craving Clean. “Marshall insisted I come see his cute little…endeavor. After that, I had to do a little shopping but now I’m starving. And I can’t go to Marshall’s because…” She made an embarrassed wince. “There’s not a decent thing to eat at that place and I have a sweet tooth for some reason. I thought Sugarfall meant this might be a candy store. It’s like his, though. A bakery?”
“Only with sugar,” Gracie deadpanned, ignoring “he insisted I come”and“cute little endeavor.”
“Exactly what I need.” Bianca gave a self-conscious laugh. “I know I shouldn’t, but”— she lifted the bags—“retail therapy is best ended on a sugar high, I like to say.”
So she’d visited his store, shopped for clothes, and now was hitting up Sugarfall—allwithoutthe daughter she’d flown here to see?
“Well, choose whatever you like,” Gracie said, trying to keep her jumbled thoughts straight. “You can always keep it in the fridge in your cabin and have a midnight snack.” She couldn’t resist adding, “With Olivia, who really does love the ganache. Be sure to ask her where it gets its shine.”
Bianca gave a flat smile that didn’t reach her eyes. “Where what gets…what?”
“The ganache,” Gracie said, hating that she felt a blush bloom under the surface of her cheeks. Why? Bianca was the one who knew nothing about her own daughter’s love of science.Sheshould be blushing. “She’ll explain how the sugar crystals melt at a certain temperature to make it…” Her voice faded out in the face of the clueless expression Bianca wore.
Gracie swallowed. “In a box to go, then, Bianca?”
Bianca glanced at the freshly bused table by the window…the window that looked right at Craving Clean. “Give me a decaf with that, so I can stay here.”
Really? She was going to stay? Which meant she’d see Marshall in less than ten?—
“How long have you worked here?” Bianca asked, eyeing her phone as if the answer didn’t really matter but she had to make small talk.
Gracie carefully placed the red velvet cupcake on a plate, leaving room for the other desserts. “I opened Sugarfall when Benny was five, so six years now.”
“You…own it?” Bianca’s brows shot up.
“I do,” Gracie said. “I’m a pastry chef and this is my shop.”
“Huh.” Bianca looked hard at Gracie, clearly considering her in a new light. Not the dog walker, not the friend’s mom, but a business owner. The slightest grudging look of interest flickered in the woman’s topaz eyes. “Lucky you—working right across the street from my…from Marshall.”
