Erik’s teeth snapped together. Was it possible she didn’t recall the specific insult that had sent Josie careening into his arms that hot afternoon in the delivery van? He’d thought nothing could hurt worse than a mother who abandoned you, but it seemed he’d underestimated the other kinds of hurts a thoughtless parent could inflict.
She turned away with a final sniff. “I guess every hobbyist gets lucky once in a while.” She stalked away from Josie’s art on her sky-high heels. “Do you expect to see her later tonight?”
“I don’t.”
At his brusque words, something almost gleeful moved across her brown eyes, so like and yet unlike her daughter’s. “Well, that didn’t take long,” she said with a dismissive wave. “I suppose that means I’ll just have to track her down some other way before I leave town.”
“No. You won’t.”
She froze at the unexpected whipcrack of his voice.
“Pardon me?” she asked incredulously.
Erik drew himself up to his full height, which gave him a good foot on the tiny woman. “You will not call Josie until you’re prepared to treat her and her work with respect.” Pamela’s thin lips dropped open as he continued. “She’s smart and talented, and she sure as hell deserves more love than you’ve ever given her.”
Her eyes narrowed. “Just where do you get off—”
“I’m the one whodoeslove her,” he said. “She’s got the quickest, funniest mind and kindness that she clearly didn’t inherit from you. You’re luckyto have Josie in your life. You don’t deserve her.Idon’t deserve her. But she sure as hell deserves us both trying harder than we do.”
He was breathing hard by the end of his unexpected speech, and Josie’s mother stared at him in shock for what felt like an eternity before she coolly lifted her chin. “Typical. She attracted a man just as hotheaded as she is. Good luck with your little business, Mr. Andersson.” Without another word, she spun on her pointy heel and minced from the store, brushing by two men as she did. When one of them started a slow clap, Erik’s awareness returned to his body, and he recognized the people standing at the entrance with amazed grins on their faces.
Byron continued his dramatic clapping while Richard crowed, “Bravo! I’ve been wanting to give that harpy a piece of my mind for years.”
Gina appeared from the back with wide eyes. “Is it safe to come out?”
“I don’t know. Are you done shouting at everybody?” Richard asked Erik, who groaned and slumped into a chair at the nearest table.
“Richard, Byron, this is my friend Gina. Gina, these are the newlyweds who started it all.” Erik gestured around the shop, then pointed the newcomers toward the display case. “Flip the sign toClosedand help yourselves.”
They were all seated around the table and slicing into the strawberry-champagne cake Richard had selected when Gina asked, “Was that Josie’s mom who called you hotheaded?Hotheaded?”
The other three dissolved into laughter as Erik grumbled, “I fucked up.”
“No, Pam needed to hear that,” Richard said decisively.
“He doesn’t mean with Pam,” Byron said, and Erik looked up to find himself the object of the man’s kind gaze. “Do you really love her that much?”
Erik took a deep breath. “Yes.” For the first time ever, talking about his emotions with a group feltright.“I was pissed at her, sure, but I also get why she did what she did. And I said some things…” His voice trailed off as he replayed the crushed look on Josie’s face in the station hallway, and once again, he lost hope of ever making things right. “I hurt her.”
His hands clenched into fists at his own stupidity. There wasn’t a moment of the fight that he didn’t regret, except the part where he’d tried to get her to see that she didn’t need other people’s approval to love herself.
“She’s ridiculously forgiving, you know.” Richard paused in the act of slicing himself a second piece of cake to brandish the server at him in a threatening fashion. “But you have to mean it. Do you mean it?”
Erik pushed the pointy end of the server away from his chest with the tip of his finger. “Yes. Of course. I just don’t know if she’d be willing to listen.”
“Oh, that won’t be a problem,” Gina announced. “I grabbed your phone when I ran upstairs for a fresh apron. She texted.”
He snatched it from her to read the message Josie had sent earlier that day, and a trickle of optimism moved through his veins. “She wishes me luck on the grand opening, and she sent me a…” He swallowed convulsively before he could continue speaking. “A new logo.”
He turned the screen to the others so they could see the text-only logo featuring his bakery name in a spare, masculine style that once upon a time he might have chosen for himself.
“That really does look more your speed,” Gina said. “I like it.”
“I hate it,” he shot back. And to his surprise, he truly did. Not only was he attached to the current logo for sentimental reasons, but hewasthe face of the bakery he’d built with help from the people he loved. Making peace with the upheaval of his childhood had helped him embrace that. He wasn’t his mother. He wasn’t Pops. And now he was ready to build his future on his own terms. He just hoped it would include his favorite redhead.
“I’m keeping the first logo my girlfriend made for me,” he announced to the table. “Now I just need to get her back.”
Richard looked up from his own phone with a grin. “I might be able to help with that.”
