Page 5 of Final Reckoning

3

Heartache

December 2, afternoon

“Quinn.”Elina Adamo beckons me over to where she’s standing, the bakery’s phone in hand. “It’s another call for your candy cane ice cream.”

I pull up the app we use to keep track of all our special orders. “How much do they want?”

“Two quarts. They want to pick it up December 20th.”

“Okay, I can swing that.” I make a note while Elina gets back on the phone to confirm the order. “What’s next?” I ask Bree. “The gingerbread men?”

“Just started them. We still need another batch of sugar cookies.”

“Okay, on it.”

The customer area up front is packed with people waiting to order. We have a few small tables and chairs tucked along the walls, where some of our customers are enjoying their treats. Outside, a light snow is falling, drifting down to dust the ground with a soft layer of white.

Downtown is doing it up big for Christmas. All the shops have decorations, and the old-fashioned lamps that line the main street in the shopping district are wrapped up like candy canes.

My sisters and have tiny colored lights framing our front window, which has been painted with a scene of Santa’s kitchen: a big stone fireplace with a roaring fire, and Santa himself sitting at a table nearby, with a cup of cocoa and a plate of cookies, while Mrs. Claus whips up another batch. Rudolph peeks in from one side, hoping for a treat.

Our idea was simply to have something that suited our business; Callahan’s is a bakery, after all. But judging from the endless stream of customers today, many of them families with young children, our artwork is succeeding beyond our expectations.

“We just got a request for a holiday cake,” Elina says. “They’d like to pick it up tomorrow.”

“I’ll do it,” Jade says. We take turns filling the special orders. “But it won’t be ready before the afternoon, so make sure they’re okay with that, please.”

Elina is one of the nonnas, the Adamo grandmothers and great-grandmothers who keep the family running. She’s helping out for the month, but my sisters and I are talking about hiring on a permanent assistant, things have gotten so hectic.

I’m glad we’re busy. It keeps me from thinking about Matteo.

Okay, that’s a lie. Nothing stops me from thinking about him. Whether I’m awake or asleep, he prowls through my mind.

During the day, I’m constantly distracted; at night, I dream. It’s always the same: I’m lying somewhere unfamiliar. Not in my room at Carlotta’s house, or back at the farm before it burned, but wherever it is, I can turn my head and see the stars, a whole dark sky full of them.

And then Matteo comes to me and … takes me. It’s not gentle, any more than his kiss was; it’s wild and rough and overwhelming.

I’m pretty sure the real thing would be a lot like my dreams. It’s not what I’ve ever wanted with a man, not how I ever imagined sex being. I should be frightened, but my body disagrees; I wake up wet and aching, my womb heavy with need.

“Shit,” Bree whispers.

I blink and come back to the moment. Good thing no one’s noticed me standing here with a spoon in my hand, spacing out. “What?” I whisper back.

“It’s closing time and the place is packed.”

She’s right. The front room is as full as it’s been all day. Normally, things taper off a bit between two and three o’clock, but not today.

Since we start so early in the morning, by the time we finish we’ve already put in far more than an eight-hour day. But I know my sister isn’t complaining about our enthusiastic customers; she’s feeling bad that we have to close.

“We can lock up,” I say. “Turn the sign to closed, maybe turn off the lights in the front room. At least that’ll limit it to who’s in here now.”

“We’ll have to,” she says. “We need to talk tonight about adding extended holiday hours and hiring more help.”

“Agreed.” I grab the keys and go around the counter, weaving among the customers until I reach the front door. There’s a man standing outside, right in front of it.

I hesitate, then crack the door open. “I’m sorry, we’re just closing,” I tell him. “But I can sneak you in if you want to get something.”

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