Page 1 of Devil's Valentine

CHAPTER 1

SCARLETT

My heart flutters as I pull up to my bakery. It’s the same feeling I’ve been having for the last year since I opened. My bakery, Crescent Sugar Bakery, is the culmination of my lifelong dream, and I’m so damn proud of myself sometimes that I can hardly stand it.

Considering how hard I worked to get here, how many people who never thought all that much of me, and the complete lack of people at my back, I think I get to be proud of myself and my bakery. The only thing that casts a gloomy cloud over my bakery is that I wouldn’t have had the money to open it if my mom were still alive.

She ensured that I’d have enough to open up our dream bakery because of her life insurance and the money she saved from her own inheritance, even though there wasn’t much of that left over after her medical expenses and cremation werepaid off. As much as I love my bakery, I’d rather still have mom with me.

There isn’t a day that goes by when I don’t miss baking with her in her kitchen. I would give Crescent Sugar up in a second to have her back. But that’s not going to happen.

All I could do after her death was to go through with her last wishes and put my all into Crescent Sugar. She would have loved it and been in the kitchen every day. She would have tasted every new recipe and been my biggest cheerleader.

I rub the spot on my chest that always aches when I think of her. And, yes, I think about her every day when I pull up to Crescent Sugar. It’s hard not to because it wouldn’t have been possible without her.

As I walk up to the back door of the bakery, the night still clinging to the world around me, I scowl at the wall. The lack of light makes it a little hard to see, but it’s obvious that the wall is covered in graffiti. Again.

I mumble, “What the fuck?”

Now that I’ve seen how someone has desecrated the wall of my bakery, I look around half expecting someone to jump out at me. Even though it doesn’t happen, the creepy feeling of being watched remains. I’m sure no one is here and that it’s just a byproduct of knowing someone was here long enough to totally ruin my fucking day and the back of my bakery.

After hurrying in through the backdoor, I throw my whole routine out of the window and rush toward the front of Crescent Sugar. I’m standing in front of my bakery and breathe a sigh of relief very fucking quickly.

The last time someone displayed their…artwork on the back wall of my bakery, they also decided to give the front the same treatment. Not this time. That makes me feel better, only a little bit better but I’ll take it.

I shake my head and go back inside while taking deep breaths. Normally, I find being in the bakery in the morning, before anyone else comes to work, relaxing. It’s a chance for me to get things started for the day and make sure my shop is set up for success. I can get lost in baking, which is the aspect of the business I love the most, other than the joy on the faces of my customers. It’s a time when I can ignore the paperwork, schedules, ordering, and everything else I need to get done.

Baking is pure. At least to me. Even though it can be a complicated process, to me it’s simple. It’s science. I know that when I follow the recipe, the outcome will be perfect.

“Fuck,” I grunt, feeling my day slipping away from me. I mutter, “I don’t have time to deal with this.”

My day is all planned out and having to deal with the back wall, especially repainting it, isn’t on my to-do list today. I’m going to have to hire someone. I’m grateful as hell that Crescent Sugar is doing well and I can afford it, but it’s just another thing on my plate.

You know that feeling when you’re about to lose the grip you have on everything you’ve already been struggling to keep together? Frayed. That’s it. I’m frayed and I’m not sure there is a way of keeping it together at this point.

With slumped shoulders I push it all away. It’s far too early to call someone and get them out to deal with the back wall right now anyway.

“Find the positive,” I try and bolster myself with the reminder of words Mom always said to me.

Is it always possible? Hell no, that’s life, but that doesn’t mean you give up and don’t try to find something positive.

“At least this time they didn’t break in set on destruction,” I murmur and force a smile on my face as I go about getting started for the day.

Baking is what I need to do. It’s what always brings me back to center and it’s been that way my entire life. No matter what else is going on in my life, and especially when I’ve been at my lowest, baking has been there.

I breathe through the worries settled on my shoulders and just focus on everything I need to get through to make sure my bakery can thrive for the day. Time passes as I get cupcakes in the oven, cookies ready to go in the oven, and cinnamon rolls proofing.

It’s exactly what I need and when my staff, small though it is, comes in to get the front set-up, I’m ready to go and the sharp feeling in my chest when I saw the back wall this morning has faded. I’m still annoyed and more than a little pissed, but the despair has fallen away a little bit.

By the time I can walk out to the front of the bakery, knowing the kitchen is in a good place for the day, I can’t help but grin at how many people are enjoying their visit to Crescent Sugar. My heart swells.

Valerie, who helps me manage the bakery, winks at me. She’s used to seeing me both elated and shocked at the brisk business we’ve been doing. I swear when Valerie first walked into Sugar Crescent, I knew she was perfect for the job. Since then, she’s become so much more.

She keeps me sane. She’s the big sister that I never even knew I needed.

The closeness we have is something I’ve always craved in my life. I guess that’s the only-child syndrome rearing its ugly head or something. It wasn’t easy for me to make good friends when I was in school. I don’t know what it was, but I always felt out of place.

Now, I feel like I’ve found a path in life, one I’m happy with.

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