Page 21 of Fierce Mountain Man

My life started the day I met Tobias. Everything that had come before no longer mattered.

EPILOGUE

EMMY

“Welcome to Seduction Summit Sweets!” Willow called out, her voice far too chirpy.

We’d been open for exactly ten minutes, and it was seven o’clock in the morning. Which meant it was far too early for chirpiness, even if we were loaded down with coffee from the shop across the alley from us.

But the people walking through the door weren’t tourists or friendly locals. Instead, it was my husband and our three-year-old, Riley.

“Someone woke up missing her mommy,” Tobias said.

I found that more than a little touching. But I knew my daughter. She was angling for an apple fritter. It was a rare treat, but it’d been a while since she had one.

“Apple,” Riley said, confirming my suspicions.

Willow gave her a big smile. She was a sucker for little Riley. Her daughter was slightly older than Riley, and she also had a one-year-old. We often let her daughter spend the night with us to let Willow and her husband, Liam, focus on their infant.

“Two of you are working today,” Tobias commented as they approached the counter. “Must be a busy day.”

Usually, Willow handled the opening shift alone, but ski season was gearing up. That meant mornings could be…unpredictable, to say the least.

“A big rush of winter tourists just blew into town,” Willow said. “We’ve already been warned that a bus full is stopping by on the way up the mountain.”

Tobias looked impressed. “A tour bus? Wouldn’t have expected that.”

He was right. When Seduction Summit was just a ski resort town, tour groups had no reason to come here. They still didn’t, really, even though there were plenty of great activities up at the ski lodge.

But more than five years after I stepped on that nail outside what would one day be my shop, the shopping center was thriving. Restaurants were popping up all over town. I had a feeling tour groups would become commonplace soon enough.

“Apple!” Riley insisted.

“That’s not very polite,” Tobias said, lifting her up and settling her on his hip so she could take a look for herself.

“May please, apple?” she said, looking up at me with those sweet eyes I couldn’t resist.

“We’ll split one,” Tobias said, setting his cup of coffee on the counter and reaching back to grab his wallet.

“Your money’s no good here,” Willow said.

Willow knew better than that. Tobias always insisted on paying. He pulled out his credit card and handed it to her while I packaged up the apple fritter.

A lot had happened in the past five years. The four of us—Bronte, Macy, Willow, and me—had started this business. I had actually been the one to track down Macy online. We messaged for a while, then met up for coffee in Adairsville. Together, we crafted a business plan.

When we heard Bronte and Willow were thinking about opening a bakery too, we decided to bring them into the fold. Between the four of us, we were able to get a business loan to supplement the fifty thousand dollars I’d won. And we hadn’t looked back.

The bakery was thriving. We hired local teenagers to help out after school and on weekends. We also had a manager who worked eight to five every day. Willow took the morning shift, and I came in a little later, leaving in the early afternoon when Macy took over. That freed me up to spend afternoons with Riley, who had a babysitter for the period of time in the morning when Tobias and I were both working.

“You know what?” Tobias asked. “Toss in a fritter for Macy and the kids.”

Macy and Beau’s daughter Angel was the same age as Riley, so we often had play dates. This morning, Tobias was heading over to drop off Riley so he and Beau could run a business errand for their boss.

“I’ll throw in an extra one,” I said as I slipped a third apple fritter into the bag. “I have a feeling Macy’s going to want an entire apple fritter to herself.”

“Are you having a play date?” Willow asked Riley.

“Day date!” Riley said with a big smile.

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