Page 27 of You Cake My Breath Away

A dishtowel hits me in the side of the head and drops to my forearm. Nora stands propped against the island with her arms crossed and a playful look on her face.

“I’ll let Hawkins take me out when you finally make things right with Tilly.”

I choke on the baseball lodged in my throat, sputtering as I turn off the water and dry my hands, heading to the island. Nora’s been a buffer between us since Jessie passed, but she’s never been one to meddle in her kids business. I’m not sure if Jessie ever told her how he ended up being the one to ask Tilly out, and I’m not going to be the one to tell her.

“Things between Tilly and me are fine.”

Her weathered hand rests upon mine. “Son, I may not be your actual mother, but I’m still a mother, and I know when something is wrong with one of my babies.”

I squeeze her hand. “I’m fi—”

“Don’t lie to me, boy,” she reprimands. “I’m not blind. You looked like a lovesick puppy when she tore outta here that night.”

Heat rushes to my cheeks, my chest, my neck, suffocating the tiny vessels of my heart. I thought I masked my surprise well during dinner when Shantel mentioned Tilly getting back into the dating field, but I guess not. It shouldn’t matter to me—she deserves happiness more than anyone I know—but it does. And the way my heart twists every time I think about her being happy with someone other than me shows me I’m nowhere near unbothered enough to pretend like it doesn’t affect me.

Stunned by her words, I struggle to find something to say.

“You know,” she says, “sometimes things don’t work out the way we want, but that doesn’t mean we can’t change our path.”

A strangled laugh finds its way out of my mouth. “Ok, Confucius.”

She whacks me again. “I’m serious, Archer. Time is fleeting, and you never know when you may miss an opportunity to tell someone how you truly feel about them.” She pauses, gulps. “I’m part of a club no parent wants to be in, but having you and Tilly still in my life helps me on the hard days. You’ll understand when you have kids of your own, but when someone is important to you—“ she pins me with her sharp gaze “—you don’t waste another second allowing them to feel like they’re anything but that.”

Her words convict me, reminding me of all the times I wanted to divulge my feelings but chickened out. An image of Tilly—the most important woman in my life outside of Nora, the one I’ve made feel like she’s inconsequential to me—pops into my mind like a pesky jack-in-the-box. I shake my head, clearing the image away. “There’s no point in trying to repair our friendship when I’m probably leaving anyway. I’ve got another interview coming up.”

“We don’t always get a chance to fix what we’ve broken, or to make things clear to those we love.”

My skin prickles with her comment. There’s so much I wish I could’ve said to Seb, so much I wish I could’ve changed or made right with him before he passed, but I don’t feel like that with Jessie. We were best friends, brothers by choice. I made a promise to him about Tilly, and he made one to me too. We both knew the score, and I lost.

“Your relationship with Tilly is worth repairing.” She gives me a wry smile then shrugs. “And maybe it won’t just be friendship that you find.”

Shock hardens my stomach, and a cold sweat breaks out over my body at her insinuation there could be anything more than friendship between me and Tilly. As Jessie’s mother, I feel like she should be angry at me, worried that I wasn’t being a good friend to her son, but all I see in her eyes is hope.

After she blew up on me about how I was treating her, there’s no way Tilly sees me as anything but the person helping her get her bakery ready for opening. But if there’s some chance of repairing our friendship, then I need to try.

“Okay.” I ignore her comment, grab my tool kit, and head to the garage to clear my head. “Now, how did these panels get busted?”

Nora shuffles behind me. “I think the foundation shifted some, because those panels weren’t that close to the side the other day.”

I laugh, and she punches me in the shoulder. Grasping my arm, I play like I’m hurt, and she threatens me with another knuckle sandwich.

“Don’t start, boy.”

I get to work fixing the wall Nora ran into, and my mind buzzes with everything we spoke about. If anyone knows how short time is, it’s me. There’s nothing I wouldn’t give up for another day with Sebastian and Jessie, and knowing my time might be limited to make things right with Tilly, I can’t risk pushing her away anymore.

Slipping my phone out of my pocket, I shoot her a text to see what time she’ll be coming to the bakery in the morning. Tomorrow I’ll start repairing what I’ve broken.

Chapter fourteen

Tilly

The aroma of cocoa tempts me toward an indie bookstore a few blocks from where my bakery will be. Outside, the birds chirp loudly, the sun bathes my skin, and there’s a lightness in my chest that feels suspiciously like…hope. It’s been so long since I’ve been able to see out from under the blanket of grief, to see that there is something to look forward to each day, and I’m realizing that for me, it’s the bakery. I told Archer I’d be there at ten o’clock sharp but seeing as I’m fifteen minutes early, I can spare a few moments to peruse the selection. Excited for the closeness of a fellow entrepreneur, I head inside to introduce myself.

“Hello?” A ding above me announces my arrival, and a melodic voice floats from the back area.

“I’ll be right out.”

Small tables are tucked into the corners of the bookshop, and there’s a counter with an espresso machine and a selection of treats. I knew I’d smelled chocolate, but I assumed it was from coffee, not cookies and pastries. A blip of jealousy creeps into my mind like only one of us can be selling delectable treats, and it’s going to be me.

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