Page 1 of The Pop-Up Cake Shop

CHAPTER ONE

‘I can’t believe I’ll be in New York this time tomorrow.’ I beamed at Ellie across the pre-packed sandwich aisle of the supermarket. ‘Not wanting to rub it in – but I amsoexcited. Big Apple and Richard, here I come!’

‘I’d ask if I could hitch a lift in your suitcase, but being nearly seven months’ pregnant, I doubt I’d fit in it.’

I threw a ham and cheese sandwich into my basket as I smiled at Ellie’s baby bump. It seemed to be growing larger by the hour these days. ‘I haven’t done my packing yet, so you never know. I might be able to squeeze you in.’

‘You haven’tpackedyet?’ She stared at me, alarmed. ‘But you leave early in the morning, don’t you?’

I shrugged. ‘It’s fine. I’ll do it tonight when I get back.’

‘I’ve obviously been working you too hard.’

‘Not at all. I’m enjoying it.’ As Ellie wound down towards her due date, these days Maddy and I were pretty much managing the café between us.

Not that Ellie was slowing down very much at all.

She seemed to be constantly busy and on the move between the café, the glamping site and the new house she and Zak had bought – the renovation was almost complete – while insisting she was still finding the time (at Zak’s insistence) to put up her feet at home.

It was true that work for me was busier than ever but with Richard away in New York I preferred it. It meant I had less time to sit at home and miss him.

‘I gather you managed to get your passport renewed?’

I grimaced at Ellie, recalling the mad panic I’d experienced a week or so ago when I suddenly discovered my passport was out of date. ‘It’s being delivered by courier today. For a while I reallythought I was going to have to cancel New York. But thankfully, I got the passport fast-tracked.’

‘That’s a relief.’ She pointed at the sandwich I’d picked up. ‘Why are you buying that?’

‘It’s for breakfast.’ I shrugged. ‘I want to be at the airport by six tomorrow morning for my nine o’clock flight and I don’t want to have to buy food there because it’s so expensive.’

‘A ham and cheese sandwich for breakfast?’ Ellie made a face. ‘Why not help yourself to pastries from the café? Or anything you fancy?’

‘Really?’

‘Of course! You know how much surplus cake and bakery stuff we have left over every week, no matter how hard I try to gauge how much we’ll need.’

‘True.’ I looked at the sandwich, hesitating. I knew Ellie’s thoughts on food wastage. I felt exactly the same. But running a café, it was inevitable that we’d make too little of one thing and far too much of another. It all depended on what customers fancied eating that week, which was properly hard to forecast!

She grinned. ‘You’ll be doing me a favour. Come back with me now and make yourself a little picnic for the airport.’

‘Okay. Thanks, Ellie.’ I went to put the sandwich back, and when I turned, a strange sight confronted me. ‘What onearth...?’

‘What?’ Ellie swung round, and we both started to chuckle.

‘Is that really a giant white rabbit haring towards us, wheeling a trolley?’ I murmured.

‘Nice pun. Hare-ing.’

‘Oh, yes.’

‘I’m just very glad you’re seeing it, too. I thought the pregnancy hormones were making me hallucinate.’

I snorted with laughter, which set Ellie off.

We tried not to look as the rabbit suddenly stopped by the cake section and started throwing packets into the trolley in an agitated fashion. The floppy ears on a headband had slipped and were sitting at a rather jaunty angle. And a sudden dive for the lower shelf caused the ears to fall off altogether.

‘That’s one very stressed rabbit,’ I murmured.

‘Hang on, that’s Mrs Aitken, isn’t it?’ said Ellie, recognising one of the cafés regular customers.

---