Page 122 of Frosting and Flames

I don’t think she’s looking for an actual response, so I continue shaping cinnamon rolls.

“He said he thought things would blow over with Autumn by Monday and he could go back home, none the wiser. Well, joke’s on him.”

“How did your friend overhear all this?” Hailey asks. “If he was being questioned, shouldn’t it have been in a closed room or something?”

Sydney brushes off the question with a wave of her hand. “All the officers are the biggest gossips. She knows everything that goes on there.”

The phone rings and Hailey excuses herself to answer it, then comes back in a minute later, worry on her face. “The jig’s up.”

I exchange a confused look with Sydney. “What?”

“Mom found out about the help wanted sign in the window.”

In all the commotion of the past few days, I forgot we even put that up there. No one’s come in to ask about the job yet.

“Three guesses who told her,” Sydney mutters.

Ah, crap. Mrs. Montour was in here yesterday. There’s no way she would have kept that juicy tidbit to herself.

“She asked if Desiree quit and I told her no… and that she should talk to you.”

I nod. Hailey did say she didn’t want to be involved with the details. “Is she still on the phone?”

“Yeah.”

I walk to the front to take the call, the sky outside the bakery windows the kind of deep, velvety dark that clings to everything just before the dawn. It’s too early to be dealing with this, but it must be mid-day for her. My feet drag, as if I’m walking to the gallows, and the rectangular sign in the window that felt like a beacon of hope when I put it up now mocks me.

I do my best to square my shoulders, thinking of the strength Nick gave me when I talked to him about the idea of hiring another baker, nearly two weeks ago now. How much he supported me, listening to me vent. How he never made my work feel small or silly. How much I wish he was here, if only to squeeze my hand in solidarity.

Less than two hours until he’s out of work now.

Picking up the phone, I steel myself. “Hey, Mom.”

“Well, hello to you, too. Have you forgotten how a phone works?”

Instantly, my hackles rise. “I’ve been busy.”

“Too busy to call your parents?”

“We’ve been working sixty-hour weeks. Sometimes more when emergencies coming up.”

“Hailey calls me regularly.”

That’s because Hailey’s the baby of the family and doesn’t know how to say no to them. She even still lives at home. Well, at least she has the place to herself for now.

“I’m glad she has the time,” I say, striving to stay polite.

She makes a sound of displeasure. “Are you trying to punish me? Is that it?”

“Punish you?” What she is talking about?

“We haven’t talked in a month and a half.” Wow, has it been that long? “And that’s only because I called you. I… I’ve been waiting for you to call.”

There’s something off in her voice.

“Is this about the help wanted sign?” I ask, wanting to get it over with.

“No. Well, yes. It’s more about… Well, the bakery seems to be running fine.”

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