Page 2 of Between the Shady Groves
Her mom had known just how to do all of that. To handle it all so perfectly. To balance the intricacies of making a business profitable, making a living from it, and still having friendships and feelings and making people feel like her shop was their second home.
But now, her mom was gone. All the wisdom, all the recipes, all the knowledge. It was all just memories. Whatever was left.
She took a breath, and her stomach growled. She realized she hadn’t eaten since the day before, sometime. Maybe breakfast? She wasn’t sure. She had driven here from Cincinnati and slept upstairs. Theapartment held memories too, but not like this did. This was where life happened.
She had bought a few groceries at the store in Blueberry Beach, the last one she passed before she got here. Enough groceries to make her mom’s specialty. Nutella banana bread. It was easy but so, so good. It had been her favorite back in high school. She didn’t know when Nutella came out, but her mom had discovered it at some point, and it instantly skyrocketed to Lauren’s favorite baked good of all time. She had gotten the recipe from her mom, and it had become her signature bread. That, along with the cheesy bread that her mom made so well—she had a knack for it too, and most people said she made it even better than her mom.
That would take a little while, but on a whim, she had brought the ingredients for that as well.
First, she needed to clean the dust off the equipment and the counters and…wade through the memories so that she could possibly pick up the pieces of her life.
She thought about her husband, the life she had expected to build with him. It was her fault as much as his. She had to take the blame where it was due. She had been devastated by the miscarriages, and…it seemed like he didn’t care. And then, with her mom getting sick, she moved her mom in and put all of her being into caring for her mom. There hadn’t been anything left for her husband. That had been on her.
But her husband had been busy working, making his business successful, and basically paying for everything. She had quit her job as a teacher so that she could stay home and be with her mom. She hadn’t even talked to her husband about it; she had just done it.
He’d not complained. He was a good man. Still, it was hard to forgive him for the fact that he couldn’t comfort her in her loss. Not over their children, not over her mom. He just kept working.
It irritated her to the point she couldn’t stand it anymore.
Plus, she had a deep longing to come home. And now, she was finally here. All she had to do was figure out how she was going to make a living. If she could open the baked goods shop and make it as successful as her mom had over the years. Or was the era of the small mom-and-pop bakery completely over?
Two
Cannon Knodel flipped his phone back and forth in his hand. End over end.
Lauren had left a short note, packed a few things, and left.
End over end.
He held the note in his other hand. It didn’t say much. He supposed that nothing it said was surprising, either. He just…felt surprised anyway.
He pressed his lips together and continued to flip the phone while pacing to the window and then going back.
She left yesterday. Which was interesting timing on her part, since she knew he would be gone overnight for a job in Chicago. He never turned down the Chicago jobs. They were more lucrative than anything else he had.
Being in Cincinnati, it was quite a drive, but he had more than one job. His reputation had spread, and he had jobs in Pittsburgh, Cleveland, and even down to Lexington, Kentucky.
But the Chicago jobs were the cream of the crop.
Most of the time, he sent a crew out, and it took them a couple of days. But as the owner of the business, he always showed up.
The paper crinkled in his hand, and he looked at it once more.
Dear Cannon,
I suppose it will be a relief to you to know that I’m moving out. Now that Mom’s gone, the apartment is empty without her and even emptier when you’re not around. I know you know I hoped to have children, and that doesn’t seem to be in the cards for us. Anyway, that’s not your fault.
You can do what you need to do. It’s fine. I understand. Let me know how you want to proceed.
I wish things could have been different.
Lauren
Cannon pursed his lips and gripped the paper tight, causing it to crinkle in his hands, as he walked back to the window, looking out at the back of the neighbor’s house. It wasn’t much of a view.
They could have upgraded. He was making good money now, and even without Lauren’s salary, they could have afforded a much nicer place. Instead, the nest egg in their checking account had been growing bigger and bigger. He needed to take some time to figure out investments, but he hadn’t done that because his business had been so busy. And so profitable.
Now, it looked like…it didn’t matter?
