Page 33 of Beauty and the Baker
The bakery’s most popular flavor, of course, was the chocolate cake with brewed coffee in the batter. She had a dozen orders a week going all the way until the first of the year.
Customers asked her to divulge her secret ingredient, and she never did. Instead she’d just smile and say that it was a secret from New York.
Pound cakes became a staple as well. Georgina made Charlie one the day the bakery opened. She could still recall them sitting down with a cup of tea from the tea shop and the way Charlie’s eyes closed as he savored every bite.
She sent the rest of the cake home with him, apart from one slice she wanted to take to Maybelle. She made a silent vow to make Charlie a pound cake once a week.
She was hoping he might start to open up to her during his time at the bakery, but he remained silent on most things. It was as if a light in him had dimmed, and she wanted to find out how to help him shine.
The bell above the door rang and Georgina walked from the area where the cakes were cooling.
“Mama!” she cried, rushing out to envelop her mother in a hug. Thomas threw his arms around her legs.
“We missed you, Georgie. I cried after you left.”
“I cried, too, pet. All the way out here to Colorado.”
“Your father and I were worried sick. You can’t imagine all the things your father and I were thinking. I knew you got a letter from a man. You can’t imagine my relief to find out that you came out to help your aunt, instead of running off and getting married.”
Georgina squirmed. “About that,” she started. She wanted to tell them that she had been thinking of running away and getting married, but now that she had been in Creede, she wasn’t sure that San Francisco is where her future was.
Instead, she thought of dark-haired babies with ice blue eyes. But she knew that wasn’t to be. Especially if Charlie didn’t open up to her.
“We can catch up on your trip out here later. We just arrived. Your father instructed the porter to take the luggage directly to your aunt’s house. But I wanted to come and see the bakery first.”
“Did you make these?” Thomas asked, pressing his nose against the glass case.
Georgina laughed. “I did, pet. Today we have jam tarts and sand cookies.”
“Sand cookies? What are those?”
“They are a light buttery cookie that melts in your mouth. They are called sand cookies because of the sugar sprinkled on top of them.” Thomas licked his lips. “Would you like one?” He nodded eagerly, taking the cookie Georgina offered him. “Go sit at the table and eat that.”
“Only two types of treats?”
“I make two small items on a daily basis. Plus, a cake of the day. The cake I bake the night before and let it cool. I was in the middle of frosting them.”
“What kind do you have today?”
“Today is almond pound cake. I ground up nuts to put in the batter. And a yellow cake with chocolate glaze.”
“I thought you said one cake.”
“I make a batch of pound cakes on Monday and sell them all week. They keep fresh because I wrap them in paper.”
“You aren’t open on Monday?”
“No. We are off Sunday and Monday. Sunday I go to church and Monday I’m here starting the baking and prepping for the week.”
“Ground nuts in a cake, who would have thought to do that?”
Georgina smiled.The same person who dropped coffee in my cake batter,she wanted to say. Instead she kept quiet.
“Would you like to try a piece?”
“Not right now. I really want to get to Maybelle’s and get out of these traveling clothes.”
“I want a piece,” Thomas called from the table.
