Page 18 of Surprised By Love

They turn around in unison and Bea lets out a loud shriek, as if she was a teenage girl seeing her favourite celebrity in person. “Samantha!” she yells, rushing over to me. “Oh my gosh, look at you. You’re stunning child.” She embraces me in a warm hug. Bea has worked for my family for as long as I can remember. I don’t think she’ll ever retire. She loves this diner as much as we do and when my grams passed she became a surrogate gramma to us all.

“Hi Bea,” I say, wrapping my arms around her. “How are you?”

“How am I? How are you? It’s been so long. I’m so happy you’re back home where you belong.”

Sloan clears his throat and Bea lets go of me and turns to him. “Oh my, where are my manners?” She turns to me. “Sam, this is Sloan. He’s the cook here and your sister Vicki’s best friend.”

She turns to Sloan. “Sloan, this is Sam.”

Sloan reaches his hand out. “Nice to finally meet you. Your sister has told me so many things about you.”

I take his hand and shake it. “All good I hope,” I giggle.

“Sam is the youngest of the Miller girls and a very talented baker, if what I’m hearing from Vicki is correct,” Bea says.

“You can be the judge of that. I have a few more trays in my car out back.” I turn my head towards the way I came.

“I’ll go grab them,” Sloan says as he heads towards the back door.

I motion to the chocolate chunk muffins. “Try one. I’m going to go help Sloan bring in the rest.”

I return to the kitchen a moment later and see Bea sitting at a side table with the biggest grin on her face. “Did you try it?”

“Did I? You’re damn straight I did. Samantha, these are the best damn muffins I’ve ever had. And that’s saying something since I’m old as dirt and have tried my fair share of muffins.”

I laugh, placing a tray of carrot cake cupcakes on the table.

“Sloan. You need to try one of these muffins,” Bea says as Sloan enters the kitchen carrying the rest of the trays.

“I’ll try one later if there are any left. I still have a lot of prep to do before we open.”

“You’re right.” Bea stands. “Let’s get the diner ready before Vicki shows up and scolds us for slacking.” She laughs and turns for the walk in the fridge.

I place the cupcakes I made last night onto the tray, sliding it in the glass display case with the other desserts. I love to bake, and I have a habit of baking when I’m nervous or stressed.

Last night, all I could do was think about Josh. I never thought I would see him again, but when he walked into the diner and came to the table I was sitting at; my heart nearly stopped. I don’t know what it is about him, but I haven’t felt that kind of pull towards somebody in as long as I can remember.

Then for him to see me walking in the middle of the night. What were the chances of that? When he asked why I was out walking so late… I couldn’t tell him part of the reason was because all I kept doing was thinking of him and I tossed and turned for over an hour before I gave up and took a walk instead. I thought about doing some more baking, but I had already baked a couple dozen muffins and cupcakes and didn’t want to overdo it.

I don’t think I ever felt that way towards Derek and I married him. What does that say towards my judgement since we’re now divorced, and he is married to his nurse and they’re expecting a child?

I close the glass door of the display case and walk over to the other side of the counter. Filling the salt and pepper shakers, I look at the big red clock on the wall. It’s six-forty-five and almost time to flip the front door sign to OPEN.

I head over to the big jukebox in the corner and put onThese Boots are Made for Walkingby Nancy Sinatra. It was one of Gram’s favourite songs. She always used to say whenever you want to feel empowered, listen to this song and know you are strong, capable and can do anything. That’s exactly what I want to feel right now, so I turn it up and start singing.

I can hear my sister singing in the kitchen. She walks out laughing. “How did I know you were going to play this song?”

A giggle escapes me. “Because it’s like our theme song.”

Vicki grabs me by the hand and twirls me around. Just like our Grams used to. We sing at the top of our lungs and start laughing when we see Sloan and Bea watching us through the serving window.

“It’s so good to have you home, dear,” Bea says as she reaches us. She hugs me again for the fourth time since I arrived an hour ago. “All we need now is for Jessica to come home, and you girls will all be back where you belong.”

Jessica is four years older than me and is a party planner out in Sudbury. I would love for her to come home, but she loves her job too much to come back to this small town.

“You’ll have to bring your sweet girl by so I can see her. I haven’t seen her since she was born,” Bea says, placing the full salt and pepper shakers on the tables.

“You’ll get to see her later. She had a sleepover at her Auntie Becca’s house, and she’s bringing the girls in for breakfast today.”

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