Page 65 of Sugar Rush

He touched one finger to the brim of his cap.“Be seein’ you.”

The door banged behind him and Jenny sagged back against the preheated oven, her heart pounding ten to the dozen.

* * *

Maddie

I ran around the house, getting ready to open the bakery.

Jenny, God love her, had phoned already to say she was there.She’d sounded a bit breathless, but insisted she was okay.Just in case, I hurried myself along.Thank goodness I didn’t have much to carry as I had no car.I hadn’t really thought this through.

I arrived at the back door of the bakery to the scent of baking - the raspberry blondies and the pastries smelled like they were well on their way.

“Hi!”

“Hi!”Jenny greeted me with her usual happy grin.“Everything seems to be going well.”She dusted her palms off on her jeans.

“And you’re okay?”I searched her face.“You sounded a bit winded on the phone.”

“No, I’m…” She chewed her lip, then turned to busy herself at the coffeemaker.“Levi was here.”

“Le—Oh.The mechanic.”Interesting.“What did he want?”

“He was in the area buying butcher’s scraps for a stray cat.”

“Aww.”

“Right?Ugh.”She made coffee for us both and set the filled cups on the counter.“He can’t just be a regular asshole, can he?”

I thought about a suitable answer.“There’s still time, I guess?”

That surprised a laugh out of her and she giggled until she wheezed.“Thanks.I really needed that.”

It was on the tip of my tongue to ask who had hurt her, and how she’d like me to kill them, but I wasn’t sure she’d want to tell me, and even if she did, we didn’t have time for a proper talk right now.

“Anyway,” she added.“Everything is pretty much ready, but I haven’t got the sandwich fillings and such out of the big fridge yet.”

“I can do that.”I strapped on one of the branded aprons.“How’s Toby?”

“Excited for a day with his Grandma.I expect he’ll come back full of sugar and having had no discipline, but, them’s the breaks with free babysitting.”She didn’t seem cut up about it.“And once again, I have two free hands!Count ‘em, one, two!”

Her enthusiasm was contagious, and I was already a morning person.Between us, we got the bakery ready in no time, and when the wholesale delivery arrived twenty minutes before opening, we were prepared to take it in.

Jenny was adamngood employee.

And an even better friend.

Maybe I could take her back to the UK with me in my pocket.

I mean, IwishedI could.Toby might have something to say about that, though.I doubted there would be room for them both in my tiny flat.

Customers arrived almost as soon as we flipped the sign.I recognised some of them by now, but Jenny was apro.She chatted the chat and convinced people to try our new pastries without them even knowing they were being sold to.

She would be a fantastic asset to whoever hired her on.

Not for the first time, I wondered what her story was.

Once or twice, she saw someone coming towards the window and murmured to me if I could serve them.Perhaps these were the vapid people whose feathers had been ruffled when she’d dared to come back to her own hometown with a child.

---