Page 27 of New Day at the Beach House

She tipped her head, smiling coyly. “Don’t you like both of those things?”

“I do. And I’m impressed with what you’ve come up with. These are really perfect for the bakery. Do you ever bake anything that doesn’t work?”

“Sure, but I’ve been doing it long enough that I’ve become a pretty good judge of what will work. Try the other two.”

He did as she asked. But it was the toffee chip cookie he held up. “Okay, this is something special. It tastes like caramel corn in a cookie.”

She smiled as he confirmed what Jules had already noticed. “That’s what I was going for.”

“Claire, you’ve hit this out of the park. People are going to go nuts for these.”

“Speaking of nuts, there are, of course, many variations I can do on those. Chocolate, peanut butter, nuts—you name it.”

He nodded as he unpacked the shopping bag. “I love all of it. I think we can do some test batches, too. See what customers like the most.”

“Maybe we could do a free cookie on your birthday kind of thing? Or a frequent shopper card with a free cookie for every twelve purchased? I was thinking about making the cookies big. Like this.” She held her hands about five inches apart. “What do you think?”

He got plates down. “I think you’re the creative director and whatever you want to try is fine with me.” He smiled as he looked at the cookies in the container again. “I am so glad you’re part of this team. I meant it when I said you were making this possible.”

His words warmed her up inside. “I’ve never been so happy about anything in my life. Outside of having Kat, that is. This whole thing has just filled me with a joy I didn’t know I was capable of feeling. Thank you for that.”

“We make a great team.”

“Yes, we do.”

“You want to eat out by the firepit?”

She nodded. “I would love that.”

“Then let me get a tray to take everything down on. We need drinks, too. There’s bottled water in the fridge, ginger beer, and maybe some sodas.”

She went toward the fridge. “What do you want?”

“Ginger beer. Perfect thing for Indian food.”

“All right, I’ll have one, too.” It wasn’t a low-carb drink, but it was kind of celebratory, and that was the mood she was in.

Danny loaded everything onto the bamboo tray he’d pulled out of a cabinet, then she added the bottles of ginger beer to it as well. She went ahead of him to open the sliders onto his back deck, waiting until he’d come through to close them again.

She followed him down the steps to the firepit. He set the tray on the little table between their two chairs, then got the fire started.

“This is nice,” she said. “I’ve been looking forward to this all day. I need a firepit at my place.”

“I know a place,” Danny said.

She smiled. “I bet you do. I think, if it’s okay with everyone else, that I’d like to make some improvements to the ground floor. At least a screen like you have, so the parking area is separate from the living area.”

“I can help with that, you know.”

“I know,” she said. “But you’re about to be even busier. We both are. And now that I’m getting that insurance money, I can afford to hire someone.”

“True.”

They tucked into their food. She realized she was spending money that had yet to arrive, but the check would come and when it did, she was obviously going to be careful with it. There were a few things, however, like some new clothing and some improvements to the house, that were long overdue.

And those things weren’t going to make a dent in six hundred thousand dollars.

Kat arrived at the fire station with a new sense of peace about the interview. No, it hadn’t turned out the way she’d expected, but she’d probably set her bar too high. She could only chalk it up as a learning experience and move on.

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