Total pages in book: 68
Estimated words: 68538 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 343(@200wpm)___ 274(@250wpm)___ 228(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 68538 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 343(@200wpm)___ 274(@250wpm)___ 228(@300wpm)
The only issue was that I should’ve had one care.
And that care was named Scott Austin.
The older I get, the more I realize that my mama was right about everything. I just didn’t like her tone.
—Auden’s secret thoughts
AUDEN
Her alarm was going off for a solid minute and a half before I groaned and rolled over, my eye blinking open blearily.
“Wake up, sunshine,” I grumbled grumpily.
She didn’t answer, so I poked her, and repeated my earlier statement.
“Wake up, baby,” I urged.
She blinked one eye open and glared at me. “Don’t tell me what to do.”
My lips twitched. “You have to get up. It’s already past three.”
She jerkily threw herself to her back and said, “Why did I think it was the best thing in the world to open a bakery?”
“Because you love sharing your creations with the world.” I paused. “Though, just sayin’, nobody said you had to open so fuckin’ early. You could do more of a noon thing.”
She reluctantly rolled out of bed, caught her phone, and walked out of the room with it still blaring.
My lips turned up into a smile as I laughed inwardly. Last night, I’d told her to go to bed, and she wouldn’t listen.
Maybe she would now…
I closed my eyes and immediately fell back asleep.
When next I woke, sunlight was streaming through my curtains, and there was a knocking at my door.
I got up, snagging a pair of sweatpants off the floor, and checked the clock beside the bed to make sure I wasn’t late for work.
I wasn’t.
It was barely past six in the morning.
I tried to clear the sleep from my eyes as I made my way to the front door and peeked out the peep hole.
I gritted my teeth when I saw who was standing on the other side.
Fuck.
When I die, I hope it’s early in the morning, so I don’t have to go to work for no reason.
—Maven to Auden
MAVEN
“Who was it who thought this would be a good idea?” I asked no one in particular.
“Well,” Garnett said, “I’m pretty sure you’re the one who thought this would be a good idea.”
I rolled my eyes at her. “I just figured I’d already lost weeks’ worth of work,” I admitted. “I’m just trying to pay my mixer bill.”
“How much was your mixer?” Hollis asked.
“You don’t want to know,” Pepper intervened. “Because if she starts, she’ll never stop.”
“I really want to know,” Shayne said from her perch on the counter next to me. “I mean, it has to be a lot. I can look at that mixer and see it looks expensive. But…”
“It was ten thousand dollars.” I gasped. “Can you believe that? And it only has six speeds. The better one that has ten speeds was almost twice that.”
“Jeez.” Shayne shook her head. “I mean, how hard could it be to make something like that?”
“Hard enough that they’re charging a pretty penny for it,” Ellodie said from her perch next to the display cases. “How long are we going to wait here? I mean, it’s not like you have anything else to sell.”
That was true.
I’d been sold out by ten-thirty.
I’d had a few customers trickle in, but the sign on the door that said ‘sold out’ had turned most of them away.
The ones who did come in wanted to make my acquaintance.
Or they wanted to place a special order.
I’d taken seven such orders. One for a catering gig that had over ninety sweet bun rolls in it for a Sunday School class next Sunday.
“I mean, y’all don’t have to stay,” I pointed out. “Pepper and I are going to get ready for tomorrow, get everything prepped so that all she has to do is pop things in the oven when she gets here. Then we’re going to head home.”
It was only twelve-thirty.
However, prep for the next day couldn’t start until around four because they needed time to rise, but they didn’t need that kind of time to rise.
“Do you think you sold out so fast because of the news that hit yesterday?” Ellodie asked, ignoring my earlier suggestion.
“I don’t know,” I admitted. “I mean, yes and no. If I was still in the original location, I would’ve agreed with you. However, I’m here. I’ve moved.”
“You posted on your Facebook page,” Pepper reminded me. “If they really wanted to find you, all they would have to do is go look at that.”
“True.” I sighed. “Then I have no clue. I hope I’m busy because this is a great location, and I had that stupid man out front who danced.”
“That was definitely it,” Shayne licked her fingers clean.
There’d been eight pastries left when I’d hung up the sign.
All of which I’d handed out to the women helping me today.
I hadn’t expected them to be there, though.
Truthfully, when I’d gotten here—Garnett had been the only one with me because she’d been my ‘bodyguard’ for the day—I had expected to be alone with Pepper opening up. Not only had Garnett stayed, but she’d also called in reinforcements: Ande, Shayne, Ellodie, and Hollis.