That’s when Maddie recognized her. She was Principal Everett’s daughter. No wonder she thought she could get away with anything. Well, not in her bakery. She wasn’t letting anyone mistreat Gertie in her presence. “We’re out of those,” she said.
The Everett girl looked down at the case and frowned. “I see them right there.”
“I’m sorry, I misspoke. I’m not selling you one. Actually, I’m not selling you or any of your little cronies a single thing.”
The girl’s eyes grew wide with surprise. “Excuse me?”
If Maddie had addressed a grown-up with that attitude at her age, her mama would’ve smacked the smirk right off her face. No “please,” no “ma’am.” “You all get out of this shop and I don’t want to see you in here again until you’ve apologized to Gertie and mean it.”
“Come on, Kasey. Let’s just go,” one of the other girls said.
“No,” Kasey said, her arms folded across her chest. “You don’t get to tell me what to do.”
Maddie smiled sweetly, taking a step forward that caused the other girls to step back. “You’re right. I can’t tell you what to do. But your mama can. I can’t wait to tell her how disrespectful you’ve been today to me and my employee. Do you think you’re going to get to go to the Christmas formal when she finds out what an absolute brat you’ve been in my shop?”
For the first time, there was a flicker of fear in Kasey’s eyes. Maddie wasn’t a fool. The Christmas formal was a huge deal for the kids in Rosewood, especially for a popular little princess like Kasey.
“Now apologize, or get out of my shop right now.”
The other two girls backed toward the door. “Sorry, Gertie. Sorry, Miss Madelyn,” they said in unison and slipped out the door.
Kasey stood her ground for a moment, her nose upturned. Stubborn as ever, she finally walked out of the shop without apologizing. She probably thought Maddie was bluffing.
Maddie joined Gertie at the front window as they watched the girls walk away. She hugged the girl to her side. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah. That’s how those girls always are. Are you really going to call her mom?” she asked.
“You betcha. Unless you don’t want me to. I don’t want to make life harder on you.”
Gertie shrugged. “Eh, go ahead. I’d like Kasey to squirm for a change. I’m not going to the dance, so there’s no risk of this turning into Carrie or something.”
“Okay.” Maddie made a point to call the school the next day. She’d let Kasey stew overnight waiting for the hammer to fall.
“Why don’t you go on home, Maddie?” Gertie asked. “I can handle the shop for the rest of the afternoon.”
“What if they come back?”
“They won’t. You deserve a break. You’ve been working hard lately.”
That’s because working gave her brain something to focus on. Baking, cleaning, planning . . . it was the only thing that distracted her from the mistake she’d made with Emmett. She knew she needed to talk to him, to say something, but she couldn’t work up the nerve. It was easier to apologize to Pepper and stand up to her father than it was to go to Emmett and face the risk that he wouldn’t accept her apology.
“I have a business to run,” she said instead. “To run it, I have to be here. We’ve been super busy since the Halloween coupons went out.”
They had been, that wasn’t just an excuse. They’d already cashed in half the coupons she’d distributed. She was thrilled with the results, and it had kept the shop hopping the last week and a half, even if it had also brought in the snotty Miss Kasey.
“I thought that’s why you hired me. So you could have a life and not spend every waking minute in this shop.”
“I hired you because I got arrested and had to have someone watch the shop while I paid my debt to society.” A debt she hadn’t finished paying, actually. She needed to go to the courthouse and talk to the clerk about rescheduling her last two service appointments. She just hoped that Emmett had completed his last two sessions without her, so she could do it alone and be done with it.
Gertie didn’t seem to be buying Maddie’s story. Was she that transparent that a sixteen-year-old could see what she was desperately trying to hide?
“I’m more than capable of managing the shop and closing up tonight. Get out of here and get some rest.”
“I don’t need rest,” she said, which was true. The bar had been blissfully quiet lately. She took a nerve pill before bed to stop her brain from spinning, and she’d slept like a rock all week. She’d even gotten nine hours of sleep one night, although most of the time she’d been plagued by dreams of Emmett. She needed anything but rest.
“Then go do something fun. Look outside,” Gertie said, gesturing toward the display window. “It’s a beautiful fall day. The air is cool and crisp, the last of the leaves are falling. You could drive out to the orchard and pick apples for turnovers. Or you could go by the Tylers’ Pumpkin Patch and pick up some baking pumpkins so we can get a head start on our Thanksgiving pie orders. Anything but staying in here all day. You should get out there and enjoy some of it before winter comes and it’s nothing but cold, dreary days for months.”
Gertie was certainly feeling self-assured today. Perhaps seeing Kasey knocked down a peg had boosted her spirits. With a sigh, Maddie went over to the window and looked out. It was a nice day out. Maybe a walk around the square would do her some good.