“Ah, so sweet. Make yourselves comfortable and I’ll come back to take your drink order shortly. Ms. Taylor, I also got a few more of the good charcuterie boards you liked last time for the flight today.”
The flight flies by, no pun intended. With Harper by my side, everything in life just seems a little easier.
We head for her house. Since no one knows that I came back with her, I’m sure it won’t take long before word makes it around town that I’m backagain.
“I still can’t believe you just hopped on the flight with me,” Harper states, curling up to my side in bed. We might have been tired after the weekend and then the flight, but I still made it a point to make love to her as soon as we crawled into bed. Once I head back home tomorrow night, I don’t know yet when I’ll see her again, so I’ll be taking advantage of every moment I can.
“I’d stay forever if I could,” I admit.
“Give me some time to figure out what to do with the bakery. I’m going to talk more with Lacey and see if she’d be interested in taking it over and buying it from me. I can’t imagine selling it to someone else. It’s been in my family for too many years to do that now.”
“Don’t forget about my offer as a silent investor. If doing so will make it so you can hire some full-time help, I’ll wire money right this second, especially if that means you can spend your time in California with me.”
“I know,” she says, yawning.
“Go to sleep, babe. You’ve got to be up early.”
She groans, “Don’t remind me.” And I just chuckle. Her alarm is going to go off in just a few short hours, and I know she’ll be tired tomorrow.
18
Harper
I rollout another batch of cinnamon roll dough, getting it just perfect before I baste it with melted butter and spread the cinnamon and brown sugar mixture all over it. The more the better, is my opinion. Once it is well covered, I roll the dough into a long roll, then slice, placing the rolls in the greased pans. I pop them into the waiting racks, allowing them to rise before they hit the ovens and out into the case to be sold.
“When will the next batch be ready?” Lacey asks, popping her head back into the kitchen. “I’m down to my last pan already.”
“Wow. Probably at least fifteen minutes,” I tell her, looking at the timers on the oven. I already have four more pans baking. I step away from the counter, heading for the mixer to make another batch of the cream cheese frosting we use on top.
“Yeah, it’s a crazy morning today. People must have known you’d be back for cinnamon roll day,” she muses before disappearing back out front to help the next customer in line.
I whip up the frosting, then pull the hot pans from the oven. I slather them with the cream cheese goodness, then take two piping-hot pans out to replace the empty spaces in the case.
“Fresh, hot ones ready to go,” I call out, to the cheers of people in line. I set down the hot pads, then get to helping Lacey as the line continues to grow.
“Well, well, well, if it isn’t the one woman I was hoping to see this morning,” Nathan’s grandmother calls out as she reaches the counter.
“Good morning, Betsy. It’s nice to see you this morning, what can I get you today?”
“I’ll take a cinnamon roll and your presence at my dinner table tonight. I hear that grandson of mine came home with you last night,” she states, no room for argument.
“He sure did,” I reply, no reason to deny it. “We weren’t ready to say goodbye to one another, so he came back. Although, we have to say goodbye tonight, as he has to get back by morning.”
“Perfect. It gives y’all time to come to my place for dinner,” she says, once again with no room for argument.
“I’ll let him know,” I tell her.
“Oh, he knows, sweetheart. I’ve already spoken with him this morning.” She smiles like the cat that got the canary.
“Oh, okay. What time do we need to be there?” I ask.
“Come on over whenever you get done here. It will give us some extra time to chat before everyone arrives for dinner at five thirty.”
“I’ll have to run home, first, so I can shower and change. No one will want to smell the bakery on me all evening.”
“Whatever floats your boat. I’ll see you this evening,” she states before taking her cinnamon roll over to her table as she joins her friends for their morning chat.
The hours feel like they speed by today. Between going through more cinnamon rolls this morning than I think we’ve ever gone through in one day, to working on some custom orders that had afternoon pickup times, my day hasn’t slowed since I walked through the doors at just after five this morning. When my alarm went off, I didn’t want to get out of bed, but I knew I had to.