Page 50 of Working For Her Sweet Treats

Ava looks at my mouth.

“Finish the cinnamon rolls,” she says. “Then we’ll discuss compensation.”

I put on the apron. For the first time in my life, working for someone else feels exactly like where I want to be.

Chapter 13

Ava

The first tray of caramel apple muffins disappears in minutes. I know because I check the time when Kayla carries the empty tray into The Foundry’s kitchen and places it beside me.

“You have more, right?”

“Three boxes beneath the prep table.”

“Good. There may be a riot otherwise.”

Out in the main room, nearly two hundred people move between heavy wooden tables, the bar, and displays from businesses throughout Forge Creek. Music plays near the small stage. Glasses clink. Conversations rise beneath the exposed steel beams. And directly beneath one of those beams stands the Sweet Treats display.

My display.

Jake’s reclaimed oak shelves are filled with muffins and cinnamon rolls arranged at different heights, every flavoridentified by a small handwritten card. Caramel apple occupies the center tier. Lemon-blueberry and strawberry cream cheese add bright color beside the deeper brown of the apple crisp cheesecake muffins.

People are photographing it. They are photographing my food. For one brief moment, I stand inside the kitchen doorway and let myself absorb what is happening.

Eleven days ago, Sweet Treats opened with one employee, an unpredictable front-door hinge, and a bank account that made me afraid to calculate how many pounds of butter stood between me and financial disaster. Today, half of Forge Creek knows my bakery’s name.

“Boss?”

“What?” I ask.

Jake points toward the coffee station. “The line is blocking the front of the display.”

My first instinct is to tell him to move it. I stop myself. He noticed the problem but did not act without me.

“What do you recommend?”

A smile comes across his face. “Move the coffee station closer to the bar and angle the display toward the entrance.”

I study the room. He is right.

“Do it.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

Jake signals Cole, and they begin shifting the urns and small table. He does not rearrange the pastries or change anything else. He moves exactly what I approved, then returns to wait beside the display. The crowd flows more easily almost immediately.

Someone near the bar calls, “Dalton, are you changing careers?”

Jake gives a smirk. “The benefits are still under negotiation.”

Several people laugh. My entire body warms. I turn away before he catches me smiling.

Kayla joins me at the display with another empty tray. “You may need a bigger bakery.”

“Let me survive the one I have.”

“A woman from the historic inn wants catering information. Two people asked whether you take holiday orders, and Sheriff Callahan bought six muffins after saying he only wanted coffee.”