The Bachelor Baker

Brian fought down his hesitation.

It’s only until something better comes along, he reminded himself.

Once that happened, he was out of here.

He followed Melissa into the office, feeling as if the walls were closing in on him. She sat down and pulled some papers out of a drawer.

“Fill these out. Let me know when you’re done and we can go over the basics.” Her words were clipped and Brian suspected she was about as willing to hire him as he was to work here.

Oh, this was going to be fantastic.

But he only nodded at her, then took the pen she handed him and started filling in the blanks.

Ten minutes later he was done. He left the papers on the desk and walked to the back of the bakery.

Melissa was dumping some flour into an industrial-sized mixer. She looked up when he came in. “Done?”

“Yeah.”

“Good.”

Great conversation. This was going to be just swell.

Melissa wiped her hands again, then walked past him to the front of the bakery, stopping at the front counter. “I thought you could start with taking care of customers, stocking the cases and organizing the stockroom.”

“And baking?”

“I take care of that,” she said, a brusque note in her voice.

“I thought you needed full-time help.”

“I do, but for now you can start with this.” She leveled him a narrowed gaze. “I hope that’s not a problem?”

Brian held his hands up. “No problem. I just figured I’d have to be making cupcakes or some such thing.”

“I like to be in charge of the baking.” She said it with such a firm note in her voice, Brian pegged her immediately.

Control freak. Not that it mattered to him if he didn’t do any baking. This job was strictly a fill-in.

“This is the cash register, obviously,” she said, changing the subject. She pointed to a machine sitting on the wooden counter at right angles to the display cases. “People can pay cash or use their debit or credit card.” Melissa demonstrated, her fingers flashing over the keys. Brian tried to keep up but figured he would find out by trial and error how the thing worked.

“I’ll be in the back most of the day and when I’m not, Amanda is around. She comes at noon and stays for the afternoon. She knows how to run the cash register, too.”

Melissa gestured at a chalkboard on the wall behind her. “This is a list of the prices of the goods. I also have a master list of what I’ve baked for the day in the back. When the stock gets low, check the list first to see how much we need compared to how much we make on average.”

Melissa pointed out another checklist, rattled off some more information about stock and overages, words spilling out of her mouth faster than oil out of a busted hydraulic hose.

“Hey, Miss Sweeney,” he said, holding up his hand to stem the verbal flow. “You’re throwing too much at me too quick. Why don’t we take this one step at a time? Let me learn as I go.”

“Okay,” she said, her gaze flicking away from his. “I’m usually in the back so I’m available.”

“Good. Then I’ll start with memorizing the price list.”

Melissa nodded, then, avoiding his eyes, walked to the supply room just off the front of the bakery.

Brian blew out a sigh as he looked around the front of the bakery. Well, this was it. His new job. And from the way Melissa was acting, it was as if she wasn’t too impressed with having him as an employee either.

As Miss Coraline said, God moves in mysterious ways.

“One other thing I need from you,” Melissa was saying as she came out of her office carrying a bag. “You’ll have to wear this.”

Brian opened the bag, pulled out an apron with broad pink-and-white stripes, then stared at Melissa in dismay. “Seriously?”

“Seriously.” Melissa gave him another pinched-lip look and he stifled yet another flicker of humiliation.

“Looks too small,” he said, grimacing as he held it up.

“I had ordered a couple extra because I had assumed if I hired someone I would be hiring...” She paused, shrugged.

“Another woman,” he finished for her. He blew out a sigh and slipped the top loop of the apron over his head. The bottom of the apron, instead of coming to his knees like hers did, hit him midthigh. Well, his indignity was complete. God was definitely trying to teach him humility.

It’s for Grandpa.

“I can order another one.”

“No. I’m good.” As he knotted the ties at the back he couldn’t help think of the phrase “tied to a woman’s apron strings.” That was him. “So, what do you want me to start with?”

“You could start with them,” Melissa said as the door of the bakery opened and two men came inside. “I’ll be in the back if you need me.”

He held her gaze for a heartbeat, then turned to his first customers of the day. His heart sunk as Don Mankowski and his ever-present friend, Jake Fry, stood in front of him.

Don was almost as tall as Brian but heavier. He wore tight T-shirts in all weather to show off the muscles he worked diligently to maintain. His short cropped black hair made him look tougher than he really was, but Don was all about presentation.

Jake was shorter than Don, not as heavily built, blonde where Don was dark and not as full of swagger and self-importance. A decent guy but too attached to his sneering buddy.

Jake and Don had played football with Brian in high school and had also worked at the factory, albeit under him.

Don elbowed Jake as he tilted his rounded chin toward Brian. “Well, look who’s serving up pastries. Our old boss, Mr. Montclair.”

Jake gave Brian a lopsided grin. “Hey, Brian. Didn’t expect to see you here.”

Didn’t expect to be here, Brian wanted to say.

“So, this is your new job,” Don said with a smirk. “Suits you. All this sweet and fancy stuff.”

“What can I get you guys?” he asked, tamping down his own humiliation.

Don pulled a face as he looked around the display cases, then the bread racks. “You out of doughnuts already?” He shook his head, tut-tutting. “You snoozing standing up?”

Brian recognized the comment as a jab he gave Don from time to time when Brian found him slacking off. His back stiffened but he knew he couldn’t let this guy get to him.

“I doubt that. Melissa said we were well stocked.” But he walked behind the display cases to make sure.

Don was right. They were out of doughnuts. Great, his first minute on the job and he had already messed up.

“I’ll be back,” he said.

Melissa was cracking eggs into a large mixing bowl on a stand.

“We’re out of doughnuts,” he said, unable to keep his annoyance with Don out of his voice.

Melissa brushed some dough off her chin with her shoulder, then frowned at him. “We’re not out of doughnuts because I don’t make them.”

“What? Really?”

“No. I thought I would try a different direction with the bakery.” She hit a switch and the huge paddle of the mixing bowl started spinning around.

Brian could only stare at her. “Everyone expects doughnuts at a bakery. That’s not a good direction.”

Melissa’s expression darkened. “I think I know best what I’m trying to accomplish in my own bakery.”

Now she was getting all uppity with him. One of those “her way or the highway” bosses. He’d worked under a couple of them in the factory.

He also knew sometimes you just needed to push.

“I’m sure you do, but the other bakery we had here always had doughnuts.”

“And where is that bakery now?” Not hard to hear the chill in her voice as she turned the mixer off.

Brian just stared at her, then spun around and walked away. “No doughnuts today,” he said to Don. “But I got some amazing ‘petty fours’ you could try.” He couldn’t keep the sarcasm out of his voice.

“Nah. I prefer something I can bite into. Guess you don’t get our business today,” Don said, tossing off a wave. “Don’t get your apron dirty.”

Brian drew in a slow breath as he watched them leave. Just fantastic. Now it would be all over town. Brian Montclair wore an apron. A pink-and-white-striped apron.

Awesome.

But now it was quiet in the bakery and he needed to do something. He walked over to the wooden shelves and straightened the loaves of bread. Once he was done with that, he glanced down at the floor, noticing the crumbs there. Guess Melissa and Amanda were too busy baking to clean up. He strode to the back of the bakery, looking for cleaning supplies.

Melissa was dividing some of the mixture she had made over a set of four baking pans sitting on a scale. “Something I can help you with?” she asked as she looked up from what she was doing.

“Nope,” he replied, still fuming at Don’s “lady boss” comment and Melissa’s previous attitude to his suggestions.

He grabbed a broom and dustpan from the cleaning supply room and walked past Melissa without a glance her way.

He swept the floor in the front, again taking out his frustration with a broom. What kind of bakery doesn’t carry doughnuts? City girl and her fancy cakes and pastries that cost too much. Not so good for business in a town where people were struggling to get by.

He made short work of cleaning the floor, then strode to the back again, returned the broom and came back with a spray bottle of window cleaner. He wiped down the front of the display cases, surprised at how many fingermarks were on it. Wasn’t Amanda supposed to take care of this?

Guess it was his job now.

The rest of the day went by with fits and starts of work. Some people came in to simply look, a few more to buy. He wasn’t terribly busy, but he wasn’t too bored.

But as he worked he was far too aware of the woman fussing away in the bakery behind him.

Just get over it, he thought.

By the time the day was over, his feet were sore from standing on the concrete floor and his temper hadn’t improved much. He had to keep reminding himself why he was doing this. For Grandpa.

Sunday was a relaxing day. He and Grandpa walked around the yard, making a few plans, reminding Brian again of why he was putting on a fancy apron come Monday. Next weekend they were going to Concordia to move his stuff back here.

When he arrived at the job Monday morning, Melissa wasn’t working at the large butcher block counter, nor was she in her office. He followed the sound of a machine and found her in the back of the bakery twisting a bag of bread and clipping it shut.

She started when he came in. “What’s that?” he asked, pointing to the machine.

“Bread slicer.”

“How does it work?”

She frowned at him as she set the bagged bread on a large rack already holding a number of loaves and plucked another unsliced loaf from the rack on the other side. “I guess you could learn how to run this,” she said as she dropped it into a slot on the top of the machine. It wasn’t too hard to hear the reluctance in her voice.

Control freak, he thought again.

“I guess I could,” he returned. “Not much happening right now.”

She shot him a frown, as if she wasn’t sure what to make of his comment, then, to his surprise, stepped aside. “You set the bread here, push this button, wait until it comes into this chute and slip a bag over top. Hit the release button and then twist the top and put a clip on.”

Brian followed her instructions, the noise of the machine precluding any other conversation, crumbs flying from the blades cutting the bread. A few seconds later he had a bag of bread closed off and ready to put on the rack.

“Good,” she said, sounding surprised that he had caught on so quickly. “That’s good.”

“I’ll do the rest,” he said, setting the loaf on the rack and grabbing another one. “You go bake some petty fours.”

She looked like she was about to protest, then with a shrug, she turned, leaving him to his job.

The work was tedious, but it kept him busy and soon he had all the loaves done and was wheeling the full rack to the front of the bakery.

As he set the loaves neatly on the shelves, the door opened again and their first customers of the day stepped into the bakery. Brian turned to see a young woman and little girl enter. He tried not to flush as he recognized Lexi Ross, a girl he had dated in high school. Her long blond hair, green eyes and narrow features had made her the darling of Bygones and the epitome of Midwest wholesomeness. Now she and her husband, Wilson Ross, lived with their three children in a two-story Victorian off Granary Road.

Lexi gave him an awkward smile as she glanced from him to his apron to the loaf of bread he still held. How the mighty have fallen, he thought, remembering how he used to tell her he would one day be his own boss, run his own business.

“What can I help you with?” he asked, unable to keep the gruff note out of his voice.

Treena Ross, six years old, her short blond hair like dandelion fluff around her round face, looked up at him, then back at her mother. Her lower lip quivered and her green eyes welled up with tears. “He scares me, mom,” she said. “Why is that big man working here?”

Lexi gave Brian an apologetic grin, then crouched beside her daughter, her full skirt brushing the floor. Her hair fell over her face as she bent her head toward her daughter, lowering her voice to assure her. “He’s a nice man. That’s Mr. Montclair. You saw him yesterday at our church, remember? Now why don’t you ask Mr. Montclair what you came here to do?”

Treena sniffed, palmed her tears off her cheek then held up a piece of paper. “Can you sign my perdition?” she asked in a small voice. “I want the school to stay open so I can go there. Like my mommy and daddy did.”

Brian frowned as he took the paper from the little girl. “What do you mean, stay open?”

Lexi brushed Treena’s hair away from her face and gave Brian a despondent look. “We got a letter from the county school board saying she and her brother, Phil, will be bussed to Concordia School, over an hour away, when school starts. They are thinking of closing down the school here in Bygones.”

“Close down the school? Why?”

“Budget cutbacks,” Lexi said. “They don’t think they have enough money to keep it open this year.”

Brian fought his frustration and anger. What was happening to his town? Why were things going so badly?

He looked at the little girl, trying to imagine her sitting on a bus for more than an hour instead of walking to school like so many children in Bygones did. As a kid he used to take the school bus, but in the summertime he and his sisters would bike from their home on the edge of town, enjoying the freedom of their own transportation.

“I’ll sign your petition, Treena.” He pushed himself to his feet and pulled a pen out of a jar sitting by the cash register. He scribbled his signature, then handed the paper back to Treena. “I hope the school doesn’t get closed down. Let me know what happens, Lexi,” he said as he straightened.

“What’s going on?”

Melissa stood behind him, a frown puckering her forehead, her arms folded over her chest.

And why was she frowning at him now?

“Lexi and Treena wanted me to sign a petition but I’ll get right back to work,” he said with a hint of asperity. Before she could say anything he grabbed the empty bread rack and pushed it, wheels squeaking in protest, to the back to finish his job.

* * *

Melissa watched Brian go, biting back a sigh. His second day on the job and he still exuded resentment. This was not going well. Saturday she had hoped to talk to Dale Eversleigh about helping her with another list of prospective employees and then Brian came walking into the bakery. For a moment she had been tempted to rescind her job offer, but she didn’t dare. She was the newcomer to Bygones and the SOS Committee held the strings and dictated the terms of her loan.

So she had, very reluctantly, hired him. And, it seemed, he was just as reluctant to work here, which made her wonder why he took the job.

She wasn’t sure whether she needed to talk to him about his attitude or wait and see if it changed. At least he knew how to work. She was still surprised he had cleaned up the front so well on Saturday and was willing to learn how to bag bread today.

As she turned her attention back to the little girl named Treena, she thought of how kind Brian had been to her. He was a puzzling study in contrasts, that’s for sure.

“What did Mr. Montclair mean when he said he hoped the school didn’t close down?” she asked.

Treena held up her paper again. “I have a perdition here—”

“Petition,” Lexi corrected as Melissa stifled a quick smile.

“Petition,” the little girl corrected. “I thought people in town could help me and sign my paper. Maybe I could give it to the school board and they would change their mind.”

Melissa glanced at Lexi, who gave her a “what can I do?” smile. “It was her idea so I said I would accompany her to the various businesses. It can’t hurt.”

“Of course I’ll sign,” Melissa said. As she added her name and signature to the paper, she noticed Brian’s above hers. His writing was a large, dark scrawl.

Not unlike the man himself, she thought, giving the girl her paper back. “I hope that helps,” she said with a rueful look.

Lexi placed her hand on her daughter’s shoulder. “I do, too. A six-year-old shouldn’t have to sit on the bus for over an hour to get to school.” She gave Melissa a quick smile, then glanced over at the display case. “While we’re here, I’d like to try some of the new pastries I’ve heard some rave reviews about.”

Melissa’s heart warmed at the compliment. “Sure. What would you like?”

“I can deal with the customers.”

Brian’s gruff voice behind her gave her a start, but she shook her head. “No. That’s okay. I don’t mind.” She turned back to Lexi.

Lexi glanced from Brian to Melissa as if unsure who to talk to.

“I want a doughnut,” Treena piped up, obviously not caring who she needed to deal with.

“Sorry, honey. I don’t have any doughnuts,” Melissa said.

“Wow. They must be amazing if you’re out already,” Lexi said.

“I don’t carry doughnuts.”

Lexi looked taken aback and Melissa could almost feel Brian’s smirk behind her.

“I’m aiming for a different product line,” Melissa said, trying not to sound defensive. “Something less traditional.”

“Okay. Then I’ll have a half-dozen white chocolate blueberry scones and a dozen toffee crunch cookies.”

“Coming right up.” Melissa turned to put on her plastic disposable gloves and almost ran into Brian standing right behind her, gloves already on.

“I said I’ll take care of this,” he growled. “You go bake your little fours or whatever you call them.”

She held his steady gaze, his eyebrows lowered over his deep-set eyes, and felt the tiniest frisson of fear. Then she dismissed it. She would not be intimidated by an employee, but at the same time she sensed he was not backing down.

“Okay. I’ll be in the back,” she said with a forced smile, knowing she would have to talk to him later about the boss/employee relationship. If he was going to work here, they needed to keep a few things straight.

After Lexi and Treena left, the bell rang again and a group of people came in. Melissa heard laughter, Brian’s gruff response and more laughter.

She was curious but stayed where she was, not sure she wanted to deal with Brian’s grumpiness any more than she had to.

Quiet ensued, but then another group of people came in. Sounded like women from the voices. More laughter. Melissa knew she should keep her concentration on the new recipe she was working on for Mrs. Morgan.

She corrected a few of the amounts, but her inquisitiveness got the better of her and she stepped away from her table, peeking around the corner to see the front of the store.

Two women stood by the display cases, quizzing Brian about the products and teasing him.

“I guess your Home Ec classes are finally getting put to good use,” one of the women, a tall brunette, was saying. She fingered her long hair, giving Brian a flirtatious look.

“I just got a job here because I kneaded the dough,” he said with a wry tone in his voice. Melissa pressed down a giggle at his unexpected humor, but neither of the women seemed to catch the double entendre.

“I never thought I’d see the day a woman put an apron on the rough, tough Brian Montclair,” the other woman said, her green eyes flashing behind a pair of heavy rimmed glasses, her hair a mass of dark curls springing away from her narrow face.

“Now, now, Anita, I’m not that helpless. I put this apron on all by myself,” he said, joining in on their laughter.

“So is this your new calling?” Anita asked, wrapping her arms around her narrow frame, giving Brian a flirtatious look. “Baking cupcakes and squares?”

“I don’t care to do any of the girlie baking stuff,” Brian returned. “That’s Miss—”

“City Slicker’s job,” Anita finished for him. “I heard you call her that after the Grand Opening. After all the grumbling you did there about the new businesses I never thought I’d see you working at one of them.”

“Well, as Miss Coraline always said, the Lord moves in mysterious ways. His wonders to perform,” Brian returned with a tight smile. “Speaking of wonders, Trudy, you have to try this apple pastry.”

“I’ll take half a dozen,” Trudy replied.

“Only half? Your husband and kids will have half of them eaten before Sunday comes around,” he said, putting six more in another box.

“Always were a smooth talker,” Anita said, adding a wink. “Have you been turning your charm on the owner of the bakery, Miss Melissa City Slicker? She’s single. Pretty. She reminds me of Tracy, one of your many old girlfriends.”

Melissa knew she should get back to work, but for some reason she was suddenly curious about Brian’s romantic history.

“Miss City Slicker is nothing like Tracy,” Brian retorted.

His cutting words bothered her more than she cared to admit, as did the mention of many old girlfriends, but just as she was about to go back to her recipe, he turned.

Their eyes held a moment and, in spite of his caustic tone and in spite of what he had said about her, she couldn’t look away.

For a moment she had felt a flicker of jealousy that these women could elicit what she couldn’t.

A genuine smile.

Chapter Four

“Brian, can you come to the back a moment? I just got the strangest letter,” Melissa called out.

It was Tuesday afternoon, his third day on the job, and though the work still was uncomfortable to him, he felt like he was getting a handle on things.

This morning he had bagged bread again and had cleaned up the bread mixer. The morning hadn’t been really busy, but business had been steady.

“What could you possibly have received in the mail that has anything to do with me?” he asked, looking up from the full cookie tray he had just set in the display case. He brushed his hands over his apron as he straightened. Melissa’s frown deepened and Brian knew he had stepped over the line again. Didn’t seem hard to do with his new boss.

“According to this letter, I’m supposed to read this aloud to you and Amanda,” she said.

With a shrug of resignation Brian followed her to the back part of the bakery.

Amanda stood by the smaller mixer, measuring flour into the batter. When she looked up from what she was doing, her expressions was as confused as Brian’s.

“So what’s up, Melissa?” she asked, turning off the mixer and going to the sink to wash her hands. “What’s with the mini meeting back here?”

“I got a letter from the benefactor, the person with all the money. It came yesterday. I’m supposed to read it to you both.” She cleared her throat, took a breath and began.

“Dear Melissa, Amanda and Brian—”

“He or she knows who is working here?” Brian interrupted. “I only started Saturday. That’s creepy.”

“Maybe he or she is part of the SOS Committee,” Melissa said with a shrug.