The Bachelor Baker Read online

  “My mother fixed this up five years ago,” Brian explained. “Put in a garbage disposal and that fancy stove but no dishwasher. Her philosophy was that the best conversations happen while doing dishes together.” He ran some water and turned on the disposal unit, then put in the stopper and filled the sink with steaming water. “Trouble is that’s usually when me and my sisters fought the most.”

  “You had sisters?”

  “Two. Holly and Louisa. Holly lives in Manhattan. Works for a mortgage broker. Louisa settled in Kansas City. They could hardly wait to shake the dust of Bygones off their feet.”

  “You get along with them?” Melissa asked, curious about the other part of Brian’s life. “Do you see them much?”

  “Yeah. They’re great girls. This spring, after the factory closed, I went to Manhattan to visit Holly. She took me around to see the sights. Went to a play off-Broadway, saw the Empire State Building, the Statue of Liberty, Central Park, City Hall, a place called the Woolworth Building. We couldn’t go inside, but we could look a the beautiful architecture.”

  “Wow. I’ve been many places but never to New York.”

  Brian shrugged as he put dishwashing liquid in the warm water. “It was good, but I was glad to be back here. Back home.”

  Home. Melissa wondered if she would ever feel that way about Bygones. She had never put roots down anywhere. Even in St. Louis she’d lived, as she did here, in a furnished apartment. She’d never even owned her own furniture.

  “This is a good home,” she said quietly, wondering where she would be after she fulfilled the two years required by the SOS Committee. Would she be making a home here? Alone?

  Brian shot her a look over his shoulder, then smiled. “Yeah. It is. Hopefully someday things will be back to normal again.”

  “Normal?”

  “The way it was...before,” he said quietly.

  Before she came, she thought. Is that what he meant? But she found she didn’t want to ask. Her feelings were in flux lately and Brian was making her more confused. She didn’t like feeling as if she wasn’t in charge.

  Brian turned on the water, rolled up his sleeves and dropped the dishes into the sink.

  “Where’s a towel?” Melissa asked, trying to sound crisp and businesslike. They might as well get this done. “I’ll dry.”

  Brian tilted his chin in the direction of a drawer. She grabbed a towel and they worked in silence for a while, then Brian looked her way. “You seemed touched by what Grandpa read,” he said.

  Melissa concentrated on getting the moisture off the plate, trying not to let her emotions take over, but at the same time she knew he had seen her tears. “I was. I...I was reminded of a conversation I once had with my grandmother.”

  “What conversation was that?”

  Why did he care?

  But at the same time she felt as if it had been so long that she’d had a chance to talk to anyone about her faith, the words seemed to spill out, needing expression.

  “I remember her asking me if I believed I needed Jesus in my life,” she said.

  Brian rested his hands on the edge of the sink, soap suds clinging to them, his head tilted to one side, his blue eyes probing into her soul. “And did you?”

  She couldn’t look away from his sincere gaze and sensed that her answer was important to him. Then she nodded. “I did then. I do now, too.”

  Brian’s smile too easily eased past the barriers she had been trying to keep around her heart. Around her soul. “That’s not easy to admit,” he said quietly. “I still have to remind myself that I can’t do it all on my own.”

  Melissa only nodded, his words a strong echo of her own struggles.

  They worked in silence for a few more minutes. “So, did you hear about the church picnic on Sunday?” he asked.

  Melissa nodded. “Pastor Garman told me about it.”

  “Are you going?”

  “I think I should. As a business owner it would probably help.”

  She caught his frown and sensed this was not exactly the right thing to say, but she couldn’t take it back now.

  “When did you talk to Pastor Garman?”

  “When I was at the church the other day, helping Gracie and Mrs. Morgan with the wedding.”

  “He’s a good man.”

  “He invited me to church, too.”

  “Would you attend?”

  Melissa tested the thought, her mind ticking back to how she felt when Brian’s grandfather read the Bible. “I think I’d like to. Though Pastor Garman told me it would be good from a PR perspective, I’d like to think I’m going for another reason.”

  Brian’s easy laugh did goofy things to her stomach. He seemed more relaxed, more comfortable with himself here.

  More appealing.

  Melissa placed the last cleaned and dried cup in the cabinet and set the damp towel on the counter, thankful she was done. Being around Brian in his house was different from being around him in the bakery. Different in a slightly scary way.

  Different in a far too fascinating way.

  “So I guess that’s the last of the dishes,” she said, glancing around the cozy kitchen one more time as if checking.

  Brian wiped his hands on the towel she had just laid down, then looked over at her.

  Their gazes locked and the space between them seemed heavy with unspoken thoughts and emotions.

  Part of her mind cried out a warning, but her lonely soul made her hold his gaze. Made her lean ever so slightly toward him, giving in to the push and pull that she had been struggling with ever since their cake fight.

  Then, to her surprise and consternation, Brian reached out and touched her face.

  His fingers were warm, gentle. Disturbing.

  “Something on my cheek?” she said with a shaky laugh, surprised at her reaction to his simple touch. Surprised at how natural it seemed.

  He shook his head. “No.”

  Her heart turned over at his quiet admission, and for a moment she had to stop her own hand from reaching out and touching him. Connecting with him.

  She swallowed and looked away, confusion warring with the attraction she knew was growing between them.

  Did she dare? Could she do this?

  Would he let her down as the other men in her life had?

  * * *

  “May the Lord bless you and keep you. May He make His face shine upon you and give you peace.”

  Brian drew in a long, slow breath. Peace. It had been a long time since he had felt peace in his soul.

  Having the factory close and struggling to make ends meet. He closed his eyes, letting Pastor Garman’s words settle into his soul and nourish him. He needed to let go of his expectations—he knew that.

  Then he glanced at Melissa standing beside him. When they had met this morning at the back of the church his Grandpa, who Brian suspected was trying to get them together, had invited her to come and sit with them. To his surprise, she accepted.

  And the whole worship service he had struggled with his feelings toward her. He was attracted to her. Who wouldn’t be? But he knew things were shifting and changing between them. He had been attracted to women before, but something about Melissa—her independence, her work ethic, her honest struggle with her faith—all came together to create an appeal he had never felt for any other woman before.

  At the same time, her independence generated a curious ambivalence. On the one hand, he admired it, but on the other, he wondered what kind of wife she would make.

  He stopped his mind there as he looked ahead again, catching his wayward thoughts. You’re running too far ahead of yourself, he thought, centering his concentration back on the final song. Way too far. Besides, what kind of husband would he make? A simple laborer in her bakery, dependent on her fo
r his income.

  That was not what he had envisioned for any relationship he wanted to be a part of.

  He turned his attention back to the service as it wound to its end. Then, as they walked out of the sanctuary, Grandpa going one way, Brian and Melissa going another, Brian caught a knowing smile from Miss Coraline, who was standing across the aisle from them.

  Gossip was one of Bygones’s chief forms of entertainment. He knew people would be associating him with Melissa after this. Again he caught himself feeling a mixture of frustration with his grandfather for putting him in this situation and a sense of rightness in being with Melissa.

  “So the picnic is at Bronson Park?” she asked, throwing the question over her shoulder as she walked ahead.

  “Yeah. It’s happening right away. I figured on just walking over there. We may as well go together.” Brian told himself he was just being polite.

  “That would be nice. I’m still learning who is who here,” Melissa said with a relieved smile.

  See? It was the neighborly thing to do, Brian tried to convince himself as he and Melissa walked side by side out of the church, then down the sidewalk toward Bronson Park.

  But as he glanced down at her, the sunshine bringing out the highlights in her hair, his feelings were more than neighborly.

  It’s a beautiful day, he told himself. You’re with a beautiful girl. Leave all the other complications back in the bakery.

  Half an hour later they sat in the shade of a large oak tree, balancing plates holding bowls of chili, biscuits and slices of pizza. Children wove in and among the people, screaming and laughing and full of the exuberance of being outside and set free from the confines of church.

  “Are you sure I shouldn’t have brought anything?” Melissa asked as she took a bite of the pizza she had chosen. She shot him a frown. “I could easily have supplied some cakes, cookies or muffins for this.”

  Brian shook his head as he wiped his mouth. “The Dills do this often and certain other people bring their food also. Just enjoy being a guest for now.”

  “But still—”

  Brian held up a warning finger. “You don’t have to do it all,” he said. “You do enough, and today is the only day off you get, so just appreciate it.”

  She gave him a quick smile, which he returned, and again the connection that seemed to spark between them grew.

  “Hey, Montclair. Don’t usually see you at these things.”

  Brian dragged his attention away from Melissa and looked up to see Don standing above him with a smirk on his wide features. Brian could have said the same thing to Don, who didn’t attend church other than at Christmas and Easter.

  “It’s a nice day and Grandpa wanted to come,” Brian responded.

  “Bet you had another reason to come, though,” Don said as he glanced at Melissa, his smirk growing. “Making nice with the boss never hurts your chances at work, does it?”

  He had to bring that up, didn’t he? Just when Brian thought he could keep that part of his and Melissa’s moment together separate.

  “Nice to see you here, Don.” That was all Brian said, pushing down his own confused feelings about Melissa. “Heard you’re working in Concordia.” The Bygones buzz had it that Don had gotten a job working at a grocery store there.

  Don’s grin faded and he gave a tight nod. “So what else can we do for you?” Brian asked, not wanting to talk to Don when he had Melissa beside him in a peaceful, non-work environment.

  “I’m getting people together for the races. My wife always organizes them,” Don said. “You entering?”

  Brian shook his head. “Doubtful.” He hadn’t come to the picnic to participate in potentially embarrassing situations.

  “What races?” Melissa asked, nudging Brian.

  “The usual picnic stuff,” he replied, balling up his napkin and dropping it on his empty plate. “Sack races, a three-legged race. That kind of thing.”

  “Sounds like fun,” Melissa said with a happy grin.

  “Sound like a recipe for disaster,” Brian returned, getting to his feet.

  “Sounds like you’re backing out ’cause you know you’ll lose,” Don taunted. “I guess working in the bakery lifting all those heavy tarts and cookies and wearing a girlie apron probably got you out of shape.”

  Brian stifled a sigh and a retort about toting around vegetables.

  The manly part of him wanted to take Don up on his challenge, to prove to Don that, though he wore a pink-and-white-striped apron, he was still a guy.

  To prove to the woman beside him that he was tough, in charge and more than just her employee.

  “Let’s do it,” Melissa said, jumping to her feet and grabbing Brian’s hand.

  He released a sigh of resignation as she dragged him along. Guess he didn’t have much choice now.

  They tossed their paper plates and plastic cups into an almost full garbage can, then walked over to the area marked off with ropes on the grass to show the boundaries of the race. Mayor Langston stood to one side, leaning on his cane and calling out a challenge to contestants through a bullhorn.

  “First up we’re having the sack race,” he called out as people lined up at the starting point, laughing and jostling each other and stepping into burlap sacks. “And after that is the three-legged race, so find your partners and go to where Lexi is handing out scarves to get hitched.”

  Brian held back, still unsure of how badly he wanted to embarrass himself in front of Melissa. He had his pride after all, and he figured when it came to Melissa his pride had taken enough of a wallop. But Melissa had caught his hand and pulled him along. “Let’s enter the three-legged race.”

  “Us? In the three-legged race?”

  “Let me boss you around and we’ll do just fine,” she said with a light laugh.

  “Hope you’re ready for grass stains on those white pants of yours,” he said, pointing to her blinding white capris.

  When she had come into church this morning, he had had to do a double take. Her everyday outfit at the bakery was a white T-shirt, black pants and an apron.

  Today she wore a blue, shimmery blouse gathered at the waist, an assortment of colorful beaded necklaces, white capris and impractically high black sandals decorated with colorful beads.

  Pretty was his first impression.

  City girl was his second.

  “The only way I’ll get grass stains is if I fall,” she said, unzipping the side of her sandals and kicking them off. “Which I won’t.”

  “I didn’t think I’d ever see you doing something like this,” Lexi Ross said, giving Brian a pointed look.

  “There’s a first for everything,” Brian returned, taking the scarf. Without saying anything more, he bent over to tie it around his and Melissa’s ankles. She might choose to go barefoot, but he was keeping his shoes on.

  “Make sure you wind it around twice,” Melissa said. “And not too loose. We need to stay together. Maybe we should practice. It would be best if one of us counts off so we can keep a rhythm. Kind of a one-two count. I could do that.”

  Brian stopped and shot her a warning glance, squinting into the sun. “Anything else you want to let me know, boss?”

  She looked taken aback, then bit her lip. “I’m being bossy, aren’t I? Sorry.”

  Brian stood and grinned down at her, accepting her apology. “That’s okay, City Slicker. I know you like to boss me around, but this is a tricky race. We need to work as a team.”

  Melissa nodded, a hint of a dimple appearing at one corner of her mouth as she tucked her long hair behind her ears, the gold hoops she wore glinting in the sun. “In other words, you’re in charge.”

  “Now you’re clueing in,” he said, returning her mischievous smile.

  Mayor Langston called for all the participants
in the three-legged race to step up to the line. Melissa and Brian took their place between Elwood and Velma Dill, Don and his wife and a few other participants.

  “I think we’ve got this race,” Melissa whispered.

  “Don’t get overconfident,” Brian whispered back. “You get cocky, you lose. Stay focused on the finish line and listen to me. You grab my waist, and I’ll hold your shoulders. We’ll start off with our outside feet.”

  “Now who’s being bossy?” Melissa teased as she slipped her arm around him.

  “Me for a change,” he returned, putting his arm around her shoulders. He looked down at her, then around at the people watching from the sidelines. He saw Miss Coraline giving him a thumbs up, Lily waving her arms and calling out their names, Tate laughing and Amanda and her sister Amy jumping up and down with joy beside her other sister, Allison. Behind them stood Josh, watching with a huge grin and his arms folded.

  His people. His town.

  And he stood among them with his arm around a beautiful girl. Not his boss—just a girl. The moment was so perfect, so right, he wanted to hold and savor it.

  Then Mayor Langston called for them to get ready and Brian and Melissa shuffled to the starting line, holding on to each other.

  “You count, okay?” Melissa said. “I’ll follow your beat.”

  “You catch on fast,” he said, giving her a quick grin. The mayor counted down then called out “go,” and they were off.

  “Not such big steps,” Melissa said as Brian counted off, one, two, one, two. They almost stumbled, then regained their rhythm. Soon they were gaining on the Dills, then they flew past them.

  People were cheering, clapping and calling out their names as they streaked down the field, Brian counting out the rhythm. Melissa misstepped and would have fallen but Brian grabbed her under the arm and hauled her up, and soon she was back in step with him.

  They made it across the finish line. First.

  Brian glanced behind to see Don and his wife struggling to stay together. They piled up in a heap on the ground, and the Dills passed them to come in second place, Elwood’s long hair streaking out behind him like a flag.

  “We did it,” Melissa called out, turning to Brian and giving him a dazzling smile. Then to his utter surprise she tossed her arms around his neck and hugged him tightly.