Chapter Nine

 

 

Monday morning, Baxter couldn’t stop whistling Christmas tunes and smiling to himself. The weekend with Savannah had been amazing. After he’d finished working on the deck, he’d taken her out for dinner, and they’d talked for a while. When he dropped her off at the house again, they’d kissed, and it was even better than the first time. He was certain kissing Savannah was on the top of his list of favorite things to do.

He didn’t see her yesterday. Now he was looking forward to finishing the workday so he could drop by and put the stain on the deck this evening and visit with her then.

He pictured her at Sweet Hearts right now, creating pastry masterpieces, and smiled.

His cousin tapped on his office door. “Hey, Baxter. We’ve got a customer who’d like to go over some future business changes. Do you have time?”

“Sure. Send him in.” Baxter cleared the loose papers from his desk and deposited them in a drawer before turning the lock on it. When he looked up, he recognized the man but couldn’t quite place him. He stood. “Baxter Reid.”

“Jay Warren.” The man shook his hand and then took the chair offered to him. He produced an accordion folder that he promptly opened. “I own a pastry shop in town. Recently, I’ve had an investor interested in helping me open two or three more. If that goes well, we may turn Sweet Hearts into a chain.”

Baxter nodded as he took the business proposal and leafed through it. He wondered if Savannah knew anything about this. Everything in the business plan seemed sound. Baxter pointed out a few loose ends, and Jay seemed happy to either explain them or acknowledge they were something he should think about.

Baxter tapped the cover of the proposal. “So I’m not seeing any timeline here. What are you thinking?”

“I’d like to open the first new location in Portland around Easter, and if that goes smoothly, possibly a second one on the other side of town there. Then maybe expand to include one in Salem, another in the Eugene area.” He shrugged. “I’m trying not to get too far ahead of myself yet. I haven’t even mentioned it to my employees, although I was thinking about doing that this week. I just wanted to run these ideas by someone else first.”

“I imagine things are too busy this time of the year to focus on the other stores yet.”

“Exactly. My hope is to have my baker, Savannah, go to each of the three new locations and train someone. Even though I’ll have several stores, we want everything baked fresh each morning. That’s where she comes in: to make sure whatever bakers we hire carry on the same recipes and quality pastries customers in Romance are used to finding at Sweet Hearts.”

Baxter fought to maintain a neutral expression. “So you’re hoping she’ll train and manage each of the bakeries at first?”

Jay nodded. “I know it’ll be a lot of work. But once all three or four are open, it’s my hope she can help me rotate between the four stores to make sure they’re being run the way I want them to be. Who knows? If it’s successful enough, we may continue to expand. Eventually, I hope to offer one of the stores to Savannah for her to manage. Maybe even own someday, if that’s something she’s interested in.”

Baxter’s mind tangled with the different scenarios. Even if everything went off without a hitch at each store, it would mean Savannah traveling and working long hours for several years. She’d talked about owning her own bakery for as long as he’d known her. There’s no way she’d turn this opportunity down. And she shouldn’t.

But the thought of having her travel all over Oregon made him feel sick. If Jay decided to expand his business to other states, would he send Savannah there to train people as well? He knew she’d mostly stuck around Romance until now. She might find she preferred to travel once she got a taste of it.

He tried to focus on the man sitting in front of him. “It sounds like you’ve got everything pretty much in place. Are there any figures you want to go over?”

“I did have some questions about…”

It took everything Baxter had to continue to help Jay. Two hours later, they shook hands, and Baxter walked him to the door of the credit union. This time, when he went back to his office, whistling Christmas tunes was about the last thing he felt like doing.

Here he’d thought the timing was right between him and Savannah. That maybe he’d finally found the right woman to spend the rest of his life with. It figured life would throw him another curveball. What was it with him falling for women who ended up wanting to travel? Was it so wrong of him to prefer to settle down in Romance? Raise a family here?

Disappointment took residence in his chest and drove Baxter to his chair. Owning a bakery was something he knew Savannah had always wanted. This would be a dream come true for her. Jay mentioned that he would tell her about his plans sometime this week. Baxter imagined the surprise and joy on her face when he offered her the opportunity of a lifetime.

He wasn’t about to stand in her way, but that didn’t mean it didn’t hurt to know he would lose Savannah. Especially when he’d only just begun to understand how much he truly wanted her in his life.

 

~*~

 

Savannah hung up her cell phone with a frown. It was Wednesday, and this was the third day in a row that Baxter had let her know he wouldn’t be by to work on the deck. She got that things might be a little crazy at work or something the first day or two. But she had a hard time believing the credit union was that busy this close to Christmas. She wondered if he was avoiding her but immediately set the thought aside. Surely not, especially after he’d worked so hard at getting her to go out with him.

She replayed the weekend’s events in her mind and allowed a smile to take over. The way he’d kissed her under the mistletoe had been one of the sweetest, most romantic things she’d ever experienced. She still had to shake her head at the realization Baxter had wanted to kiss her so many years ago. She’d truly had no idea.

Honestly, she was sure she would’ve shoved him had he tried back then. The thought made her laugh. So maybe it was a good thing that their first kiss had come years later. Still, she wondered where they would be now if all of this had started sooner.

Maybe she wouldn’t have gone through so many relationships that had only made her self-conscious and hesitant. Or maybe things would’ve ended badly between them back then, and she’d be right where she was now. There was no sense in playing the what-if game.

She tried to pull her focus back to the customers she was helping at Sweet Hearts. She’d already caught herself making a mistake twice because she was so preoccupied with her own thoughts.

Just before it was time for her to call it a day, Jay asked if she’d come to the back office for a few minutes. He’d mentioned maybe opening other stores in the past, but she hadn’t realized how serious he was until he shared his future plans for the Sweet Hearts name. She was still trying to process everything he’d told her when she waved to her coworkers and headed out for the day.

Jay wanted to turn Sweet Hearts into a franchise. And he wanted her to train the bakers at each location? The fact he was willing to give her a choice of the new locations to manage and eventually buy was huge. She’d always dreamed of having her own bakery. And here she had the opportunity to build one from the ground up.

But it would require moving out of Romance. Just thinking about that was scary. She’d lived here all of her life. Leaving it behind—even if it was only for another town in Oregon—hurt in more ways than one. At the same time, she’d only be moving around for a few years at most. And it’s not like even Salem was too far away to not be able to regularly visit her family.

What about Baxter? If this opportunity had come up even just a few weeks ago, she’d jump at the chance. Or at least seriously think about it. But now? She had no idea where she and Baxter stood. Was it too soon to define their relationship?

She didn’t want to call him while he was still at work. Instead, she texted him with a brief message. “Hey! Are you coming by this evening? I wanted to talk to you about something.”

Minutes later, she received his response, “Yeah, I’ll be there around six to stain the deck.”

That meant he’d probably eat before he arrived. Savannah had already decided to dress appropriately and go out and help. If they could get that staining done, then maybe they could spend a little time together over the weekend before Christmas. Baxter had once mentioned going to the live production of A Christmas Carol.

By the time Baxter arrived, Savannah was waiting for him on the back porch. She smiled brightly when he came through the gate. “Hey, stranger. Seems like forever since Sunday, doesn’t it?”

“It sure does.” He gave her a smile in return. He had a paint can in one hand and a bag full of brushes and other supplies in the other. He leaned in and placed a kiss on her cheek. “I’m hoping to get this all stained tonight.”

Savannah held her arms out. “I’m ready to help. Just hand me a paintbrush, and I’m good to go.”

“Awesome. We should have no trouble getting it finished then.”

There was something about him that seemed different. She watched as he emptied the plastic bag, shook the paint can before carefully opening it, and finally handed her a brush. Instead of his normal teasing, he simply explained how to stain the boards, and they got to work.

He was probably stressed about finishing everything before the end of the year. With the weekend and then Christmas Eve and Christmas Day coming up, the month would come to a close before they knew it. Besides, if he hadn’t been by this week, he’d been working a lot. The poor guy was likely just tired.

“How’s everything at the credit union?” she asked as she dipped her paintbrush into the stain.

“We’re trying to tie things up this week. We’ll be closed for three days for Christmas. It’ll be nice, I think. My cousin is practically prancing around the place like a kid on Christmas Eve.” He chuckled a little before glancing at her. “How about you? I imagine it’s crazy busy at Sweet Hearts this week.”

“It is. But Jay’s always been good about putting deadlines on orders received. We’re right on track and should have three days off as well.” She paused. “Jay surprised me today, though. Apparently he’s looking at adding more stores in Portland, Salem, and maybe Eugene and eventually turning Sweet Hearts into a franchise. He’d talked about it for a while, but I had no idea how soon he’d planned to begin.”

“Oh?” Baxter focused intently on bringing new life to the deck.

Savannah stopped working and watched for his reaction. “He said he wants me to go to the different locations and train the bakery staff. He’s offering to pay the cost of wherever I live as an incentive since there’ll be a lot of moving around for a while. I figure, if I can save up all the money I’m not spending on rent, maybe at the end of it all I could afford to buy one of the stores from him. I’ve always wanted to run my own bakery…”

Baxter stilled and looked up at her. “I think that sounds like a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, Savannah.” He smiled, but it didn’t quite reach his eyes. “You should go for it. Not many people get a chance to make their dreams come true.”

“I’m not sure about the timing, though. You just moved back, and everything with us is still really new… I don’t know.”

Baxter rested his paintbrush on the plastic bag. “Savannah? If there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s that you need to grab onto something you want. If you wait too long, it could very well slip through your fingers.” He gave her a sad smile before returning to the deck.

What was going on with him? It wasn’t like she was planning on moving away forever. It’d be months before Jay would have things progressing enough to change things for Savannah. A feeling of dread gathered in her stomach like a bowling ball. “Baxter? Are you still up for going to see A Christmas Carol?”

“I should probably go check on my parents this weekend. Take their gifts and everything. They mentioned they may do Christmas there on Sunday.” He paused. “I’ll try to get back on Christmas Eve if I can.”

Disappointment warred with the dread. She totally understood about wanting to go back and spend Christmas with his family. He should do that, but he hadn’t said a thing about it to her until now. She picked at the wooden handle of her brush. “My parents are hosting Christmas Eve at their house this year. It’s at five if you’d like to join us. You don’t need to bring anything. Believe me, we’ve got the menu covered. I think several of the neighbors are joining us.” She held her breath, hoping he’d agree to be there.

Baxter only shook his head. “I’m not sure, Savannah. I’ll just have to see how the weekend goes.” He nodded toward her paintbrush. “We’d better focus so we can get this done before eight. I’ll come back tomorrow and finish the front deck and will probably call that good. Once it warms up a little in late spring, I’ll check with Grandpa and see what else I can help him with.”

“Sure.” Savannah got back to staining the deck, but her heart may as well have fallen through one of the slats into the darkness below. Baxter had just told her that if you wanted something, you had to grab onto it. She could only assume his obvious pulling away this week meant he’d changed his mind about them. For whatever reason, he didn’t want her bad enough.

Her heart pinched, and tears filled her eyes. She’d opened herself up to the possibility of something with Baxter when she should’ve known better. She tried to focus on the deck, more than ready to escape to the emptiness of the Potters’ house.