The next day, Maggie unlocked the front door of the café early in the morning. She hesitated outside, allowing herself to see the town in its pre-dawn state.

The lampposts were draped with strings of white lights and the store owners had decked out their windows with Christmas displays and colored lights. The air was crisp, but a layer of fog hung over Main Street. She loved this town and knew she was lucky to live there. Moving with the military, she and Brian had often lived in places that weren’t near the water and she felt like a little piece of her soul died with every day spent away from the magnificent ocean. She breathed in more of the salty air and opened the door, glancing ruefully at the Help Wanted sign on the front window.

Bernadette had left two weeks ago, and Maggie had even put an ad in the Haven Shores newspaper for a new pastry chef, but there hadn’t been any applicants. She had been doing all the baking, with some help from a few of her employees. The Bluebonnet Café had a history of offering whole pies for sale every Christmas, but she’d made the decision not to do so this year. There just wasn’t enough time for her to make the quantity of pies they’d need for the community. She knew there would be some frustration from her customers, but there was nothing she could do about it.

She relocked the door behind her and flipped on lights as she walked back to her office. The morning crew would be there by six, but she liked to have a few minutes alone to get her day organized before everyone arrived and chaos reigned.

She pored over the bills and lost track of time. When Velma barged into her office without knocking, she looked up in annoyance. “Good morning,” she said.

“It’s not a good morning,” Velma replied. “The milk and egg delivery hasn’t arrived yet and we’re almost out. Things like this didn’t happen when Gus owned the place.”

Maggie gritted her teeth. She couldn’t control the milkman’s delivery schedule, even if Velma seemed to think she could. “I’ll call the dairy and find out what’s going on. Thanks for letting me know.” She smiled at her employee, determined to kill her with kindness.

Velma stared at her with suspicion. “Hmph. Bill at the dairy probably stopped for a coffee break. He’s never here on time.”

Maggie had never know the milkman to be late except when there were extenuating circumstances, so she said pleasantly, “I’ll give him a call.” She looked pointedly at the door and Velma huffed her way out.

She found the dairy’s number and called. “Hey Bill, sorry to bother you, but we haven’t received our order this morning.”

“Oh, I meant to call you, but things got hectic here. We had a calf born last night that needed medical attention and I had to call the vet. I’ll be out there in about thirty minutes. I’m sorry about the inconvenience. I’ll throw in a couple gallons of ice cream too for free.”

She grinned. This was another thing she loved about small town life. Her local suppliers were real people and they cared about each other.

“No problem. We’ll make do until then. I hope the calf is okay.”

“Yup, she’ll be fine. Thanks Maggie. See you soon.” He hung up.

Maggie went out to the kitchen to let the staff know the status of the dairy order. There was some grumbling from Velma, but she knew they’d figure things out until the order arrived.

Customers were lining up already at the hostess desk. Her hostess wasn’t scheduled until eight o’clock, so she filled in until she arrived. Then she disappeared back into her office to tackle the remaining accounting tasks.

A call came in from her mother’s number. “I oke a ooth.”

“What?” Maggie stared at the phone. It sounded like her mom, but she couldn’t understand her.

“I oke a ooth. Octor Han is going to fit me in today at one, but I can’t watch Alex this afternoon.”

“You have to go to the dentist this afternoon because you broke a tooth and you can’t watch Alex.” Maggie sighed inwardly. Having Alex home on Winter Break made everything more complicated. Where was she going to find a babysitter on such short notice? Was Stacey available?

“I’ll pick him up at a quarter to one, okay?”

Her mother made an affirmative noise.

Maggie found the contact info for Stacey and called her. Hopefully she was back in town by now.

Surprisingly, she was in luck.

“Sure, I’d be happy to babysit Alex. I’ll pick him up at a quarter to one from your mom’s house. We can go to the park or something.”

Maggie sighed in relief. “Thanks Stacey. I really appreciate this. I know it was short notice.”

“No problem. I feel bad that I couldn’t help you out when I was sick. I’ll see you later.”

Phew. Two problems solved already and it wasn’t even noon yet. She hadn’t even had time to worry about Jake’s job.

She worked on paperwork for the rest of the day until it was almost time for her to get off at two o’clock.

“We’ve got forty orders for Christmas pies. Twenty-five mincemeat and fifteen apple,” Velma barked at her after barging into her office for the second time that day.

Maggie’s jaw dropped. “What do you mean, orders for pies?”

“You hadn’t put up a sign yet for pie orders, so I had to make one. People have been waiting to order. You’ve really got to get things more organized. Why, we could have lost business from not having the sign up.”

In carefully measured tones, Maggie said, “The reason there was no sign up for pies was because we don’t have the staff to make them. After Bernadette left, we’ve been short a baker.”

“Well, you’d better hire someone then, because people will want their pies.” She huffed then spun on her heels and out the door.

Maggie called after her, “Please take the sign down. We can’t fill any more orders.” There was no response to acknowledge Velma had heard her directive.

Maggie shut her door and locked it. She couldn’t take having Velma come in again anytime soon. How the heck was she going to make forty pies? She needed a new pastry chef ASAP.

Someone knocked timidly at her door. “Maggie? You in there?”

She sighed and unlocked the door. Lily stood in front of her.

“There’s someone here who wants to apply for the baking job.”

Maggie stared upwards. Her guardian angel must be watching over her today.

Out in the lobby, a woman stood in front of the menu, twisting her fingers. She had long, straight, dark hair and a heart-shaped face. She appeared to be in her mid-twenties. Maggie’s enthusiasm dropped a notch. How much baking experience could she possibly have?

Maggie approached her and stuck out her hand. “Hi, I’m Maggie. I’m the owner of the Bluebonnet Café.”

The woman shook her hand. “I’m Angel. I saw you were looking for a baker?” She pointed to the sign in the window.

“Yes, we are.” Maggie leaned against the edge of the pastry case. “Are you interested in the job?”

The woman nodded.

“Great!” Maggie said brightly. “Let’s go find a seat and we can discuss the position.”

When they were seated at a two-seater table in the back of the restaurant, she looked at Angel. The younger woman perched on the edge of her seat.

“So what kind of baking experience do you have?”

“I attended pastry school in Southern California and worked at a bakery in Los Angeles for three years.”

Maggie let out the breath she’d been holding. She’d hoped her new applicant would have real experience, but this was better than she’d expected. Angel really was like an angel sent from above.

“That’s great to hear.” She told her a little about the job. “Are you interested? It would be a lot of early mornings.”

Angel grinned, showing two rows of perfectly straight teeth. “I’m used to early mornings.”

“Then you’re hired.” Maggie smiled at her newest employee. “When can you start?” She knew she should have done a background check on Angel, but she had an immediate need for a baker and she had a gut feeling that the new girl would work out.

“Does tomorrow work? I just got to town and I need to find a place to live.”

“Tomorrow’s fine. Try the Beehive B&B. My boyfriend has been staying there and he loves it.” A little thrill shot through her upon calling Jake her boyfriend.

“Thanks for the recommendation. I’ll check it out. What time do I start tomorrow?”

Maggie thought about the forty pies she needed to bake in the next couple of days. “Five? Is that too early on your first day?”

“No problem. I’ll be there. Thanks for giving me a chance.” They shook hands and Angel left the room, with more bounce in her step than when Maggie first saw her.

She checked in on the kitchen staff, and finding everything going according to plan, she left to go get Alex before any other issues could break loose.