Unwanted Heat

Cara’s reaction was nothing what I would have expected; I figured after working at a bakery in San Diego, that working at Sweet Dreams would be something she wasn’t interested in. I think the customers will absolutely love her personality! She’s a definite people person, and I love knowing that I can trust her. Even though Nicholas said the other employees at Sweet Dreams signed an NDA, I still worry that they could say something to press.

“I have to get going, but thank you again for inviting me to lunch.”

“No, thank you, Kenzie. I’ve always wanted a sister and now I have one!” she hugs me and I have to fight to hold back the tears forming. I always wanted a sister growing up, too. Someone to talk to, someone to be there next to me, when the shit hit the fan and someone who- “Will you be coming to dinner on Sunday?” she asks.

“I’m not sure… I’ll have to check with Nicholas.”

“I hope so! I’ll let you get to your meeting with Ginny; let me know if you guys can make it on Sunday.”

“Thanks again.”

“Mrs. Parker,” Ben is at my side before I even get close to the front door.

“They still out there?” I ask.

“Yes, they haven’t left, ma’am. Hunter is waiting to take you to your next destination.”

“Thank you.”

Once again, cameras are flashing around me and people are calling my name as soon as the door opens, but this time I don’t respond. The questions are all the same and I just remind myself that everyone is eager to get pictures of the woman who married the Nicholas Parker. Thankfully, Hunter manages to lose the reporters that tried to follow us from the bistro before we reach the bakery. He apparently called ahead and arranged with

Ginny for us to enter the bakery through the back door.

“Kenzie, it’s so wonderful to see you again!” She greets me with a hug as soon as the door closes behind us.

“It’s so good to see you too,” I hadn’t realized how much I missed seeing Ginny until this moment. She had been an almost daily fixture in my life for more than two years before the press forced me to stop working here. She was the first person in New York who took a chance on me: I had no experience, no ties to the city, nothing… but she was still willing to offer me a job and slowly moved me from cashier to bakery.Nôvel(D)ra/ma.Org exclusive © material.

“I hear a congratulations are in order, Mrs. Parker,” she winks at me.

“Thank you, although I’m still not used to being called Mrs. Parker.”

“I bet.”

“Thank you for doing all of this-”

“Nonsense. If I had to choose someone to hand over the bakery to, you would have been my only choice. You love this place almost as much as I do. I’m so glad that new husband of yours made this possible. You’ll do an amazing job with this place-you’ll find ways to improve things that I never thought of or was too stubborn to do. You’ll be great, Kenzie.”

“I’m so nervous, Ginny. I don’t know anything about running a business. I know these recipes in and out, hell, I can make any of the muffins by heart now, but I know nothing about bookkeeping and-”

“Do you think I knew any of that stuff when I started this place twenty-five years ago? Of course not! I was a stupid, naive young girl who had no idea what she was doing.”

“You obviously knew something to turn this place into what it is today.”

“I was determined not to fail-I learned everything I could. Back then, they didn’t have the internet, so I did things the old fashioned way. I talked to people who owned businesses, and I spent hours at the library, reading everything I possibly could about running a business. I’m not going to lie, I made mistakes, a few big ones, but I always learned from my mistakes. I learned not to repeat those mistakes again and eventually I figured out what worked. You’ll do the same thing. Don’t go into this new adventure thinking you won’t make any mistakes because you’re only going to set yourself up for failure. You’ll make a mistake and then you’ll learn from it and never make the same mistake again. And I’ll be here for any questions you might have along the way.”

“Thank you for agreeing to stay on for a year I know you wanted to move to be closer to your daughter-”

“And I will. I never expected this place to sell as fast as it did. I knew it would likely be a couple of years before I was able to. With this new plan, I’ll be able to fly out and see my daughter much more often than I could do, while waiting for this place to sell. I was never able to take more than a couple of days off to spend with her in the past because I couldn’t afford to close the bakery for any longer than a day or two over a weekend. But with you here now, once you’re comfortable, I’ll be able to go for a week or maybe even longer without worrying.”

“Oh, let’s not think about you leaving just yet,” I joke.

“You’ll be fine. You already know how this place works: you’ve opened and closed this place already. The only thing you don’t know is the paperwork and ordering processes. Mark my words, in a couple of weeks, you will know that stuff in and out as well.”

“I hope so.”

“Come, I have everything set up on one of the tables for us to look at.”

I spend the next couple of hours with Ginny, reviewing everything from paperwork to vendors. I take notes about as many different things as I possibly can, but it’s very overwhelming to keeping track of everything she says. Armed with several folders of paperwork that she had already copied for me, I leave the bakery with Hunter to head back to Accord Towers. There was definitely more to running the bakery than I initially imagined when I thought I would want to open one on my own, but I’m also motivated after our meeting. It was good to hear how she started the business, on her own, knowing about as much as I do about running a business. Seeing how successful she made the bakery gave me just a little hope that I could do the same on my own. I’m really glad that Nicholas thought ahead and worked out a plan with Ginny to have her stay on with Sweet Dreams for the next three years. I don’t know what I would have done if she were leaving as soon as I returned to New York from our honeymoon.

“There you are,” Nicholas greets me as soon as I walk into the foyer.

“I wasn’t expecting you home so early,” I kiss him as soon as he comes close enough to me.

“My last meeting is via conference call, so I figured I would do the call from here. How was your meeting with Ginny?”

“It was good, she gave me a ton of information and copies of a bunch of stuff too. I think I’ll just put this stuff in myin the bedroom upstairs.”

“I’ll have Carter put a desk in the library for you to use in the next few days.”

“You don’t need to-”

“It’ll give you a place to work when you can’t be at the bakery. Somewhere you can keep paperwork, notes or whatever that you don’t want to keep in the office at the bakery.”

“I suppose that would be a good idea.”

“He’ll take care of ordering it tomorrow, I’m sure it can be delivered by Friday.”

“Thank you.”

“Julie is going to have dinner on the table in a few minutes. I have about thirty minutes before my conference call starts, I thought we could eat dinner together…”

“Let me put these upstairs and I’ll be right down.”

Minutes later, Nicholas and I are in the dining room and Julie has placed plates of a delicious smelling chicken meal in front of us. “How was your day?” I ask.

“Busy but not nearly as hectic as I imagined it would be.”

“Oh, that’s good.”

“Alex was able to handle most of the issues that came up while we were away so there weren’t too many pressing matters that I had to deal with today. We have a couple new inquiries by some larger clients come through that we’re in the process of preparing proposals for so things might get a little crazy in the upcoming weeks.”

“At least your first day back wasn’t too hectic.”

“Not nearly as bad as I had expected. Although, I understand you a had a little excitement of your own today.”

“I did?”

“According to my PR team, you were photographed today on your way to lunch-”

“Oh! With everything Ginny told me, I nearly forgot about lunch. We were followed to lunch by some reporters, but thankfully Hunter managed to lose them on the way to Sweet Dreams. When Cara texted me and invited me to lunch today, I hadn’t expected the press to be so crazy about me leaving.”

“They followed me to work today too, but once they realized I was alone and didn’t give them anything, I guess they returned here.”

“Eventually, they’ll grow bored.”

“I’ll be in my office for the call, but if you need something just come in,” he stands up from the table but pauses just as he reaches the entryway to the dining room. “And, Kenzie… thank you for what you said today… I… I really appreciate it.”