Promises Under the Peach Tree (Harlequin Superromance) by Joanne Rock Page A

entrance. She surreptitiously glanced around the parking lot, but didn’t see Mack’s car. Her dreams the night before had been full of him, memories of their kiss sparking a longing that had lingered for hours after she awoke. She couldn’t afford another run-in with him until she’d had the chance to think through what had happened between them.
    Inside the building, the scent of pine and sawdust put a sharp tang in the air. Sale signs for windows and doors hung low over bins of hardware. At the end of one row, Nina spotted a small forklift backing up, driven by a young man in a hard hat while Bethany directed him.
    Hurrying toward them, Nina waved when Bethany looked her way. Bethany spoke into a walkie-talkie and then headed for Nina. Her jeans and white T-shirt, emblazoned with the store logo, hung loosely from her thin frame, as if she’d lost weight recently and hadn’t bothered to shop for her smaller size.
    “How thoughtful of you.” Bethany’s eyes went to the basket. “A lot of workers will be thrilled to eat these.” She waved over a young woman who looked like she was taking inventory on a tablet. “Grace, will you put these on the counter in back where the guys will see them between deliveries today?”
    Like the last time they’d spoken, Bethany was polite but didn’t seem remotely tempted by the scents wafting from the basket of cupcakes. Not that everyone had to love the bakery treat of Nina’s choice. But truly? Most people did. Nina got the impression not much would put a smile on Bethany’s face these days. Grace, in the meantime, grinned ear to ear as she took the basket.
    “I came close to the lunch hour in case I could entice you out of the store for a bit.” Nina tugged her purse strap higher on her shoulder, her red sheathe dress all wrong for a casual day around town. She hadn’t quite calibrated her wardrobe back to small town Tennessee from the Upper West Side.
    Which was one of the reasons she wanted to reconnect with Bethany. She could use a friend now as she faced monumental life decisions everywhere she turned. With Gram. With her business. With her living situation.
    Funny how, even with all of that to weigh, she found herself thinking about Mack more than anything else lately.
    “Really?” Frowning, Bethany checked her watch. “Wow, it’s almost noon. Actually, I have some deliveries coming soon. Would you mind if we sat out back for a few minutes instead? There’s a picnic table, and it’s so nice outside.”
    A few minutes? And no food?
    “Is it too late to call Grace back with the cupcakes?” As soon as she said it she realized it was rude to give a gift and then ask to eat it. “Kidding,” she covered lamely. “I’d love to sit outside.”
    Ten minutes later, they had cups of water from the water cooler and cupcakes that Bethany requested on her walkie even though Nina had tried to fake like she didn’t need one.
    Nina devoured a huge bite of hazelnut yumminess while Bethany carefully nibbled the edges of her cupcake where there was no frosting.
    “You seem to have a huge amount of responsibility here,” Nina observed between bites, wishing she could have taken Cupcake Romance to the level of success that the store was obviously experiencing. “I can’t believe the size of the new building.”
    “We’ve more than doubled it.” Bethany set down her cupcake and glanced back toward the building. A delivery truck was just pulling into one of the loading bays. “I thought at the time working on the new building would bring Scott and I closer. I quit teaching so I could be here full-time.” She shrugged. “But I think, since I lobbied for the expansion, he figured I could handle the added workload. I went from occasional hours to full-time to manager in the course of a year.”
    Nina tried to put the pieces together and couldn’t make them fit. “Doesn’t he work here anymore?”
    She didn’t mean to pry, but Scott used to be a fixture at the store