My breath caught, “Crush me?”
“Market-wise.” He shrugged. “Nothing personal, sweetheart.”
Sweetheart.
The word hit me like ice water. I stepped back, clenching my molars until they creaked. “I’m not selling my bakery.”
His smile was pitying, with an air of challenge to it. “You may not have a choice.” Turning, he headed back to his fancy SUV, “Have a good night, Ms. James.”
I stared at the flyer, still clenched in my fist.
Sweet Cravings Café—Your New Favorite Bakery.
My chest squeezed painfully.
What if he was right?
What if I couldn’t compete?
What if everyone in town ended up loving the shiny new thing and forgot about me?
I felt small. So, freaking small.
My hands trembled as I unlocked the front door to Honey & Hearth and stepped inside. The darkness swallowed me. And suddenly the bakery didn’t feel warm or magical. It no longer felt full of dreams and endless possibilities.
It felt fragile. Breakable.
I pulled out my phone, and my voice shook when Tanner answered. “Hey, um, are you busy?”
The air in the call changed the second he heard my brittle tone, instantly alert. “Goldie, what’s wrong?”
I swallowed, “Can you come to the bakery?” I hiccupped and covered my mouth as tears welled in my eyes, falling over my cheeks as my shoulders shook.
“I’m on my way, baby.”
I couldn’t rememberanother time I had driven through Cedar Bluff so fast without lights and sirens clearing my way. Thankfully, it was late enough that most of the roads were empty. The second I heard her voice—soft, shaky, not at allGoldie—something primal snapped awake in my chest.
I rushed into the bakery and saw her sitting at one of the prep tables in the back kitchen, a paper in her hands, shoulders small and tight like she was trying to fold into herself.
“Goldie,” I said softly, moving toward her.
Her head jerked up, and her glossy eyes called to me. “Tanner,” her voice cracked. “I think someone is trying to destroy my business.”
I made it to her in three strides and gently took the flyer from her ice-cold fingers, scanning it.
Sweet Cravings Café. Franchise branding. Corporate gloss.
My jaw clenched as I held her hand in mine, rubbing warmth back into her fingers.
“He said I wasn’t going to make it,” she whispered. “That the competition will crush me.”
I kneeled in front of her and ran my palms up the worn fabric of her jeans, resting them on her thighs.
“Look at me.” I commanded. I hated how the woman looking back at me wasn’t the bakery owner, or the town darling everyone knew her to be. The woman looking back at me was scared, trying not to fall apart. “YouareHoney & Hearth,” I said firmly. “This bakery is the heartbeat of Cedar Bluff. No corporation can replace that. Not with all the money in the damn world.”
Her lip trembled, “He made me feel…stupid. Small. Like I’m the one who doesn’t belong here.”
Anger flared hot and fast in my chest. “You listen to me, Marigold James,” I said, voice steady and strong. “No one is going to come into this town and take away your dream.” I brushed a tear from her cheek and leaned forward, laying a kiss on her forehead. “Not while I’m breathing.”