A beat passed.
Then Mrs. Miller nodded.
Then Eli and Travis did.
Then Thomas glanced toward Jasper, who smiled at him like a secret passed between them.
Thomas didn’t look away, simply calling out, “I’m in.”
More voices followed.
“I’ll help.”
“Me too.”
“They’re not taking this place.”
I felt the room shift, the way everyone stopped seeing us standing up in front of them as rivals and adversaries anymore. But as a unit.
Goldie’s hand brushed mine. Rhea’s shoulder pressed close.
Together.
“This isn’t over,” I said, “We stand watch. We protect what’s ours.”
The applause wasn’t loud. It was solid. And as the meeting broke and people clustered in determined knots with their neighbors and friends, I knew one thing for certain.
Cedar Bluff was ready to fight.
As one.
The bakery was alive.The pulse of life echoed through the rooms, with people buzzing and baked goods disappearing off the racks faster than Goldie’s employees could stock them.
Honey & Hearth was back. Thank God, too, because our town needed that center space again. The warmth and ease of a home-cooked meal, served with coffee that wasn’t burned or sickened with artificial sweeteners.
And Goldie; we all needed more Goldie in our lives.
She flitted around the space, filling coffee cups, offering free samples, managing pastry decorators and, most of all, hosting people. Because at the end of the day, that’s what she loved more than anything. She loved opening the front door and welcoming people of all shapes and sizes in and making them feel loved and safe.
That was what Honey & Hearth meant to everyone.
That was what Goldie meant to me.
I paused by the side door to the kitchen, watching it all after getting back from delivering a massive number of cookies to the elementary school. I loved watching her dream literally come true again, better than before, after such fear and uncertainty with the flood.
Goldie could have quit then. She could have seen the damage and the cost it would take to repair, let alone the time she would be closed while she did it, and she could have given up on her dream. But she didn’t, she never faltered.
Not in her bakery.
Not in me.
“Are you okay?” A deep voice rumbled from my side as a warm hand brushed my back.
Tanner.
Even if I didn’t recognize his voice in the flurry of chaos around us, I could recognize his energy. He was steady and strong, never affected by the swirling masses of people, sounds, or sights. He was perfect.
For Goldie.