CHAPTER ONE – PIPER
RULE ONE: YOU HAVE TO ACTUALLY SHOW UP.
“You missed your date.”
I handed the tray of baked goods to Felicity for her to take to the front of the store and flashed a look Kinsley’s way. “Really. I had no idea.”
“There’s no need to be snarky.” Her lips twitched. “I’m just here to moan that I’ve not had a break all morning. Your brother has been complaining about it since his friend called him last night.”
I shrugged and checked the oven with the bread. The rolls were ready to come out, so I grabbed my oven mitts and retrieved them. They were the most gorgeous shade of light golden brown.
“Piper.”
Sighing, I shut the oven door and looked at her. “Look, I told him I wasn’t going. I have to be here at four a.m. every morning. I don’t have the time to be out dating, nor do I have the inclination to be.”
“I know you told him that, and I know you want to franchise this place, but you’re allowed to have a life, too.”
“Queen of Tarts is my life,” I replied, putting the bread rolls on a cooling rack. They could go out when they were warm in about fifteen minutes. “Just because you guys are all loved up and getting married and moving in together doesn’t mean that’s something I want or need in my life right now. Is that so hard for everyone to understand?”
“I think it is. I get it, okay?” Kins held her hands up, her engagement ring flashing when it caught the light. “You’re focused on your career, and that’s absolutely fine. It’s not like I don’t know how hard it is to run your own business, but I run mine with two other people.”
Right. She’d bought the bookstore with Holley and Saylor years ago when the old owner had passed away and given her long-standing employees right of first refusal at a cheap price in her will. Their parents had cobbled together and, along with their own savings, they were able to purchase the store and mortgage the building.
“That’s the point. You run yours with two other people. You have two other people to pick up the slack. Felicity is amazing, but I’m still the sole owner here. All the finances and everything like that is on me.” I shrugged and got the ingredients together to make a batch of buttercream for the cake that was now cooled. “Besides, I like what I do. I don’t feel left out when we’re all together and you guys are all loved up. And any late nights I can take, I’d rather spend with my best friends than some random guy who probably isn’t right for me anyway.”
“All right. Well, at least now I can say I tried.”
“I solemnly swear that when Josh calls me to bitch, I will tell him you gave it your most valiant effort.”
“Thank you. I appreciate that.” She got up and hooked the strap of her purse over her shoulder. “Just don’t forget that in two weeks we’re looking at bridesmaid dresses.”
I touched my fingers to my temple and saluted her. “Don’t worry, I’ll be there. Two-thirty, Saturday, at White Peak Weddings, right?”
“Yes. Can I grab some stuff to take back for the girls?”
“If you pay for it.” I grinned.
“Hey! I’m marrying your brother!”
“I’m running a business and you already get everything for half price.”
“Good point.” She wrapped an arm around my shoulders. “Don’t worry. I know that what happened in Vegas—”
“Me not wanting to date has nothing to do with what happened in Vegas.” I put the sugar in the bowl ready to turn on the mixer. “But thank you for the concern.”
“Okay.” She squeezed me lightly and left.
I shuddered out a breath. I wasn’t lying. My experience in Vegas—in which my boss harassed me and my company swept it under the rug until me and other members of staff went to the police—wasn’t the reason I didn’t want to date.
I was, genuinely, happy by myself.
That would probably change in the future, but for now, I was living the life I wanted. The settlement my old company had given me when I’d left had been little more than an apology for not listening to me, but it had been a very large apology, and it’d enabled me to move back home to White Peak and buy the bakery.
I was just thankful there was an apartment above the bakery that was now my home, because I’d bought the bakery outright and I didn’t want to buy a house. I needed all my money so I could franchise the bakery and create a Queen of Tarts chain across North America.
All right, I’d settle for Montana, but it was nice to have goals.
Thus, there was no room for dating in my life. Every waking second had to go into making the bakery a success. I couldn’t be beholden to the whims and wants of someone else while I was trying to build an empire.
An empire made of cakes, bread, and donuts.
It could be worse.
***
“If you’re here to lecture me about dating, you’re going to have to turn around and leave,” I warned my brother.
He smiled sheepishly. “I’m actually here to apologize. I brought pizza.” He held up two boxes.
“Awfully presumptuous of you.” I opened the door further so he could come inside.
“And correct, evidently.”
“Well, it’s not my fault if after baking all day for other people I want pizza, okay?” I closed the door behind him. “Now, this apology?”
Josh put the pizza down on the dining table and turned to me with a grimace. “I’m sorry I sent Kinsley to bug you about dating. It’s just that you’re the only one in the group that’s single and—”
“And I’m okay with that,” I said, telling him the same thing I’d told her this morning. “Truly, Josh, I’m happy. I’m happy that you’re all in relationships and I’m just as happy that I’m not. Can we leave it at that?”
“Yes, absolutely.” He pulled me into a hug. “But just a warning, I don’t think Holley and Tori have given up.”
I groaned, sagging against him. “They’re sending me on a blind date, aren’t they?”
“I think so. They were talking about it today when I went to get Kinsley for lunch from the store.”
Pulling away from him, I grabbed the top pizza box and opened it. Ugh. Vegetables. Who put vegetables on pizza? If I wanted to eat vegetables, I’d have a salad or something.
Or I’d be vegetarian.
And, quite frankly, I liked bacon far too much for that.
I took the other box. It better have pepperoni and bacon on it. If it wasn’t, my brother could shove his apology up his butt and into next week.
Luckily for him, it was, and I sat down at the table to eat. “Why can’t anyone accept that I’m happy alone?”
“You want me to get them to stop?”
“Nobody can get Holley to stop. Especially when she teams up with Tori. I’ll just have to go on their stupid blind date and suffer through it.” I sighed, breaking a bit of stringy cheese when it looked like pepperoni was going to slide off. “It’s fine.”
“It’s not.”
“I know it’s not, and it’s all your fault, no matter how well-meaning your actions were.”