Baking Me Crazy (Donner Bakery, #1)(12)

She was also a Pitier. But not because she thought I wasn't capable of doing things.

Helping me, doing things for me when she was around, made things easier. In her mind, at least. My insistence to do them myself did not seem easier, and it was something she'd never understood.

"Do you want me to drive you to work?"

The coffee was scalding as I took my first sip, and I hissed when I set the mug down on the table. "I've got my car. I'll be fine."

We'd taken Grandma's vehicle, since that had been left to us too, to Knoxville not long after we moved here to have it modified and the hand controls added.

"I guess I didn't need to get up, after all," she said quietly. "You've got it all under control."

I watched her stand from the table and make her way back down the hallway to her bedroom. Between us, there was no chitchat about my new job because she didn't understand why I wanted one anyway. If we'd had a different relationship, maybe I would've asked her why she became a nurse. How she decided what she wanted to do with her life and what kind of classes I should take to try to map out a course for my life when I couldn't see my future very clearly.

I might have told her about Cupcake Guy, and how I was supposed to navigate dating and guys and my chair when I'd never thought about it before.

Instead, I sat there and sipped my coffee, took a deep breath, and got ready for work.





By the time I got the bakery, it didn't take long for me to realize two things that were generally accepted as normal within those walls.

Joy was the actual happiest person in Green Valley.

And she was in love with Cletus Winston.

When I met Jennifer Winston that second day, her vivid purple eyes smiling at me as she talked about what she wanted us to bake that morning (pecan rolls and banana cake), she made a casual mention of something Cletus did for her, and Joy melted like a stick of butter.

"That's so romantic," she breathed.

Jennifer smiled sweetly, tucking a piece of brown hair behind her ear. "Replacing the brake pads on my car?"

Joy nodded, her eyes wide and serious. I rolled my lips between my teeth to keep from laughing at her.

"I don't have anyone who can do that for me," she said. "And without needing to be asked, too? He just knew it was something you needed, and he took care of it."

"Yes," Jennifer said, voice sincere, "he does recognize the importance of working brake pads in my life."

"So romantic," Joy repeated, pushing a flour-coated wooden rolling pin over the pecan roll dough until it was sufficiently smooth.

I couldn't help the chuckle that escaped under my breath. Jennifer gave me a tiny wink.

"Anyone special in your life to replace your brake pads, Jocelyn?" Jennifer asked, leaning her elbows on the counter while we worked.

Laughter burst out of me before I could stop it. "Not in the way you're talking. I have to pay someone like the rest of us."

They both giggled.

Joy nudged me with her elbow. "Oh, come on now. She had a customer buy her a cupcake yesterday just because she said she'd never tried the dill pickle, and he was ten kinds of handsome."

"He was just being nice because it was my first day," I interjected, desperate to change the subject. "The cupcake was delicious, by the way."

Jennifer and Joy shared a look, which made me roll my eyes.

"And," Joy continued, "when her shift was over, another man picked her up, and he was just as handsome as Cupcake Guy."

I scrunched my nose up. "That was just Levi."

"Just Levi?" Jennifer asked.

"Levi Buchanan," Joy supplied helpfully, which made Jennifer nod in recognition.

I waved a hand. "He's my best friend."

Jennifer raised an eyebrow, and I didn't like the gleam in her eyes.

"Listen, when you're sitting on the kind of throne I'm sitting on, men falling over themselves to date you is not a common occurrence. Even if I had any desire to date, the thought of having to one, explain the chair so they're mentally prepared for it, and two, have to sit there and wait for them to ask whether I can have sex is not an evening I really look forward to."

"You're so beautiful, though," Joy said, almost sadly. "And funny. You're so funny, Joss. You should have men falling over themselves to date you."

I smiled down at my lap. The downturn in her voice was also something I was used to. It was the recognition that my being in the chair came before any other possible first impression I could make. Heidi Klum could be sitting where I was, and if you came across her at the grocery store, you'd notice her chair first. You'd judge her on that without even meaning to. I didn't hold that against anyone because before I got sick, I probably would've done the same thing.

"Thank you, Joy," I told her.

Jennifer clapped her hands. "Well, you ladies have this under control. I'll let you get back to work since I've got payroll to do. Holler if you need anything, okay?"

I nodded, giving her a grateful smile at the subject change.

We got back to work, assembling the pecan rolls, then mixing the batter for the banana cake until it was ready to go in the waiting ovens. I didn't need to do much talking because Joy took care of that for me. She told me all about her years at the bakery. That she started in high school, working Saturday mornings, and now that she was taking some business classes at the community college, she hoped one day Jennifer would make her assistant manager or something.