found a package of breath mints and quickly popped two of them into his mouth—suddenly very conscious of the fact that he hadn’t even taken the time to brush his teeth. “Too late to worry about that now.”
Inside the bakery, there were easily a half a dozen people in line ahead of him and he knew them all. At the counter was Mrs. Greenway from the bank, and behind her was Ms. Chandler, his sixth-grade science teacher. There was Kelsey Cooper who he dated in the tenth grade, and in front of him was…
“Hey, Kyle. How’s it going?” Sam Westbrook asked with a grin.
“Doing good, Sam, thanks. And you?”
“Good. Shelby’s craving Mrs. Henderson’s pumpkin cream cheese muffins so…here I am.” He shrugged. “Although, I don’t think it would matter if she was claiming them as a craving or not, I’m always up for a box of whatever Mrs. Henderson has available.”
“I hear ya. Personally, I’m here for the cinnamon rolls.” And when he inhaled, the scent of cinnamon was strong and he hoped that meant a batch of them had just come out of the oven.
“I’m glad I ran into you. Jake mentioned how you’re working over at Sydney Albright’s place.”
He nodded.
“He asked me to come in and do some work on the front yard. He said there are some dead trees and it needs a general cleanup. Is there any day in particular that’s good for me to stop by?”
“Honestly, any day is fine. Sydney works from home and I know I’ll be there for at least another week, so whatever works for you will be good.”
“Awesome.”
“If you need to talk to Sydney about it or need to arrange for payment…”
Sam held up a hand to stop him. “I’m donating my time and equipment, so she’s covered.”
Nodding, Kyle thanked him. “It’s been great how the whole community is helping out like this.”
“I only met Tracy once, but I worked with Daren on their backyard,” Sam said solemnly. “It was a shock when we heard about the accident. When my father-in-law mentioned how he was taking donations to help with the house so Sydney and Haley could live there without worrying about the condition it was in, I told him I’d take care of the property. Jake mentioned that it would be better to wait until most of the work was done on the inside.”
“We didn’t have a lot of heavy equipment come through, but there was definitely some, so your timing is perfect.”
They continued to talk about the work on the house until it was their turn at the counter. Kyle was getting anxious to get back to Sydney’s—not only because he was hungry but because he already missed her.
I am so screwed…
Only, it didn’t feel like a bad thing. The last time he felt like this was when they were together back in high school. Back then, he was so confident that she was it for him. There hadn’t been a doubt in his mind that they were going to get married, have a couple of kids, and just…do the forever thing. When Sydney had gotten serious about going away to school, he took it personally. Every insecurity he ever had came to the surface, and suddenly he wasn’t a man ready to take on the world; he was a boy from one of the poorest families in town who couldn’t afford to go away to college. And once that thought had taken root, everything sort of snowballed from there.
And damn if he didn’t regret it every day.
Once Sydney left, he became a serial dater and loved it because he never wanted to get serious with anyone ever again. It hurt too much to give your heart to someone and then have it broken.
Now he had a second chance and he wasn’t going to blow it.
“There’s the handsomest Jones,” Mrs. Henderson said from behind the glass case. “What can I get for you today?”
Grinning and doing his best to bat his eyes at the older woman, “Well, gorgeous, it smells like fresh-baked cinnamon rolls in here. Any chance I can snag some?”
“Hmm,” she preened. It was something she did with most of the male customers, and if she weren’t in her sixties, he’d probably have flirted with her a little more seriously over the years in hopes of getting free cakes. “There might be a warm tray of them with so much icing on there that is just melting beautifully. How many can I get you, baby boy?”