“Me? I don’t have a new man,” Becca protested.
Kalista watched the blush stain Becca’s cheeks red and knew she was lying. Had she been so caught up in her own drama that she missed whatever was going on with her friend? “Becca! You didn’t tell me you were dating someone new!”
“I’m not! It’s just…hell. You know that Support a Soldier program we started sending baked goods through? I’ve been in contact with the program director and she told me that some of the commanding officers had submitted names of soldiers that had no friends or family sending them things. I offered to be paired up with someone, and I started sending him stuff. It’s been about four months now, but I never heard anything back from him…until a few weeks ago. I got a thank you letter from him, and we’ve been writing to each other.”
Becca stared down at the table as she thought about the man she was corresponding with. She didn’t know who he was, not really, but there was something about his words that touched her and made her look forward to each letter. They were worlds apart, and she would probably never meet him. Still, she felt better knowing he was out there somewhere…alive.
“Oh, how romantic!” Kalista exclaimed.
Becca blushed again and looked away. “It’s not like that. I just want him to know that someone cares whether he lives or not.”
“I think that’s awesome that you are doing that,” Zoe said with feeling. “Now I feel bad. Maybe I should sign up to do something like that.”
“What’s his name?”
Becca’s head jerked toward her sister. “No. I’m not telling you. You’ll just look him up or do a damn background check. I just got him to start talking to me, I don’t want to freak him out having my paranoid sister checking up on him.”
Nikita crossed her arms over her chest, concern warring with curiosity. “You don’t even know this guy.”
“That’s the point!” Becca rolled her eyes. “It’s not like I’m ever going to even meet him. Just drop it, okay?”
“Fine,” Nikita finally agreed. “Listen, I have to get back to the shop, but why don’t we go out tonight? Grab a few drinks?”
“I’m working tonight, but you guys should come into the bar. I’ll set you up in the corner seats at the bar so I can chat with you when I’m not busy,” Zoe said, then her lips curved into a mischievous smile. “Maybe I can talk Dante into taking over the stick so I can join you guys before we close.”
Kalista laughed. “You know you’ll be able to talk him into it. I’ll meet you guys over there after we close.”
After her friends left, Kalista went to work in the kitchen, mixing up a few new cupcake recipes she wanted to try out to keep busy. Still, no matter how much she worked she couldn’t stop thinking about Jared and what was going on.
How could she decide if she wanted to live with him unless she knew he was going to be staying here in town? Finding out about his job offer through Zoe had made her feel like she wasn’t important enough for him to tell her. They should be able to talk about anything together, and it worried her that he had kept it from her.
“Hey, Kali,” Nate said as he came through the door to the back.
She turned and smiled at him. “Hi, Nate. How was school today?”
He shrugged as he threw his backpack into her office and pulled his apron from a peg on the wall. She remembered the way he had looked at her light pink apron with disgust the first time he had helped out at the bakery. The sigh of relief he had let out when she handed him a black apron had been comical. Since the bakery’s colors were pink and black, the name of the bakery was still embroidered in pink onto the black apron, but Nate didn’t seem to mind that.
He had become such a welcome addition to her staff and into their lives the last few weeks. Nate had become like a little brother to her, and it made her happy to see him coming out of his shell that he had around him. When he had first moved in with Anna, he had been sullen and extremely defensive. Things had been better when he started working at the bakery, but what had really made him change had been when he started going over to Fight Hard to work out. All of the guys at the gym had taken Nate under their wing, and they took turns training him.
Nate still visited his brother Shane in the hospital every day on his way home from school. Everyone was looking forward to Shane being released next week, if everything went according to plan. There was a normalcy to Nate’s life now that he had always craved, and it showed through the change in his attitude.
“What are we making today?”