Especially when she knew Emily’s shop had been there for years.
Then again, Emily wasn’t sure why she expected her cousin’s archenemy to play fair. Between promotional ads in every part of town, a social media page with all the bells and whistles, and droves of people hired from all corners of the world, Valerie had a lot going for her.
And it wasn’t really her fault Decadent Treats had taken a few wrong turns.
Oh, Trevor. I wish you’d made better choices because I don’t know what I’m supposed to do about any of this.
Angela studied Emily’s face. “You okay, boss? You look a little pale. I can make you something to eat.”
Emily waved her comment away and sat back down behind her desk. “No, I’ll be fine. I just have to finish some work here.”
Angela raised an eyebrow. “You’re not going to be in the kitchen today? You hate doing numbers.”
Emily sighed and spun around in her chair. After pouring the steaming hot tea into her World’s Greatest Mom mug, she set it down on the coaster on her desk.
Then, she glanced up and offered Angela her best attempt at a reassuring smile. “I do, but someone has to do them. MaybeI’ll go into the kitchen later. Unless you’re offering to do the numbers…”
Angela took a step back and snorted. “You’re better off not having me anywhere near those numbers. I’m a whizz in the kitchen, but better keep me away from the math portion of things.”
Emily chuckled. “Duly noted. I’ll look into finding someone else—”
“I’ll figure out a way to make it work,” Angela interrupted with a shake of her head. “There’s got to be something he can do.”
With that, she spun on her heel and left.
Emily stared at the space she’d occupied for a long time, some of the tension in her shoulders leaving. She released a deep breath and sank lower into her seat. Not only did they not have the money to hire someone new, but Emily also wasn’t in any kind of headspace to be interviewing people to work at the bakery.
As she sipped on her tea, allowing the steam to warm the bridge of her nose, her gaze fell to the picture on her desk.
With snow-capped mountains in the background and a sky full of clouds behind them, the Ricker family looked happy.
With a sad smile, Emily picked up the framed picture of herself, her husband, and their two girls in matching dark ski suits and felt the familiar lump rise in the back of her throat. It was the last picture the four of them had taken together before the car accident claimed Trevor’s life.
A part of Emily desperately wished she could go back to that day, to hold her husband tighter and tell him how much he meant to her.
“We had some good times, didn’t we, Trev?” Emily traced the contours of his face, starting with the bridge of his long nose, down to his full lips, and back up to his expressive gray eyes,twinkling with life and laughter. “You have no idea how much I miss you.”
Doing all of this without him felt wrong, like she was going to spend the rest of her life looking over her shoulder, waiting for him to come back home to her.
It had been three years since the accident had claimed his life and left Emily feeling totally and completely alone in the world.
Three years since she walked through her front door with a plastic bag full of Trevor’s belongings and a heavy heart and collapsed into a heap on the floor. In the weeks and months that followed, Emily remembered thinking she couldn’t possibly live without him.
As if her heart was too small to withstand such a big loss.
In those first few months, it was a struggle to put one foot in front of the other, much less keep her business afloat and maintain a façade for her girls. Yet, here she was, having somehow survived three years later, only to find herself buried underneath an avalanche of more misfortune.
And it was all because Trevor had a big wallet and a bigger heart.
She’d warned him time and again about investing in his friends’ start-up ideas. It had been the subject of many arguments between the two of them, and it usually ended with an apology and Trevor doing what he wanted anyway. Unfortunately, it wasn’t until months after Trevor’s death that Emily realized how bad things had gotten.
Putting the bakery up as collateral had been the only thing to do in order to pay back Trevor’s debt.
But Emily didn’t want to think about what would happen if she couldn’t pay the bank back.
With a slight shake of her head, she set the frame back down and reached for her tea. The scalding hot liquid burned her tongue and took her mind off the dire situation at hand.
Hours later, she was still staring at her laptop screen and chewing on her bottom lip when her phone rang.
