Make Your Move Read Free

much testing and licensing she was confident about serving it, and had received no complaints from customers. Men and young people would only get a sugar rush from the frosting, but Jodie found that keeping the cookies in a special “adult only” case behind the counter increased the mystique, and the sales.
    “They are. How many would you like?”
    “I’ll take all of them.”
    Jodie gaped for a moment. Her special cookies weren’t inexpensive. If Mrs. Mitchell bought all of these, Jodie would be out of cookies for the day. She’d have to rush to bake more, or turn away unhappy customers later.
    “All of them? They don’t freeze well, Mrs. Mitchell,” she said. It was hard to imagine turning down a sale, but still…
    “Oh, they don’t?” her customer asked with some disappointment.
    “Well, they would taste fine, but the freezing will reduce their effect, ” Jodie said with a wink, though she had no idea if that was true.
    “Oh, then, we can’t have that. What would be the point? Just give me a half-dozen then. I sneak two every afternoon with coffee. Rupert hasn’t been this attentive in years.”
    “Glad to hear it,” Jodie said, smiling, relieved.
    Working the morning shift alone had been hectic enough as it was without worrying about having to do extra baking. Jason had been leaving messages, and she meant to call him back, but the coffee delivery had been late and between covering the counter and working in the kitchen, she’d been running around like a chicken with its head cut off.
    She put the cookies carefully in a white box, humming to the music playing over the speaker system as she wrapped the box with her signature red ribbon displaying the name of the shop.
    “Here you go, Mrs. Mitchell. That will be thirty dollars even.”
    The middle-aged lady handed over the money happily and with a big smile. “Thank you, Jodie.”
    “Don’t eat them all at once. You don’t want Rupert losing all control,” Jodie warned playfully as two more customers walked in the door.
    “Oh, no, he’s on blood pressure medication, though the extra exercise is good for him,” she answered with a girlish giggle, walking back out onto the street.
    Jodie shook her head, chuckling. She settled into the routine rhythm of her morning, waiting on customers, refilling the display case, cleaning as she went and making up new specials signs and racks. She had thingsmore or less under control when Ginger finally walked in, looking stressed to the teeth.
    “Hi—everything okay with Anna?”
    “Yes. I’m so sorry I’m late.”
    “No worries.”
    “Mom came over, so I had to wait for her to arrive. She’s watching Anna at my place, but Anna didn’t want me to leave. She’s having some serious separation anxiety issues, and I couldn’t leave Mom to deal with her screaming. It’s enough that she’s probably noticing all of the housekeeping that I haven’t been able to do lately,” Ginger said grumpily.
    “Is she okay?”
    “Mom? Fine.”
    “No, Anna.”
    “Ah, well…that’s another story.”
    Ginger looked worried as she hung her light jacket on the hook near the entry to the kitchen, grabbing her blue apron and tying it around her trim waist.
    Jodie couldn’t help feeling sorry for Ginger, the only one of her friends with a child, and never wanted to find herself in the same situation. Ginger worked two jobs to support herself and her daughter, freelancing as a personal trainer in addition to working at the bakery. As Jodie’s only full-time employee, she gave her as many hours as she could, still she couldn’t imagine how stressful it must be to raise a child alone.
    “Scott again?” Jodie guessed.
    “Right the first time. He popped back up last weekend, and it’s so confusing for Anna. He gets an attack of guilt a few times a year and decides to ease hisconscience with a visit, then disappears again. When Anna was younger, it wasn’t such an issue, but now…it’s starting to show at school.