A Darling Bay Christmas by unknow

Author:unknow
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: amazon, Romance
ISBN: 9781940785370
Google: MkVADwAAQBAJ
Publisher: HGA Publishing
Published: 2017-11-24T23:00:00+00:00

“This is the best view in town,” Josie said, as she shook out the old quilt that she’d brought to sit on. They were on the second floor, up where the piano used to stand, before it crashed through the floor forty years before. Colin McMurtry had been redoing the place, little by little, trying to restore it to the way it had been during the war years, a gathering place for soldiers and their girls to dance with a full view of the sea. “You can get a little higher up on the shore road, but I like this vantage point better—you can see the gulls swooping and diving, and hear the waves crashing.”

“I’ll agree about the quality of the view,” James said, his eyes fixed on Josie as he helped lay the quilt on the floor. “I think I could watch it all day.”

Josie blushed and busied herself with the picnic basket she’d brought. “It’s nothing fancy, just pan de jamon.”

“Pan de what?”

“Basically, sausage bread, with olives and raisins. My grandmother used to make it when I was a little girl.” Making pan de jamon always reminded Josie of how her grandmother used to let her stand on a chair to help at the counter, playing with her own small ball of dough while her grandmother kneaded with her strong hands. When the pan went into the oven, her grandmother always made a little heart from a rope of leftover dough for Josie.

“Is that why you became a baker?” James asked.

Josie shrugged, ready to change the subject, something she generally did whenever the conversation turned to her. Growing up amidst the clamor of her family, she’d learned to keep her head down. Being quiet meant being unnoticed, which was the best alternative especially when her mother was looking for a target for her irritation or her father was looking for someone to blame for his latest disappointment.

But wait. James wasn’t trying to pick a fight with her—he genuinely seemed to want to know the answer to his question. And honestly, it was nice to be asked. Josie had been a baker for almost fifteen years—she’d begun by sweeping the floors for pocket money when she was fifteen, back when the shop was owned by the Carpenters.

“Kind of,” she said shyly. “My grandmother died when I was twelve. I missed her terribly. A couple of years later, when the local bakery put a help wanted sign in the window, I applied. I said I was seventeen even though I was barely fifteen.”

“Did you get in trouble?”

“Not really. My parents didn’t care, and when Mrs. Carpenter found out, she said that I must really want to be a baker to lie about my age like that. She said I could work after school as long as I kept my grades up.” She smiled at the memory. “She and Mr. Carpenter made me show them my report cards. The one time I got a C, they fired me for six months until I showed them I had all As.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.