Bakery at Bella Beach by Kate Wentworth

Author:Kate Wentworth [Wentworth, Kate]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Bella Beach Press
Published: 2023-02-23T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 12

Cooper

SEEING AVA’S EYES SPARKLE with determination and excitement did something strange to Cooper’s heart. He’d met a lot of beautiful women during his years as a professional surfer, but none of them had the effect on him Ava did. And she did it effortlessly without even trying.

“So what’s the plan?” she asked as she polished off her lunch. The sun shining through the window turned her dark hair glossy and made the strands of silver into glitter. She was so beautiful.

He cleared his throat. “Adeline is a mercurial woman. She tends to go with her gut and quickly changes her mind, but like most people she’s a sucker for a good story.”

Ava lifted a brow. “What do you mean by a good story?”

He glanced out the window to the sea beyond as it curled up onto the shore, leaving behind a rim of foam on the golden sand. The ocean had called to him since the moment he first laid eyes on it, and its siren’s song had never let up. He’d always be most at home in the water.

He turned back to face Ava. “Why do you bake?”

She blinked. “What do you mean?”

“I mean, what made you want to become a baker for a living? There must have been something, some defining moment when you realized that’s what you wanted to do.”

A thoughtful expression crossed her face. “No defining moment, no. It was more like a buildup of little things, and I sort of fell into it.”

“Like?” he prompted.

“Hmmm.” She propped her elbow on the table and rested her chin on the palm of her hand. “My parents believed that every girl should know how to cook for her husband.”

That surprised him. “A bit old-fashioned.”

“More than a bit, yeah, and honestly, I hated cooking.” She frowned. “Well, hated is a strong word, but I didn’t love the idea that everything I did was to please a man at some distant point in the future, so I resisted everything. And then one day my mom needed cookies for Bible study and didn’t have time to bake them herself, so she handed me a cookbook and told me to make a batch of chocolate chip cookies.”

“How old were you?”

“Not quite seven.”

His brows rose. “That’s young.”

“Sure, but my mom had taught me the basics of cooking and I could read, so I knew how to follow a recipe. It was easy enough, and I found I really enjoyed it. It was relaxing and there was nobody standing over me, telling me what to do or how being able to do this would please my future husband.”

“You were in control,” he guessed.

“As much as I could be at that age, yes. Because from then on, I was the one who handled all the baking. My mother didn’t care for it, and I was willing, so she was happy to turn it over. Before long, it was more than enjoyable, it was a passion. I wanted to experiment, try new things, make things pretty and exciting.

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