Daisy lifted her gorgeous delft-blue eyes to Jenny. “You’re already helping.”
Daisy nodded. “It’s weird. I go to school, I hang out with my friends, and it feels like I have a normal life. And then, wham. I remember I’m pregnant. And that makes me feel like an alien from another planet.”
Jenny still remembered how terrified Nina had been, and how, as her pregnancy progressed, she had become…different. There was something about a pregnant girl walking the corridors of a high school that set her apart from the rest of the world, as though she existed in her own private bubble. Was it still like that in high school?
“I can’t say I have any experience in this area,” she said, “but I do in the area of being an adult. When you’re growing up, you can’t wait for the day when no one tells you what to do. Once you reach that place, though, there are times when you wish someone would tell you what to do.”
Daisy let out a glum sigh. “No kidding.”
“When I was your age, I felt the same way. I couldn’t wait to get out of Avalon when I graduated high school.”
“What happened?”
“My grandpa died, which left my grandmother and me all alone with the bakery. And still it would have been okay for me to leave because Gram had Laura to help her, and this whole town full of people who loved her. But then Gram had a stroke. She never told me I had to stay. She would have found a way to cope on her own. But how could I do that? I just couldn’t walk away.” She paused, pierced by a memory of the plans she’d made, and how everything had fallen apart for her. “I ended up living at home, running the bakery, taking care of my grandmother, and the years just kind of flew by.”
“Do you wish you’d done something different?”
Before the trip to New York, she would have instantly said yes. Now she realized the life she’d been living had been the right one after all. Even though it wasn’t glamorous or exciting, she belonged here in this small town, running the bakery, surrounded by people who cared about her. “It’s a funny thing,” she tried to explain to Daisy. “Things have a way of working out, even if they’re not what we had in mind. I remember standing in a hospital waiting room, and the doctors were asking me to make this huge decision about my grandmother, and I just felt…paralyzed. I would’ve given anything to have somebody make the decision for me. But there wasn’t anyone except me. I had to make the call and live with the consequences. Which is not such a terrible thing,” she hastened to add, and touched Daisy’s shoulder. “Whatever you decide, the experience will make you learn and grow in ways you never imagined.”
“I hope you’re right. Because I’ve, um… I’ve decided to have the baby. My parents know, and they’re, like, kind of okay with it. I mean, as okay as you’d expect, under the circumstances. No idea if it’s right or not, but I just couldn’t…destroy a life. My whole family is broken up, but I figure the baby and I—we’ll be a little family of two.”
“I see. That’s…good,” Jenny said, though inwardly she cringed. Daisy was so young, and a baby was such a huge responsibility.
“So am I fired?” Daisy asked, tucking her hand into her pocket.
Jenny gave a laugh of disbelief. “You can’t be serious. Of course you’re not fired. In the first place, I love having you work here and in the second, firing someone due to pregnancy is against the law.”
“All right.” Daisy stood up, letting out a sigh of relief. “I’d better get back to work. It’s crazy, I know. I’m scared one minute and excited the next.”
“I don’t blame you. I think everyone expecting a baby must feel that way. It’ll be all right.” She had no idea whether or not that was the truth. She wanted it to be. She knew Daisy did, too. Becoming a mother at a young age was possibly the hardest thing a woman could do. Some rose to the occasion and shone, like Nina. Others, admittedly, failed at it. Jenny’s own mother was a prime example.
Daisy opened the door, paused. “How about you? Do you think you want kids one day?”
“I’d better work on having a date.”
“Are you and Chief McKnight, like—”
“No,” Jenny said swiftly. “Why does everyone keep asking me that?”
“Just curious.” Daisy led the way downstairs. There was no one in the café. Zach was showing Rourke something on the computer.
“What are those pictures?” Jenny asked, looking over Rourke’s shoulder at the computer monitor.
“Daisy took them,” said Zach.
Daisy handed Jenny a coffee mug. “I loaded them onto the computer as a screen saver. I hope you don’t mind.”
Rourke stepped aside so Jenny could have a closer look. They were shots taken around the bakery, not just snapshots or documentary photos. These were intimate and appealing, and also unexpected—a close-up of Laura’s hands shaping a mound of dough with gentle expertise. The face of a bright-eyed toddler as he regarded the trays of shaped cookies in the curved-front display case. A rack of just-baked bread, the loaves lined up with geometric precision.
“These are incredible,” Jenny said. “You’re really good, Daisy.”
Zach gave Daisy a nudge. “Told you.”
Daisy cleared her throat. “So I was wondering if you’d let me make some prints to hang in the café.”
The idea appealed to Jenny. “You have to promise to sign each print and let me get them professionally framed.”
“Well…sure.” Daisy looked surprised, while Zach beamed with pride.
“That was nice of you,” Rourke said as they left the bakery.
“It’s mutually beneficial. She does beautiful work, and the café needs sprucing up.” It felt right, bringing more people on board at the bakery, stepping back a little. “When I left, I wasn’t totally convinced the bakery would run without
