Chapter FIFTEEN-PENELOPE

All morning I’d been thinking of our date last night, and I was, well, I was confused.

The back door to the kitchen slammed open, and I jumped where I stood, placing a tray of my pumpkin filled croissants on the rack to cool.

“Well? How did it go?” Avery asked, almost running into me.

“Geez, Avery. You scared the shit out of me!”

It was six in the morning on a Sunday and there was no reason at all for my best friend to be awake yet.

As a school nurse, she worked weekdays only and my beautiful little niece didn’t have a recital today, or did she?

I turned with a questioning look on my face.

“Rosalie had a sleepover with Lisa Ramos last night,” she said, and I nodded.

“Where’s Lenny?” she asked about the older man I’d hired to fill in for me on Sundays.

He was a retired accountant, but he’d worked at a bakery as a kid. He was a lifesaver really, and I enjoyed the day off. Usually.