One Last Chance

Chapter One It was hard work, owning a business and Sam was torn between expanding and being ready to call it a day and let a manager run her business for her. She was tired, and with the recent events with both of her brothers, it was hard not to think of all the family time and social life that she was giving up to be successful. These thoughts had been plaguing her the last few days, especially with her brother's coworker moving to town and complicating her life. Alex was hot as sin—six feet tall, dark blond hair, and the bluest eyes she had ever seen. She had gotten lost in them once, and it had been a huge mistake. With him being back though, she was reminded of how very single she was, and it made her feel like a failure in the love department. She sighed and carried the tray of cookies she had just finished decorating out to the front of the bakery she owned, Sweet Treats. She loved it here and loved the people from town that frequented her bakery. A smile crossed her face as she put the cookies in the display and looked around at the full dining area. It was almost Christmas, and this was her favorite time of year. Not only was business booming at this time, it was also just a happy time in general. The lights, trees, music, all made everything seem cheerful no matter where you were. It also made working in a kitchen so much easier when the heat is welcome compared to the cold outside. "Hey, Sam!" a voice called to her, and she turned to see her brothers and their soon-to-be wives at their usual table. "Hey, guys, I didn't know you were here." Sam walked over and stood by them like she normally did. "We didn't want to bother you. Has Alex been in lately?" Mason, her oldest brother, was grinning at her as he asked. Sam rolled her eyes at him before answering. If Mason knew why she and Alex fought so much, he'd be mad at the both of them. "Sorry, haven't seen him." "Since he tried to organize things here?" Nate laughed. A few weeks ago, Alex had been her guard while Liz had a crazy ex-boyfriend after her and they were worried he might come after Sam as well. Instead of just sitting in the corner and keeping an eye out, Alex had decided to get underfoot and move everything around in her storeroom. It had driven her nuts, and the whole town probably knew about it since they both yelled at each other, a lot. "Nope, and if he knows what's good for him, he won't try it again." She meant it too. That man meddled where he wasn't wanted, and it did nothing to help her opinion of him. Everyone laughed except Liz, her brother Nate's girlfriend. Liz just gave her a sad smile and went back to her coffee, not saying a word. Liz knew that something had happened between Alex and Sam, but she didn't know what. For some reason she was determined for the two of them to get together. Wasn't ever going to happen though, and no one needed to know why; they just needed to mind their business. "If you do, try and cut him a little slack. He's got a lot going on." That was different; Nate sounded sincere and wanted her to keep the peace? It wasn't her who started it most of the time. Sam crossed her arms. "I doubt that I will see him, but I'll keep it in mind as long as he minds his own business. Besides, won't he be off to work another job somewhere soon?" "Nope, he quit too." Nate shook his head. "My boss said that no one else is allowed to come to this town since we steal his best agents." "Wow, I didn't know that. What's he going to do?" Deciding she sounded too eager, she added, "Not that I care." Which, of course, made it sound like she was more interested, and judging by the looks she got from everyone, it didn't go unnoticed either. "I'm sure you don't," Mason said under his breath. "I don't know. He hasn't said, but he rented Kelly's old place from her family, fully furnished since they have Mason's stuff." Nate turned in his seat to fully face her. "His family is giving him a really hard time, so please, go easy on him. He's under a lot of pressure." "I won't start something if he doesn't." Sam said her goodbyes to everyone and headed to her office. Alex was moving here? Or, to be more accurate, sounded like he already had. No one thought to tell her? Well, it shouldn't be that big of a deal since she hadn't even seen him yet, so maybe he would just let her be. She shook her head and tried to return to what she was doing earlier. Contemplating expanding online had been her focus for days, but the biggest issue had been finding someone to do it. The other day, Jenna, a good friend, had stopped in and given her a business card for a web designer, which she had promptly lost. Reality was, everything was smoother since Alex had organized her storeroom, but she wasn't that type of person. She just couldn't see taking the extra time to be specific about where she put everything. If it was important, she usually remembered where she had put it. Usually. It was driving her nuts looking for this card though. The only place left to check was her laundry to see if she had stuck it in her pants when Jenna had given it to her. She wasn't sure this was what she wanted, but she figured she owed it to herself to hear the possibilities and look into every opportunity. She was going to keep looking for it for another day or so before returning to Jenna to ask for the info again. She hated when people expected her to lose something, and they always did. Not wanting to head back out to the shop just yet, she decided now was as good a time as any to go through some of her emails and delete a few. She was hiding from her family, if she was honest, but as long as she actually had something to do, it wasn't a total cop-out, right? At least that made since for now. Pulling up her emails, she went through the process of deleting a ton. Sandy, the manager at Sweet Treats, stayed on top of the business emails, which was probably for the best, so Sam only went through her own. Sandy always called her directly if she needed anything with the business ones. Finally reaching one that wasn't trash, Sam opened the email from someone she had been talking to for a while. The emails from this person had started coming almost a year ago. Their name in the system was Secret Admirer. She hadn't written back to the first several emails and then, after a bad day, had decided what the heck and wrote back. The emails were friendly; they talked about everything and anything to do with their lives, never using names and locations. She could have asked him his name at any point, but it just felt like it would take away from their conversations if she could now maybe know who he was. Her brothers would probably kill her if they knew she confided in some stranger on the internet though. Every time she opened one of the emails, she wondered who it really was and if she should ask him to meet in real life. She was scared this person thought they were talking to someone else though and would be disappointed in her, so she never asked. She'd already been directly turned down to her face before, didn't want to do it again. No man really wanted a slightly overweight, short, scatterbrain. This email thing worked though. As she read it, she thought about how to respond and what he would say about her thoughts on expanding. His family was trying to talk him into joining their business, and he didn't want to. She finished the email and replied with her opinion that maybe they weren’t family worth worrying about if they didn't care about him. She added her part about thinking about expanding and sent it off. He was the only person she had told she was considering it, which was interesting since he was a stranger and not someone she had ever met, or at least that’s what she thought. Jenna had been pushing the idea on her, which is how the card came to her and another reason she didn't want to let Jenna know she was looking for it. Then Jenna would know she was considering it and never let up. Sam checked the clock on the wall; it was five minutes to close, so she shut down her computer and headed out front to help close up. It was going to be a long month going forward, and she needed to pitch in everywhere she could, as well as be here more often and involved in the baking. Employees did more of the work lately than she did, which was great, but she had to admit she missed baking and decorating sometimes. With It was just three weeks until Christmas, it was time for some serious work, herself included. They would be busy all the way until Christmas Eve with custom orders and bulk orders, not counting all the customers who stopped in for a hot drink and a sweet. Sam was smiling as she helped wipe down the tables and mop while they closed up. It was going to be a good end to a strange year so far. She was even so busy that she would be able to forget about Alex and the fact that he was now living in town. Unfortunately, that thought reminded her that he was now close and she hadn't even seen him. Was he avoiding her now too? He should be after everything between them. She locked the front door and put the money in the safe while trying to focus on anything else. Instead of heading straight home, she went through the orders that were already in for the next few weeks. Nothing like work to get her brain going somewhere else. Judging by the orders already here, she would probably need to have everyone stay later for a week or so to get ahead. She sent an email to her manager to look over the orders and the schedules, before checking her messages one last time and heading home. Sam was once again smiling as she headed out, locking up the back door and getting in her chilly car.