Sam punched Andrew in the arm. “You broke her heart, man.”

They’d been so good together, but he’d burned that bridge. He could have handled that so much better, but he’d been young and his head had been filled with the allure of European cuisine. He may have gotten a little big for his britches with Aunt Claire pumping his head full of ideas and using him to basically cater a string of events under the guise of him building a reputation. Not that he’d minded. He loved cooking in her huge kitchen. Plus, he didn’t have a room full of other young chefs vying for attention or screwing up his hard work with a messy plating or garnish gone wrong.

“She opened her bakery the summer after you left,” Sam said. “Then she expanded. She does online sales of her cakes now too, and she employs, like, sixty to a hundred people depending on the season.”

“Are you kidding me?”

“No. We were playing the Azalea Festival and the headliner had stopped in her shop and made a comment on stage about her. Then he posted something on social media and it went viral, man. She had shifts working 24/7 for weeks trying catch up on orders. She’s been big business ever since.”

“She always made the best cakes.”

Jason crossed one foot over the other. “Her company does a lot more than cakes now. Cakes, cookies, pastries. She’s won a couple of awards for her recipes. I can’t remember what all the hubbub was about, but it was on the front page of the paper and all.”

Of course it was. Everything was front-page news in Bailey’s Fork. A string of woulda-coulda-shouldas paraded through his brain. He could only imagine what they might have built together. “I can’t believe she’s doing all that from right here in Bailey’s Fork.” A whole factory. It was mind-blowing. Although, she was the most enterprising woman he’d ever known. He shouldn’t be surprised that she was living out the dream they’d made together.

He’d built quite a reputation for himself, but he was still working for other people and mostly cooking their dishes or their spin on his dish. It was hard to compete with the men he’d learned from. He was loyal to a fault, or was he just losing his competitive edge? Could he have been as successful as Kelly if he’d stayed in Bailey’s Fork seven years ago?

“Things are growing around here,” Sam rambled on. “The Y is new. There’s a big industrial park on the east side of town. Old Mr. Blackwell finally sold off his farmland, and the county took the opportunity to lure a few big companies to town with tax credits and all. It’s done wonders for the property values, and there’s plenty of work.”