Sara nudged Kelly. “Kelly was just saying she needs some quiet thinking time.”

It would be nice to ride with someone, and she did need to come up with some kind of story about being gone. “I haven’t been down the creek trail in a while.”

“You’ve got to come. Just an hour or two. It’ll be fun,” Dawn said.

Kelly looked to Sara, who was practically pushing her out the door. “That sounds good.” It would give her a chance to reconnect with Dawn. She needed to spend more time with friends.

“Let’s meet where the creek splits off. We’ll take it around to the old barn and then we’ll go from there. We can make the short loop. In about an hour?” Dawn glanced at her watch. “Actually, make it an hour and a half. That’ll give me time to get my stuff together.”

“Yeah. That should be plenty of time. See you there.”

Dawn left just as Kelly’s mom came in the side door. “Was that Dawn I just saw leaving?”

“It was. We’re going horseback riding.”

“I’m so glad. You two used to be so close. It’s good to see you finally taking time for yourself.”

“I’m going to try to start doing a lot more of that,” she said, hoping the change in scenery would grease her fictional rails to come up with an excuse for going out of town that her folks would believe.

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Fifteen

Andrew went out on the deck and stretched out on a lawn chair to enjoy the free time. It was chilly, but the air seemed to clear his head. A squirrel scrambled up the big oak tree, and birds chirped at the commotion. He should be thinking about desserts right now, but the only thing sweet on his mind was Kelly McIntyre. He was lucky she hadn’t slapped him for being too familiar when they’d been baking together. It had been seven years, after all, and the way he’d left, or rather had never come back, hadn’t exactly been a warm departure…but doggone if it didn’t seem like no time had passed since they’d been together.

Of course, Kelly wasn’t feeling what he was. He’d left her behind to chase his own dreams and never looked back. Could I have been more selfish? He could have handled things so much better. Then again, seven years of maturity made that much easier to see now.

Initially he hadn’t even really wanted to go to that pastry school, but it had been too good to pass up, especially if it might help him and Kelly meet their lofty goals quicker. Even Kelly had said so.