“I know. I thought about that last night. You never go anywhere. What if you tell them that you’re going to take a vacation? A cruise? Then you’d be able to explain not checking in while you’re away.”

“They’ll never buy that. Especially alone. Plus, it’s too sudden.”

Sara chewed on the end of her pen, then raised a hand in the air. “I know. Tell them you won a free ticket to a baking convention. I saw something. What was it? The Retail Bakers Association, I think. They’re having something in Atlanta this month. It’s just far enough away to keep anyone from showing up to check on you.”

“That might work.” Kelly glanced at the stack of industry magazines on her desk. She grabbed the one from the top and flipped through it, then turned the page back. “The Retail Bakers Association Road Trip.” She held up the magazine. “You’re right.” She read through the advertisement. “Too bad I won’t really be going. It looks fun.”

“We really should do that sometime. I think it’s so cool how they visit the different bakeries and swap ideas for marketing and stuff.”

“You’re right,” Kelly said. “We’ll plan one together. Things around here are humming on all cylinders. We should be able to do some things now and again.”

“Perfect. See, that wasn’t so hard. An excuse and a girls’ trip for the future. I’m so ready.”

Kelly was relieved to have a plan. “I’m going to go ahead and make the cakes for the cafe and get that out of the way.” Main Street Cafe had been her first contract order after she’d made the down payment on this space. Sure, it was her folks’ place, but still it was a standing order, and that had helped pay the bills in those early days. No matter how busy she got, she’d never been late delivering on that order. And even though she sold those cakes right here in the bakery, too, people still opted to pay the per-slice price and have it at the cafe with their meals. People were just loyal like that around Bailey’s Fork.

“I’m going to go see what we need to restock the front case for the morning rush.” Sara went to the front, and Kelly headed to her kitchen in the bakery.

Standing at the stainless-steel counter, Kelly prepped the frosting for her seven-layer banana pudding cake. Seven had always been her lucky number so when it came to layers, she stuck with seven, and that had kind of become her signature. Good thing her lucky number hadn’t been something like fifteen.