Page 54 of Maggie’s Match

Every day, Maggie helped Rick care for his burns. The first time he was able to shower, she had to wrap his arm in trash bags.

While everyone hung on what was going on with the investigation into the fire, Grant had submitted all the necessary paperwork for them to move the building and hook up the utilities. To everyone’s surprise, within that week, they received their approval from the county.

A few days later, Maggie and Becca watched her uncle and his workers deliver the building to its new location.

The state police had closed down two of the roads for the building’s trek into town. The ordeal was overseen by Officer Johnson, a nice man roughly her parents’ age.

Because of the commotion with the move, it seemed like the entire town had come out to watch the building being set in place.

Thankfully, they had come up with the idea to put up a tent and sell some baked good while the workers were moving the building in place. They had scones, a variety of muffins, pies, and enough cookies to feed an army. They even had cold iced tea ready for everyone.

Rick sat in a lawn chair with his bad leg propped up on a cooler and collected payment for them.

At first, there was a trickle of customers, but then the building showed up and they had a line of cars waiting to get to the lot.

“We’re going to need to get that parking lot done soon,” Becca said with a smile.

“Until the inside is done and we have a kitchen big enough to fill the demand, I think people parking on the grass will have to do,” Maggie said, handing another dozen cookies to a customer.

Since the name of the bakery was going to be Birdie’s Bakery, she and Becca had tweaked the logo she used for her own bakery. Instead of the bee in the flower that the original logo used, this one had a blue bird, something she’d always associated with the woman who had acted as her grandmother.

She’d ordered the same bakery bags and boxes she used, which would take a few weeks to get there. Thankfully, her mother had delivered a bunch of Maggie’s Bakery cartons and bags for the goods they were selling the day of the move.

Rick momentarily distracted her when he laughed at something Becca had said, and was surprised to see Reba, the older woman from the grocery store, when she looked up.

“I knew you girls could do it,” the woman said, tapping the last blueberry pie. “I’ll take this for my grandson. He just loves blueberry pie.”

“How are you?” Maggie asked as she set the pie into a box for the woman.

“Much better now that you have cleaned up the town,” Reba said with a chuckle. Then she glanced over at Rick. “Just sorry your man got injured along the way.”

“Still, we got lucky,” she admitted. Reba nodded.

“When you open your doors, I’m sure the entire town will be grateful.” Then she leaned closer. “I stopped eating sugar years ago, thanks to my diabetes, but I’ll still swing in for some tea and company,” she added with a wink.

They sold out of everything except a dozen cookies that Rick had broken into and was munching on while he counted the cash and receipts.

“Did you see how many people from out of town stopped today?” Becca said as she cleaned up. “This is the perfect location. I’ll bet you anything that over half of our customers today were just driving by.”

Maggie had noticed that too. At one point, most of the cars in the grass lot were from out of state.

Becca rushed over and hugged Maggie. “This is going to work. I can’t wait until we open our doors.”

Maggie laughed. “There’s still so much to do, but at least the building is in place. We have painting, floors, construction.” She started ticking things off with her fingers.

“Don’t spoil it. For today, let’s just celebrate that we sold out of everything.” Becca bounced a few times.

Maggie turned to look at the building across the lot from them and smiled at how nice it looked there. It fit. As if it were made for this spot.

Then Becca frowned and stilled. Maggie glanced over her shoulder and saw Colton walking towards them.

“Becca.” Maggie tried to stop her cousin, but Becca bypassed her and marched towards the man.

“You have some nerve showing your face around here,” she said in a loud voice as she shoved Colton’s chest.

The man looked at his feet and said something softly to Becca, who crossed her arms over her chest.

“Do you think she needs help?” Rick asked.