Tori Lynn has one dream - to grow her sweets shop into a New York dessert landmark. She expects there to be competition, mischief, and hard work when opening up a store front. What Tori doesn't expect is to join the ranks of the nation's top bakers...
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Outside the pane of Lucas' Chevrolet Traverse window, she could see a plane zooming through a path of feathery clouds. She watched as it disappeared above her line of sight, a burst of sunshine taking its place.
Her eyes blinked and dots of red, blue, yellow, and orange spotted her vision. She lowered her gaze to avoid the blinding sunlight.
Would this be what the flash of thirty cameras felt like? No wonder celebrities hid their faces with oversized, bug-like sunglasses. She wondered if that's why Caiden came to her shop in sunglasses. Then again, what paparazzi would be snapping photos of a producer on his way to breakfast. He couldn't be that interesting, even with his silky hair and luminous eyes.
Her lashes fluttered as she tried to blink away the colored spots in her vision.
"Stay in this lane." Chantal sat in the front seat with full control of the radio and Google Maps on her phone.
She watched the cars pass her window, whizzing from lane-to-lane in an attempt to get ahead of the forlorn race to be at the front of the next car. The signs overhead pointed to the parking garages and drop-off area. Lucas stayed in the right-hand lane, driving toward the JFK airport drop-off.
The luggage in the trunk shifted and knocked against her seat as Lucas took the exit. Chantal was bouncing up-and-down in her seat as the drop-off lanes came into view, strands of hair shaking away from the messy bun on the top of her head.
"We're here!" she shouted, and unbuckled her seat belt. The car responded with a series of high-pitched beeps before coming to a stop at a curb. Her body turned in the seat and faced her friend. "You have five minutes to say goodbye. We lost time by stopping at McDonald's." She gave an apologetic look.
Lucas pressed the button to turn on the hazard lights, and then stepped out of the car. When he was out of ear-shot, she let out a sigh and dropped her shoulders.
"I can't believe that I'm leaving for two months." She thought about her brother, the shop, Cashew, and her parents. Everyone would get along fine without her, it seemed, but she didn't know how well she could cope without them. There wasn't a time in her life when she was more than fifteen miles away from Lucas or her parents.
"It's an adventure, Tori. You can manage eight weeks away from your boring life in New York." she laughed.
Except that she wasn't feeling adventurous. Right now, still seated in the back of her brother's Traverse, her mind was occupied by thoughts of the shop. It was impossible to forget and difficult to put at the back of her mind. The whole purpose of this escapade was to bring publicity to their business.
