Sweet afternoons

Chapter twenty-seven

It was several months before the court hearing about Ethan's assault and domestic abuse towards Jacob. During that time, Jacob had left his job at the hotel and began moving his belongings to Texas.

The small apartment Andres had reserved was modest and only a street away from the bakery. Jacob was thrilled with the apartment and even more thrilled when I showed him around the bakery.

Jacob had gone alone back to England, despite my offering to go with him. Since leaving England I had found myself missing my parents.

After agreeing to help pay for my father treatment, I sent over all the money I could before saying my goodbyes. They had been eternally grateful and promised to visit as soon as my father was better. It was odd, but I found myself looking forward to that day.

A week had passed since Jacob had gone to England and I was working in the bakery, Nate by my side. I felt reminiscent of older times. Before my life had been flipped over and spun around.

"I quite like him," Nate said to me as we stood behind the bakery counter. Today was no slower than usual; we only had a few minutes to talk before a new customer would walk in.

I turned to Nate in surprise. "Jacob?" I asked curiously. Nate had only spent a little bit of time with Jacob; he was still settling in so I hadn't given him many shifts yet.

Strangely though, both Nate and Jacob seemed to have already grown quite fond of each other. They both now lived in the same apartment complex and as it had turned out, Nate had helped Andres find a place for Jacob.

"Yeah, he may be shy around the customer's but he really tries his best. He's asked me to teach him how to bake, maybe I should make him pay?" He joked, smiling as brightly as he always did.

Nate was a great baker, but he'd never taught anyone before. I found it sweet that the two were getting along so well, especially after what Jacob had been through.

For him, it would likely be difficult to trust people again after what he went through with Ethan. But if Nate was someone that he could talk to and trust, then I would be happy to watch Jacob blossom into the wonderful person I know he could be.

"It's lucky we have him around, Nadine will be leaving soon," I commented quietly as Nate served a small elderly woman who seemed reluctant to let go of Nate's hand as he handed her a brown paper bag.

"I imagine Alex won't be far behind, I heard Lukas is moving to Utah to work at Andres' business," Nate said finally, once the older lady had finally set him free. It was sad to think about Alex and Nadine leaving the bakery, but I knew it had to happen eventually.

Nadine had been desperate to get into Yale university since she had started high school and she had been working as hard as she could to meet their requirements. The day she received her offer was the happiest day of her life.

"They grow up so fast," I joked to Nate as if they were our children. Nadine and Alex were already mature when I met them for the first time, but they were still so young and so over the years I had grown protective of them. Although Nate acted immature sometimes, I know he liked being their older brother too.

"At least you'll always have me," Nate winked in my direction before strutting over to a nearby empty table that needed wiping down. I rolled my eyes at him as I reorganised the countertop to make it neater.

It was true that neither Nate nor I were likely to leave the Bakery but now Andres and I were together, I was a little worried that Nate was going to get lonely. Then again, since Jacob and Nate seemed to be getting along well, maybe I didn't need to worry about that.