As Luck Would Have It

Felicity looked over at Rebecca. “We certainly worked our asses off on it.”

They stood there a moment just admiring their work.

“Want to go grab something to eat?”

Felicity nodded. “Yeah. I’m starving.”

“Good, because I want to hear all about you and Hawk. You’ve been pretty hush-hush about the whole thing.” She grinned and slipped her arm through Felicity’s.

They headed out of the warehouse and walked down the street to where the small soup and sandwich café was. Once at a table, they ordered their drinks and food.

“So things are going good with Hawk, I assume?”

Felicity cleared her throat and nodded, unable to keep the grin off her face. “Yeah, things really are, which surprises me.” She saw the way Rebecca furrowed her brows.

“What surprises you about it?”

Felicity leaned back in her chair, the waitress coming by and dropping off their drinks. She wrapped her hand around the glass of lemonade, thinking about how to best word this. “I feel like I’ve had these negative feelings toward Hawk simply because I saw him as competition. I never saw myself letting my buried feelings come forth. I never allowed them to.” She shrugged. “I guess I’m surprised how everything has transpired, how fast things have seemed to move.”

“Yeah, but it’s a good kind of fast, right?”

She nodded right away and looked up from her lemonade glass to see Rebecca watching her intently. “Yeah, it’s definitely a good kind of fast.”

A moment of silence passed between them. “And you’re happy? He makes you happy?”

Felicity grinned again and nodded. “Yes, he really does. As crazy as this may sound, I feel like I’m home when I’m with him.” She felt her face heat, knew that it was as red and bright as a tomato. But she didn’t care. This was the truth.

“Do you love him?” Rebecca became somber in that moment. Felicity didn’t need to think about it to know how she felt.

“I do, and as insane as this may sound, I feel like I’ve always loved him, just never let those emotions fully grow because I had this preconceived notion of him.” She exhaled. “Does that even make sense?”

“Yeah, it makes perfect sense.” Rebecca sighed. “I hope one day to fall in love like you. I need a happily ever after for sure.”

They both started chuckling.

Their food arrived and they ate, talking about the parade, the shop, and plans they had coming up for introducing new baked goods into their everyday menu.

“What about macarons?”

Felicity scrunched her nose. “Those are a bitch to make, and I haven’t made any since culinary school. I think I’d need to practice before we put them on the menu.”

“Good point,” Rebecca said over a mouthful of food. “Wait, what if we created our own spin on it?”

Felicity lifted a brow. “I’m intrigued.”

Rebecca took a drink of her water before continuing. “What if we made them macaron pastry sandwich-type things? Like house-made cream in the center? We can even mix up the cream flavors. And the ‘macaron’ sandwich part can be a flaky pastry?”

Felicity grinned. “Sounds interesting. I like it. We could add fresh fruit in the mix too.”

Rebecca nodded. “Mm-hmm. I love it.”

For the next twenty minutes they continued to think of new items to put on the menu, and Felicity got more excited for the future of not only the shop growing and flourishing, but also of her life with Hawk.

It was funny to think that not that long ago, she’d looked at him with jealousy and disdain, but now she wanted to run into his arms and tell him all about the plans they were making for the bakery.

How things had changed.

She loved Hawk, and she wanted to tell him. She just hoped it didn’t scare him off.

17

“What do you think?”

Hawk smiled at his dad, who stood in front of the float he’d made. The entire float was designed as a table, with models of the food Hawk served. On top were the two of them in papier-mâché. His father had gone all out this year, and Hawk knew it would stand out in the parade.

“It’s amazing, Dad.”

His father laughed. “So, am I going to be a grandad any time soon?”

“Wow, you really know how to go in there.”

“You don’t think I’ve seen that goofy laugh on your face, and not know exactly what it means? I felt that way about your mother.” His father didn’t look sad anymore when he talked about Hawk’s mother.

“I … I’m in love with her.”

“It feels good, doesn’t it? Being in love. Finding that one special person to finally be yours.”

“Yes, it really does.” Hawk glanced across the road, but of course there was no sign of Felicity.

She had yet to give him a response to his request for them to be more than sex. After he asked for more, she’d kissed him, and they ended up having sex again, without either of them talking about wanting more.