The Trouble With Falling

He seems to relax at that and gives me an easy smile as his parents look around the place at all of the baked goods.

Most of the donuts are gone and Eli nods toward the case.

“Told you, nothing left but crumbs.”

“I know! I’ll need to make more donuts tomorrow. Although, I think that sales for that will start to go down now that it’s closer to lunchtime.”

“We’ll take the last of them,” Frank says and I laugh as I move to box the last few donuts up for him.

“I’m surprised that you want more sugar. Didn’t Eli share the ones that he got this morning?”

“He did, but Frank has always had a sweet tooth. I swear, he’d eat nothing but desserts if I let him,” Susan says as she walks over to check out the bread section.

I watch as she starts to pull out a few different kinds and it doesn’t take long before she’s put a dent in the inventory.

“Patrick says that you made Brennan a special donut?”

“Yeah, a maple bacon one. He loved it,” I say, grinning up at Eli.

“Of course he did.”

Susan turns back to us and I notice that she has her arms full of bread. I can’t hold in the giggle when Eli rolls his eyes at her. He moves to help her though and I start to ring everything up. Susan adds a few cupcakes and cookies to the order too before she passes me her credit card.

“Can you take a break?” Susan asks me and I nod.

There’s a bit of a lull in customers, so I grab us each a bottle of water before I join them at one of the tables.

“It looks like Crumbs is a huge success!” Susan says as soon as I sit down.

“I think so,” I say as I look around at the half-empty display cases. “I think that I’m going to need to make more stuff tomorrow if I want to have anything to sell in the afternoon.”

Frank nods, agreeing with me whole-heartedly as he finishes off his donut. I sit and visit with them for almost half an hour, taking quick breaks to help customers who start to trickle in.

“We’re going to see the shop. Nick has a doctor appointment this afternoon, so I have to get over there to take over for him,” Eli says as they stand and get ready to leave.

“Join us for dinner tonight?” Susan asks. “We’ll take you out to celebrate the success of your big day. Plus, this way you won’t have to cook! Always a good thing,” she says with a wink.

“Sounds great,” I say honestly as she steps closer and wraps me up in a big hug.

“Congratulations again, honey. I’m so proud of you.”

My eyes start to water and my throat itches as I try to hold back the tears that her words cause.

“Thank you,” I choke out, blinking rapidly.

“Oh, and I’m glad that you two got things figured out,” she whispers in my ear.

I can barely keep up with the change in conversation.

“I’m sorry? That we got what figured out?”

“That you belong together. I’m glad that you both stopped pretending and made this relationship real. Eli can be so stubborn sometimes and I was worried that it would take him months to figure out that you two are so perfect for each other. And no, I don’t think that you two are moving fast. When you know, you just know.”

She pulls back and gives me a sly smile before she takes Frank’s hand and heads for the front door.

I gape after them, shocked that she knew this whole time that Eli and I were pretending to be together.

We still are.

Right?

What do I tell Eli? I have to tell him what she said to me. Will he think that she was just guessing, or hoping?

He steps in front of me and I look up, my blue eyes meeting his.

I swallow hard.

Why am I so nervous?