Carolyne Aarsen - The Bachelor Baker

An Unlikely Partnership

Opening a business isn’t a piece of cake—something Melissa Sweeney discovers when an anonymous benefactor brings her to Bygones, Kansas. She can’t fulfill her longtime dream of starting up her own bakery without help. But with his traditional views of work and family, Brian Montclair is the unlikeliest candidate for the job.Even more surprising is the powerful attraction sprouting up between the rugged mechanic and his fiercely independent new boss. Brian’s heart and soul belongs to his hardworking community that is slowly coming back to life. Melissa wants to be part of that transformation…if she can make Brian believe they can be true partners in everything—including love.

Melissa turned and almost ran into Brian.

“I’ll take care of this,” he growled. “You go bake your little fours or whatever you call them.”

She held his steady gaze, his eyebrows lowered over his deep-set eyes. She would not be intimidated by an employee, but at the same time she sensed he was not backing down.

“Okay. I’ll be in the back,” she said with a forced smile, knowing she would have to talk to him later about the boss/employee relationship. If he was going to work here, they needed to keep a few things straight.

Their eyes held a moment and she couldn’t look away.

She couldn’t figure out why his attitude bothered her. Brian Montclair was not her type and the last person she would want to have anything to do with beyond the bakery.

CAROLYNE AARSEN

and her husband, Richard, live on a small ranch in northern Alberta, where they have raised four children and numerous foster children, and are still raising cattle. Carolyne crafts her stories in an office with a large west-facing window through which she can watch the changing seasons while struggling to make her words obey.

www.millsandboon.co.uk

Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry,

and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.”

—John 6:35

I’d like to thank Dennis Donker and Candice of Barrhead Bakery for their help showing me how their bakery works. And for making me want to come back and buy every kind of pound cake they make.

Special thanks and acknowledgment to Carolyne Aarsen

for her contribution to The Heart of Main Street continuity.

Contents

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Dear Reader

Questions for Discussion

Chapter One

He took up her whole office.

At least that’s how it felt to Melissa Sweeney.

Brian Montclair sat in the wooden chair across the desk from her, his arms folded over his chest and his entire demeanor screaming ‘‘get me out of here.’’

Tall with broad shoulders and arms filling out his button-down canvas shirt rolled up at the sleeves and tucked into worn blue jeans, he looked more like a linebacker than a potential baker’s assistant.

Which is what he might become if he took the job Melissa had to offer him.

Melissa drew in a deep breath, brushed her long hair back from her face and held up the worn and dog-eared paper she had been given. It held a short list of candidates for the job at her bakery, Sweet Dreams Bakery. She had already hired one of the people on the list, Amanda True, but as a high school student she was only available to work part-time.

The rest of the names, once neatly typed out, had been crossed off with comments written beside them. Unsuitable. Too old. Unable to be on their feet all day. Just had a baby. Nut allergy. Moved away.

This last comment appeared beside two of the eight names on her list, a sad commentary on the state of the town of Bygones, which she had only recently moved to.

When Melissa had received word of a mysterious benefactor offering potential business owners incentive money to start up a business in the small town of Bygones, Kansas, she had immediately applied. All her life she had dreamed of starting up her own bakery. She had taken courses in baking, decorating and business management, all with an eye to someday living out the faint hope of owning her own business.

When she had been approved, she had quit her baking job at the hotel in St. Louis, packed up her few belongings and come here. She felt as if her life, after all the mishaps and missteps, had finally taken a good turn. A turn she had some control over.

She started up the bakery in July and for the past month she had been running it with the help of Amanda. However, in the past couple of weeks it had become apparent she needed extra help.

She had received the list of potential hires from the Bygones Save Our Streets Committee and was told to try each of them first. Brian Montclair was on the list. At the bottom, mind you, but still on the list.

“I want to thank you for coming here,” she said by way of introduction.

“No problem,” he said, glancing her way, then looking suddenly away as if unable to hold her gaze. “What can I do for you?”

“The reason I called you here was to offer you a job,” she said, injecting a note of enthusiasm into her voice.

Melissa still didn’t know what the people on the SOS Committee were thinking when they put this man on her list. He looked like he should be pulling wrenches, not handling the delicate petit fours, tarts and cupcakes she stocked in the bakery.

Brian pulled back, his frown making his heavy eyebrows sink lower, hooding his eyes. “A job? Here? In a bakery? That’s why you phoned me?”

In spite of her own concerns about his suitability, the veiled contempt in his voice raised her hackles. “Yes. I was given a list of potential hires and your name was one of the candidates.”

“Seriously? The committee gave you my name?” He slapped one large hand on his blue-jeaned thigh.

She frowned herself at his shocked anger. “I was told everyone on this list was looking for work. Why else would you think I would have called you?”

“I don’t know. That’s why I came. To find out what you wanted. As for your list, I sure never put my name down for working in a bakery,” he said, his voice full of frustration as he shoved his hand through his shaggy blond hair, his blue eyes growing hard. “The new hardware store, sure. Maybe even the bookstore that just started up, but this bakery? Seriously?”

Melissa drew in a slow breath, trying to stifle her own growing anger with his incredulity. Though she had only been running the bakery for a month now, she was proud of what she had done here.

Bygones, Kansas, she understood, had been dealt some hard economic blows the past few years. The closure of Randall Manufacturing, a major employer, had reverberated through the town, resulting in people moving away, businesses losing revenue and some even closing down.

Then, in May, someone with deep pockets set up the Save Our Streets Committee to oversee the selection of candidates to run new businesses in Bygones. Melissa had been one of the lucky applicants.

“It’s a good job,” she said now, a defensive note entering her voice.

“If you like working with frilly cakes and sugar and all that stuff you’ve got in those cases out there,” Brian said, sweeping one large hand in a dismissive gesture behind him.

“I happen to enjoy it a lot.”

“Well, I’m a guy. I can’t see myself baking and icing cakes.”

Melissa wanted to stop the interview immediately, but she knew she would have to report back to the committee and they were quite adamant about her trying to hire the people from their list.