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Chapter 7: Sugar

Sugar did a quick wipe down of a table, dumping trash into the garbage can by the door and then heading back to the kitchen with the tray. It'd been a busy morning, what with every Sawyerite in the area wanting to come in and give their personal opinion on the job Chief Anderson was (or was not, as the case may be) doing. Sugar wondered if Betty's Diner was as busy as the Muffin Man had been. Somehow, she was gonna guess yes, although of course she hadn't had a chance to make it over there herself.

"...stupid." The front door swung open, letting the last word drift in on the breeze, as Robert, James, and Mr. Stultz came walking in. Sugar barely repressed a groan. This was gonna be a whole lot of no fun whatsoever. No more judgmental men existed on planet Earth than these three, Sugar was sure. If she sneezed right then, she was sure they'd tell her that she'd done it wrong.

"Now we have a fire chief who won't hook a hose up to a fire hydrant or a tanker," Mr. Stultz railed. He slammed his oversized coffee mug down on the counter with a jerk of his head towards Sugar. She obediently picked it up to do a refill on it while he continued on. "I can't believe I'm paying more to this damn city in taxes so we can have a worthless fire chief who stands around and watches buildings burn down."

"I told him that, I did," James told him, and then turned to her. "A bear claw and coffee. Black." He turned back to his shadow and his sycophant.

Just what a man like James needed - two men egging him on and telling him he was right. Even if he was right, James wasn't the kind of guy who should be told that. Absolutely no good could come of it.

As Sugar began filling up two coffee cups and grabbing two bear claws - since Robert would eat exactly what James did - James began railing on the new chief. "He told me that I could help him learn the ropes because I know so much shit. I told him I wouldn't teach him anything. Didn't I, Robert?"

"He did," Robert said, nodding seriously. "Everyone heard im."

Sugar carried a tray over to the table the men had settled in at, and offloaded the coffee and donuts onto the table inconspicuously. No one even bothered looking up.

"He needs a lot more training than I could give him," James announced. "I can't believe that damn council picked him over me, and all because of some stupid-ass training levels. Why, I've worked in this fire department since Chief Anderson," he sneered the name, "was in diapers, and the city thinks a few hours of training means he's more qualified than I am? Idiots, the lot of em."

Sugar slipped into the back and leaned against the cool cinderblock wall, closing her eyes in frustration. No matter how right James was, he was also a dick. There was only so much James Lasley time that Sugar could handle before her right eyeball started twitching.

"Still dissing on the new chief?" Gage asked quietly, somewhere to her right. She nodded, keeping her eyes closed.

"It's their new favorite past time. I imagine it's gonna be for quite some time." She heard the jingle of the doorbell over the front door and fading away of footsteps. Good. She was surprised they'd left so quickly, but damn happy. This would give her some time to relax before the next person came in to badmouth Jaxson.

She opened up her eyes as she pushed away from the wall, swinging around and heading back out front. She should probably do a sweep up of the dining area before another rush came in. She

She stopped abruptly. Jaxson froze, his hand hovering over the small dinner bell that sat on the counter for customers to ring in case she was in the back.

"Oh!" she yelped. "I didn't hear you come in!"

Levi was standing next to Jaxson, his cowboy hat off, quiet as usual. Levi didn't say much, except to other guys, at least that Sugar could tell. Even though they'd graduated from high school together, Sugar wasn't sure if they'd ever exchanged more than a hundred words in the twenty years of knowing each other.

"We came in when the...other guys were leaving," Levi finally offered up, when Jaxson didn't say anything.

"Oh," Sugar repeated weakly. I bet that was awkward as hell. I wonder if they even bothered to stop badmouthing him long enough to say hello.

She decided to keep that thought to herself.

"Levi here is going to show me round town and we're gonna inspect fire hydrants," Jaxson said with an easy smile. Sugar felt her insides flutter, like freakin' butterflies had taken up residence in her stomach.

She smiled back faintly. She couldn't let her nerves show. He didn't need to know that he affected her because any minute now, she was going to get her nerves under control and he wasn't going to affect her anymore.

Any minute now.

She scrambled for something to say, when Jaxson's words finally registered. "Inspect fire hydrants?" she asked, confused. "Why would you need to do that?"

"So that next time someone sets fire to a historical landmark in town, I can actually use the fire hydrant and put the damn fire out," Jaxson growled, his easy smile disappearing.

"Hold on, you couldn't use the fire hydrant yesterday?" Sugar was openly staring at him now, which was probably rude, but dammit all, she was totally and thoroughly confused at this point.

"Of course not; otherwise, I would have. But, it was broken. Apparently, it's been out of repair for years now. As it was, I had to conserve the water in the tank on the truck in case the sparks set something else on fire. I sure as hell didn't have enough in that tank to put out the mill fire and another fire, if it came to that."

"Ohhhh..."

She knew she was repeating herself. She knew she sounded like an idiot. But things were finally making sense. Pieces were clicking into place as she stared at him, her mind whirling.

James knew this. He had to have known this. He was at the fire yesterday. And yet, he came in here and was badmouthing Jaxson to Robert and Mr. Stultz and probably anyone else within a ten-mile radius. He's an asshat, but this is low, even for him.

There were words being spoken, and then Sugar shook her head. "Sorry, what?" she asked blankly.

"I asked if you're okay. You look...off." Jaxson was staring at her intently. She wanted to laugh and brush him off, but she couldn't.

"You need to watch out for James," she said impulsively, and then gulped. Why was she sticking her nose in where it didn't belong? Jaxson was a big boy. He could take care of himself.

Jaxson's face shut down, a guarded, quiet look settling over him. "In here talking shit bout me?" he asked, his voice hard.

She nodded, the tension in her stomach growing. She tried real hard to stay out of city politics; it was safer that way. But she couldn't stay on the sidelines this time. She could warn him once and then get out of the middle of it. He could take care of himself after that. "He...may not have mentioned that the hydrant was broken."

"Left that part off, huh? Anyone else bother to bring up that fact?" He was practically growling at this point.

Sugar just shook her head. "No. I'll be honest - I didn't know that. No one does. Everyone just thought that you were..."

"Standing around and watching buildings burn to the ground because it's fun?" he cut in.

She nodded, her face flushed, eyes glued to the ground. She hadn't helped spread those rumors, of course, but she had listened to them all, and had thought that they were right. People had been crucifying him, and no one had stood up for him.

Not even her.

She couldn't have known the truth, but still, it made her sick. She knew what it was like having people spread shit about you and not having any control over what they said or thought.

Her face flushed warmer still. She would've made a joke about needing to call the fire department to put out the flames in her cheeks, if she wasn't dying of embarrassment.

Jaxson let out a few choice swear words that made her eyes pop back up to his. She gaped at him.

"Sorry, miss," he ground out. "I...shouldn't have said that." He took a long, deep, shuddering breath and then said, "Coffee and donuts for the two of us, please."

Sugar nodded and quickly got to work, filling to-go cups and grabbing jelly donuts for them both. After Jaxson paid, he jerked his head in Sugar's direction. "Thanks, Sugar. Sorry again for...for letting off steam. It wasn't appropriate."

They headed for the door, the bell jingling behind them as they crunched their way through the light skiff of snow on the sidewalk. It was snowing just enough to ice everything up.

January was a damn depressing time of the year. Dark and dreary and gray...the holidays were over, and now there was nothing to do but settle in and wait for spring to come.

Sugar sighed. Waiting was never her strong suit.

"You should've asked him out," Gage said at her elbow.

She whirled around, her hand over her heart. "Good Lord!" she said. "You could stop sneaking around, you know."

He gave her a long suffering look. "I wasn't. I clomped up here like I always do. You were just off in la-la land."

She sniffed. She wasn't about to dignify that with a reply.

"He likes you," Gage continued bluntly. "And based on how much you blush around him, I'm gonna guess that you like him."

Sugar glared at him. "I do not like him," she announced, a little too forcefully. "I just...it's hot in here. We should turn down the heat."

"You were freezing last week," Gage pointed out.

She glared at him even harder. "I cannot date him. I cannot date anyone. You know that."

"I know that you believe that. I don't believe that it's true."

"What?" she snapped back. "I think I know that better than you do! I can't date you, Gage!"

The words were out before she could stop them. Her hands flew up to her mouth and she stared at him, wide-eyed. She hadn't meant to say it. She was never going to be able to suck those words back in and stuff them deep down in her soul where they belonged.

"Sugar..." Gage breathed her name softly. His face was inscrutable as he stared at her. "Why did you say that?"

"No, I'm sorry," Sugar gasped, shaking her head. "I didn't mean to. Forget I said anything." She'd broken the number one rule of working at the bakery: Ignore the fact that Gage was in love with her. It wasn't ever spoken out loud or acknowledged at all, and...

She'd broken that rule. Stomped it into the ground, really.

"Why did you say that?" Gage repeated, a steely edge to his voice.

"Emma told me a long time ago," Sugar whispered, broken. "I just...I don't feel the same way. I'm sorry."

Gage started laughing. Sugar's head snapped up and she stared at him. Gage let out a howl of laughter. "You...she..." Gage was wheezing.

Sugar stared harder. Gage laughed more.

"I'm not in love with you!" he finally got out.

"You...you're not?"

"No. My sister..." Gage wiped his eyes with the backs of his hands. "Oh Emma. Always the matchmaker. I think she's spent her whole life trying to hook me up with someone. I knew that when we moved here, you'd become friends with her, but I didn't know that she'd decided that we oughta date."

The Dyer family had moved back to Long Valley when Gage's father had retired from the Marine Corps, but Gage had happened to graduate from high school the day before the big retirement, and he'd gone off to culinary school, rather than moving back to Long Valley with the rest of the family. This had put Sugar into the awkward position of being close to Emma, the younger son Chris, and even the parents, but Gage...

Well, he'd been a virtual stranger until Emma had pushed Sugar into applying for a position at the bakery. She had insisted that Gage needed her help after moving back to Long Valley himself to take over their grandparents' bakery. It wasn't long after Sugar had started there that Emma had started telling her that Gage was in love.

With her.

Which Sugar had believed.

Because...she was full of herself and thought that men would throw themselves at her?

No, that wasn't it. Sugar was many things, but cocky about men was not one of them. Emma had just been so believable, so earnest.

Sugar was mortified. She'd made an ass out of herself, she really and truly had. No thanks to Emma. Why, she was gonna wring her neck the next time she

"I'm sure Emma thought she was telling you the truth," Gage said softly. "She's tried to set me up on more dates than I can count. She seems to think that I'm going to end up a bachelor for life. I remind her that I'm 29, but you'd think I was saying 59 instead."

"I'm so - sorry," Sugar stammered, staring at the floor. "I really thought..."

"That I've been waiting two and a half years to make my move?" She could hear the laughter in Gage's voice. "I may be a patient man, but that seems pretty damn long, even for me."

Sugar looked up from studying the tiles of the floor to glare at him. "You don't have to laugh at me, you know," she informed him.

"I'm not laughing," he protested. At her incensed glare, he added, "Okay, fine, I'm laughing, but not at you. Just this whole situation. Sugar, I'm glad that you don't like me, because if you were spending your days wondering when I was going to ask you out, I'd feel real bad. So let's be happy that this finally came out in the open."

She pressed her lips together. "Fine." She nodded her head abruptly. As her embarrassment subsided, though, she started to feel relief pour through her instead. Gage doesn't like me! The worry she'd had niggling at the back of her mind for months at how she was going to let him down gently when he finally got up the guts to ask her out...it all whooshed out of her, sucked away into the world, leaving behind peace and relief.

"We were talking about why you think you can't date," Gage said quietly.

And in flowed the worry and stress again. Sugar's back stiffened. "You know what happened with Dick. You know why I'm working here. I can't date someone else, for God's sake. One major catastrophe per lifetime. It's a rule. I read it somewhere."

She picked up her spray bottle and washcloth and began wiping down counters and the cash register and then started in on the display cases that seemed to show every smudge and fingerprint ever impressed upon them.

"I think you oughta rethink that rule," Gage said softly. "I can't tell you what to do, but as your friend, I want to say that I think you're making a mistake. It doesn't have to be Jaxson, of course - with the way things are going, he's not gonna be around for long anyway - but someone. You can't close yourself off from the world forever."

Sugar refused to look up from the display case she was wiping down and eventually, his footsteps faded away, towards the back again. She let out a huge sigh, slumping against the display case, smudging it and ruining all of her hard work. She couldn't bring herself to care, though.

She stared off into the distance, worrying her lower lip. Was Gage right?

No. He wasn't. He didn't know. He didn't know everything. He knew most of it, but not all.

Someone like her didn't deserve love or second chances.

She knew the truth, even if she'd never tell another soul.

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