The Season for Ginger Snaps Read online

  The Season for Ginger Snaps

  Spruce Valley Sweet Romance: Book Two

  Katie Carver

  The Season for Ginger Snaps

  Copyright © 2019 Katie Carver

  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

  This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by an information and retrieval system without the express written permission from the other, except for the use of brief quotations in review.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual person, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  To find out about giveaways and deals or to learn more about upcoming books, please visit my website: www.katiecarverbooks.com

  Also by Katie Carver

  Spruce Valley Sweet Romance Series

  A Loan for Christmas

  Table of 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

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Chapter Thirty

  Six Months Later

  Chapter One

  Ginger looked over at the paper-covered windows of the old diner and sighed. The sign that read Coming Soon was a blatant lie. It had been over a year since the diner had sold and at least six months since re-construction had started. She began to wonder if it would ever be completed. It wouldn’t have bothered her so much if it wasn’t situated right next door to her bakery. The business she got from the workers was a nice perk but the constant banging was getting tiresome. Ginger had heard that the new owner was some guy from a big city who wanted to start his own restaurant. She took that rumor with a grain of salt. Anyone from out of town was probably from a bigger city than Spruce Valley.

  Ginger finished adjusting the Thanksgiving decorations that were placed in front of her shop and had been blown over during the night. She turned the sign on the door to Open and walked back behind the counter. She had just finished the breakfast croissants and the aroma of freshly baked bread still hung in the air. That was one of her favorite things about her tiny store, the smell of fresh bakery that sometimes wafted to the sidewalk as if tempting a passerby to stop. In the spring and summer, that temptation brought in quite a few customers, but since winter was on its way, the chances of it happening grew slimmer. It was hard to believe that Thanksgiving was just a week away. The orders were keeping her busy but she knew that she’d have a hard time keeping up next month when the Christmas Season was underway. She was proud of the fact that she had a reputation for making the best cookies and pies in town and as Christmas got closer, she knew she’d be sold out of pies each day. She went to check the display case to make sure she hadn’t missed anything but was startled by the noise of the chime from the door opening. It was still too early for Sam, the town Sheriff. He was the reason she opened so early but he wouldn’t be showing up for at least another ten minutes.

  “Morning, Ginger,” Mike said as he walked up to the counter. “It smells great today.”

  “You’re in early today,” Ginger said and smiled.

  Mike owned the town’s one and only construction company. He’d been hired by the new owner next door and though he stopped in often, it was never this early. Mike was in his late fifties and was never without a hat, whether it was his favorite ball cap or his construction hard hat. Sometimes Ginger would imagine what he’d look like without it and wondered if she would recognize him even though she’d known him her entire life.

  “A little too early for my liking, but what are you going to do? We’re supposed to finish the work by the end of the week, but we’ve had a few setbacks. I’m hoping to get us back on track,” Mike said.

  “I’m not going to lie, I never thought you’d ever be done over there.”

  “There were times I wasn’t so sure myself. In fact, I’m still not sure. I’ll find out today where we’re at. The new owner is very specific about what he wants. I’m not complaining, we don’t get much business this time of year usually, so it’s not all bad.”

  “I’m kind of looking forward to the opening,” Ginger said. “Maybe I can get through a day without my wall sounding like it’s going to cave in completely.”

  Mike laughed. “I’m looking forward to you not complaining about it every day, too.”

  Ginger glared at Mike. He knew Ginger spoke her mind when she saw fit and also knew he was used to it from her. “What can I get for you, Mike?”

  “I’ll take a dozen of those croissants. They look good.”

  Ginger bagged up the croissants and rang up his purchase. “Try to keep it down today, okay?” Ginger laughed as she handed him his bag.

  “Whatever you say, Ginger,” Mike tipped the brim of his ball cap and smiled as he headed out the door.

  When the door opened as Mike left, a cold breeze hit Ginger where she stood. She wrapped herself more tightly with her sweater. It was definitely getting colder each day. She checked the clock and she still had a few minutes before Sam would arrive. She walked through the door to her kitchen and checked on the dough she had rising near the stove. It wasn’t a large kitchen, but since it was only her, she had enough room to manage. Her dream would be to someday own a larger kitchen where she could spread out as much as she liked. She knew the chances of that happening were about as likely as it was for her to win the lottery. She switched on the dishwasher and headed back up front to see Sheriff Sam seated patiently at the lone table in the shop.

  “Sorry, Sheriff, I didn’t hear the door. Have you been waiting long?”

  “Just got here a minute ago. Did you know that ugly Turkey you have outside blew over?” Sheriff Sam asked and motioned to the sidewalk.

  “Again?” Ginger asked standing on her tiptoes, peeking around him to catch a glimpse. Sure enough, it was on its side yet again.

  She looked back at Sheriff Sam to see him smirking. “You know, you could just do everyone a favor and move it inside where it would be less visible to everyone in town. Where did you even get that thing anyway? It’s hideous.”

  “Well, excuse me for having some Thanksgiving spirit and trying to make the town more festive looking,” Ginger said haughtily and chuckled.

  “It isn’t festive looking. I swear every time I pass by it, I want to become a vegetarian so I don’t have to eat anything that might resemble that thing on Thanksgiving,” Sam said with a look of concern.

  “Listen here, Sheriff. I happen to like my Turkey. Unless there is some sort of law that doesn’t allow me to have him out there, he’s staying. Got it?” Ginger grabbed his usual order, a blueberry muffin and an orange juice and placed them in a bag. She knew he was teasing her, but it was still too early in the morning to have a meaningful discussion about decorations. If
he wanted to try again later when she had woken up a bit more, he could take his chances.

  “Yes, Ginger.” Sheriff Sam rolled his eyes and grabbed the bag from her. “I did check the codes to see if I could cite you for it but you’ve obviously done your homework,” he said with a laugh.

  “I learned that lesson five years ago when you made me take down my snowman.”

  “That snowman was a hazard. It was ten feet tall, Ginger, and kept crashing down on the sidewalk and on people’s cars. I must’ve gotten fifty complaints about it that year,” he mused.

  “People in this town are whiners. It never even scratched anyone’s car. It was made mostly of Styrofoam. As I said, I’m not giving you any reasons again to make me take down my decorations. Ugly or not, I’ll be well within my rights,” Ginger stated and smiled.

  Sheriff Sam chuckled. “Thanks for the warning. See you tomorrow.”

  Sam was right, the turkey was absolutely hideous. She found it at a flea market over the summer and the only reason she got it was because she knew Mayor Curtis would absolutely love it. Mayor Curtis was not only the town mayor but he was also in charge of assigning booth locations at the town festival next month. Every year, she was relegated to the end of the aisle and this year she was going to be front and center near the gazebo. The business that raised the most money for whatever project or charity the town was sponsoring that year would win the festival award. The prizes were nothing special; a handmade quilt, a tree from Murphy Farm, the tree farm in town, something from the antique store, and a reserved parking spot on Main Street. She wouldn’t mind the quilt, the ones that Sue Murphy made were beautiful and warm, but she didn’t have room in her tiny apartment above her shop for a large tree. She could probably sweet talk Spencer, the one who ran the farm, into giving her a smaller tree since she had grown up with him, but she could do without it. She had no need for a reserved spot since she didn’t move her car from its spot near the shop often. The antiques were nice, but not really her thing. The prizes weren’t what she was interested in, what really interested her was the bragging rights that came with winning. Or rather, removing the bragging rights from the reigning champ. Every year, Franklin would win, and he would gloat about it for six months. He’d come into the bakery just to tell her how sorry he was that she didn’t win again and how there was always next year. She was sick of hearing him go on and on about it. This year was the year she was going to take him down. There was nothing special about his booth. She couldn’t figure out how he kept beating her until she realized that it was the location of his booth that gave him the upper hand. Since Mayor Curtis assigned the spots, she had to start getting on his good side early, but not too early for him to notice her true intentions. Last year, she gave him free pies, and though it moved her up a couple of spots, it wasn’t good enough. This year, she would appeal to his town pride as well as his stomach. So far, her plan had been working. He’d been in at least a dozen times to tell her how much he liked the turkey decoration. She’d just have to make sure her Christmas display was over the top to clinch her spot. If the restaurant next door opened its doors soon, the owner would be another person to vie for the prize. She worried for a moment about the extra competition, but quickly dismissed her concern. She didn’t want to rush to judgment about someone she hadn’t met yet. Chances were pretty good he wouldn’t be a threat. If he was indeed some big city restaurant owner, there was no way he’d care about the small-town festival. In fact, she’d be utterly surprised if he even showed up. Ginger walked to the kitchen again, this time to start on the pumpkin pies, which it just so happened were a personal favorite of Mayor Curtis’. Ginger smiled to herself. This was her year to win and no one was going to get in her way.

  Chapter Two

  Jake inspected the restaurant kitchen and saw that the counters were finally installed. At least there has been some progress this time. When he had decided to hire a local contractor, he hadn’t imagined he’d be waiting so long for everything to be completed. He had no real knowledge of these types of things, he’d be the first to admit, but from what he could tell it was at least being done well. His only complaint really was that it was taking forever. He was getting anxious for them to finish so that he could finally open. He had sunk all his savings into the place and he desperately needed for it to open soon.

  “The kitchen was finished yesterday. We should be out of here by the end of the week if everything stays on schedule,” Mike said watching Jake fiddle with the pantry handle.

  “You said that last week. I’m really hoping this time it’s true,” Jake said evenly.

  “Last week you decided you wanted the hostess stand moved five feet. That took some time,” Mike said.

  Jake did understand that he had made changes, it just still seemed to him that work was progressing more slowly than it should have been. “It’s been six months since you started, I guess I was just expecting it to be done more quickly.”

  “I think it’s gone pretty quickly. You’ve basically gutted the entire place. I’m not sure what you are used to, but if you want it done right, it takes time.” Mike’s attention was pulled away from the conversation by one of his workers.

  Jake was used to things going much quicker. He’d been a part of a few renovations in his last position and they’d only taken a fraction of the time. He could only chalk it up to the fact that this was a small town and things moved at a different pace. When you are the only contractor in town, you can probably take all the time you want because people have nowhere else to turn. Jake looked into other contractors and had only used Mike because he was local. He knew that if he was going to start a business here as an outsider, it wouldn’t have helped to use people outside of town. It wouldn’t have looked good. If he expected the people in town to eat here, he needed to show them he was willing to become part of the town.

  “So, what do you think of the old place?” A deep voice bellowed from behind Jake.

  Jake turned to the owner of the voice. It was Andy, one of the crewmembers. Andy was about his height, but had light blonde hair that he kept much longer than Jake’s dark brown hair.

  “It’s coming along,” Jake said simply. Andy would often come to chat with him when he was there checking on the progress. Andy seemed friendly enough, but it was difficult to shake him once he started talking.

  “It looks nothing like it used to before. The people around here aren’t going to even recognize the old diner.” Andy smiled at Jake.

  Jake hoped he meant that as a compliment. The diner was quaint, but not at all up to the standards of what he envisioned for his restaurant. “I guess not.”

  “I was telling my sister about it the other day. She’s looking forward to seeing it, but she’s still missing Mabel’s coffee. She finally broke down and got a coffee pot for her flower shop. I kept trying to tell her that this isn’t going to be one of those places people just stop in for a coffee. I think I finally got through to her.”

  Jake remembered Andy talking about his twin sister Victoria during other visits. He hoped she wasn’t nearly as chatty as he was. Once the work ended, he doubted he’d see Andy much and wasn’t too upset by that fact. Victoria, though, he might be seeing more of since she had the shop a few doors down from him. “No, it won’t be that kind of place,” Jake said agreeing.

  “I better get back to work before Mike lays into me,” Andy said and winked. “We’ll have to get together when this is done. I’ll show you around.”

  “Yeah, sure,” Jake said non-committedly.

  He watched Andy walk off in Mike’s direction and sighed. He wasn’t too sure that Andy was someone he’d plan to spend time with in the future. In fact, he hadn’t met anyone he’d plan to spend time with around here. He couldn’t even fathom what a tour of the town would consist of and that it would merit anything special. From what he could tell, Main Street was about it and he’d already seen that. He really had no interest in any of the town and was already missing the simple conveni
ences of a bigger city. This town was small. So small he wondered how most people managed to stay. His business would mainly rely on the people in town at first, but he had plans to become a place people came to dine from all over the area. If he’d had to rely solely on the people in town, he’d be out of business quickly. He didn’t want to make any enemies here and he’d be friendly, but he didn’t intend to be friends with anyone. This was a business and he knew how to play the game. He’d been managing restaurants for fifteen years. Though this would be the first venture that was his own, he’d been around long enough to know that friends didn’t make you money, customers did.

  He walked along the front of the restaurant. The hostess booth looked much better in its new location nearer to the door. The tables and booths were being shipped tomorrow and he was glad that at least the new flooring seemed finished. There wasn’t as much room in the dining area as he had been initially looking for, but the price for this place was right. He could always investigate expanding later. The place had been on the market for a year and he could sense the urgency to sell from the owner so he took advantage of that. He wouldn’t have found anything remotely as cheap anywhere else in the area. The fact that the area was remote wasn’t exactly ideal, but he’d find a way to make that work. If the food was good, people would go out of their way to dine.

  “How does everything look?” Mike asked as he strode up alongside Jake.

  “Everything looks good. If it can be finished by Friday, I’ll be very happy with that.”

  “Your new neighbor next door will be happy with that, too. I saw her this morning and she was about as pleased as you are that things weren’t completed,” Mike said and chuckled.

  “The bakery owner? Why is she concerned?” Jake asked.

  “Ginger has just been complaining about the noise.”

  “Should I go speak to her about it? I didn’t realize she was upset with the construction.” Jake didn’t want to start off on the wrong foot with his new neighbor. He hadn’t met her yet and thought it best to keep things cordial with other business owners nearby.