Married Before Midnight by Sienna Quinn - Chapter 17

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Married Before Midnight


Chapter 17: Sweet Beginnings Takes Flight


The Carter kitchen hummed with the scent of cinnamon and sugar, the warmth of the oven a comforting presence as Eleanor and her daughters gathered around the small table. The contract with The Oak & Ivy Café had been a triumph, but now reality settled in—bigger orders, longer hours, and the daunting task of scaling up their tiny operation. Olivia traced a finger along the edge of the worn recipe book, her brow furrowed. "Mom, the oven’s already struggling with our usual batches.


How are we supposed to triple the output?" Eleanor exhaled, rubbing her temples. "We’ll have to bake in shifts. Early mornings, late nights—whatever it takes." Hannah, perched on the edge of her chair, tapped her pencil against her notebook. "But what if the café cancels? Or something goes wrong? We can’t rely on just one contract." The room fell silent. Charlotte nibbled on a cookie, Lillian and Emily exchanged wide-eyed glances, and Olivia’s lips pressed into a thin line. Hannah leaned forward, her voice steady. "We should start home deliveries. If we get our own phone line, people can call in orders anytime. We’ll expand beyond just the café." Eleanor’s eyes softened. "That’s a big step, sweetheart. More work, more risk—" "But more customers," Hannah countered. "More stability." Olivia nodded slowly. "She’s right. If we can handle it, this could change everything." And so, the plan took shape. Olivia would manage daytime deliveries on their rickety bicycle, balancing boxes of pastries with practiced ease. Evenings and late-night runs would fall to Eleanor and Hannah, bundled in coats against the chill of Maplewood’s streets.


The younger sisters brainstormed ways to decorate the boxes—little doodles, thank-you notes, even sprinkling powdered sugar in the shape of hearts. The new phone arrived two days later, a sleek black rotary dial that sat proudly on the counter.


Olivia practiced her greeting until it was flawless: "Sweet Beginnings Bakery, how can we make your day sweeter?" Hannah drilled her on responses for busy hours, and even little Emily chimed in with exaggerated customer voices, giggling when Olivia stumbled. Their first late-night call came just after ten o’clock—an elderly woman requesting scones for her book club the next morning. Eleanor and Hannah wrapped the pastries carefully, their breath visible in the crisp night air as they walked beneath the amber glow of streetlights. "You’re really something, you know that?" Eleanor murmured, squeezing Hannah’s shoulder. "Ten years old and already thinking like a CEO." Hannah grinned. "Someday, we’ll have a whole fleet of delivery scooters. And a real storefront with a neon sign."


Back home, Olivia was scribbling down new orders that had trickled in. By dawn, the kitchen table was covered in lists—ingredients to buy, routes to map, customers to thank. Exhaustion tugged at them all, but so did something else—pride. Sweet Beginnings wasn’t just a street-corner stand anymore. It was a promise, carried on the back of a bicycle and whispered through a phone line: We’re here. We’re growing. And we’re not going anywhere.