Total pages in book: 36
Estimated words: 33396 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 167(@200wpm)___ 134(@250wpm)___ 111(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 33396 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 167(@200wpm)___ 134(@250wpm)___ 111(@300wpm)
Her grandmother on her father’s side had told her many times that she’d not been welcome in the Goodwin family. Coming from nothing, working in a greasy diner, she wasn’t the sophisticated woman the family had wanted for Tillie’s grandfather. According to her grandmother, he’d stumbled into said diner one night and seen her, and then the rest was history. He wouldn’t have anyone else, and the Goodwin family had to concede, so he married the love of his life and didn’t allow for an arranged marriage.
The most romantic story Tillie had ever heard, and she had seen it. Even into their late years, the love between her grandparents had been palpable. She knew her own parents loved each other, but there were also fights, and it wasn’t the same kind of devotion her grandparents had.
Either way, Tillie missed them both. Her grandmother had passed away two years ago from cancer, and her grandfather died three weeks later, for no obvious reason, but Tillie had known it was because of a broken heart. He’d lost the love of his life, and his will to live, and he’d wanted to join her.
Tears filled Tillie’s eyes, and she quickly swiped at her cheeks and took some deep breaths. No tears could be spilled while baking her grandmother’s famous cookies. Being close with her grandmother, she had pretty much been raised by her. Her parents had loved the limelight, and Tillie preferred the shadows, so she learned everything at her grandmother’s knee, including her love of cooking and being a homemaker. Her grandmother had often said that even though she couldn’t help at the office or with the business, she did provide a safe haven for her husband to return to.
Her grandmother had loved keeping a nice house. Tillie also knew her father had loved growing up with his parents, and whenever it was time to go there for dinner, he was always excited. As for Tillie, she had loved being at her grandparents’ house, and when they passed, her grandparents’ house had to be sold. The business had already started to fail at that point, so there was nothing she could do to help pay the rising debt.
Now all she had were her memories, a few trinkets, photograph albums, and her grandmother’s recipe books. They were her prized possessions now, and Tillie treasured them. The only problem she had was her own marriage. She had yet to see Luca again, and she’d not seen nor spoken to him since the wedding night, which was quite absurd, as she knew he was home most of the time.
Yes, he did go out to work, but like now, she was aware of him in his office, working. It wasn’t like this was new to her—hiding from people living in the same house—she’d done it plenty of times growing up, especially when she upset her mother over the whole pageant thing.
This was different, though, because she had a horrible feeling he was avoiding her. She wasn’t avoiding him. Yes, their wedding night had sucked with a capital S, but so what. She imagined a lot of women’s first nights were terrible. She didn’t know if other women’s husbands would make the “virgin” word sound like it was dirty and offensive.
Shaking her head from her own confusing thoughts, she walked back to the oven, pulled it open, and inhaled Heaven. That was the only way to describe the onslaught of sensations exploding around her. From her sense of smell alone, these cookies were going to be amazing. She already had a glass of milk waiting for her.
Tillie pulled out one tray, and then put another straight back into the oven, and gave it a little pat. She gave it a couple of minutes, and then went about decanting each cookie onto the cooling rack. She hummed to herself as she did this, much like her grandmother.
After a couple of minutes had passed, she just couldn’t wait any longer, and armed with a single cookie and a glass of milk, she took a seat and had a taste test. One bite, and she was lost. They were sweet, but not too sweet, with just enough chocolate so it wasn’t overpowering. They were so good. She sighed, then crossed her legs and finished the whole cookie and milk before attending to the final tray.
Nighttime baking was the very best as she didn’t need to leave the scene of the crime. It was almost as good as deep-frying at the last minute. Who needed a dining room table?
“Am I interrupting anything?”
The sound of his voice caused her to freeze in place. At first, she wasn’t expecting it. He had a deep voice, guttural, and Tillie couldn’t deny the pleasure of hearing it.
With all the cookies out of the oven, she forced herself to square her shoulders and finally turned to face him.