picking up the pieces, cade

[nicolette adalyn barnes]

that she left behind ,

nicolette was up before the sun and already in the bakery working. she felt as though she was back in high school again constantly being forced to help her parents run their business. she hated never being able to sleep in on the weekends and was always constantly complaining, even though her parents couldn't stand listening they learned to just tune her out. now it was such a force of habit that she found herself waking up that early all the time. she pushed the last batch into the oven and was glad to be able to take a break. her father was in the front of the store fixing the displays and it wouldn't be long until they were ready to open. even though he constantly insisted that he didn't need her help nicky decided to up and move anyways. her father had lost his wife and a business partner, there was no way he'd be able to run this place on his own. her mom was the one who normally took care of the financials while her dad just baked and followed orders. when she had left it had been hard to keep the place going but they were working on getting it stable once more. they didn't own a huge bakery but it was one that had its regulars which helped keep it going. just running it with the two of them was going to be difficult so they were planning on hiring one more employee. there was a wanted sign on the door that seemed to have been there for so long but nobody was interested. not that you could really blame them most people weren't into the bakery business when the beach and the boardwalk were the ones who were making hte most money off the tourist. they also couldn't pay the employee much more than minimum wage which of course was a huge turn off to the people who actually thought about working there.

with a sign nicolette turned the sign on the door to open and waited for the slow and steady flow of customers to come in. working behind the counter she was constantly bumping into people she had known when she had been living here. it was crazy to see old friends and how drastically they had changed. most people just stayed in the area and were doing simple things here and there. nicky never saw herself staying here for long she needed to go and do something big with her life. in new york she was rising up the business ladder so quickly who knew how far she could have gotten. she was a popular name in the new york business world as an person you had to be on the look out for. not even working there a year she had made so many huge contracts it was ridiculous. yet she had given it all up to come back to the one place she was so desperate to leave. but now that her mother was gone she could only think about her father and how she had to appreciate all the time that they had left together. she was starting to realize that life wasn't all about making money and business. her fiancee of course thought she was crazy but he was on the same path as her though not as talented. he couldn't even handle the thought of leaving new york and completely blew up on her when she had told him her plan. so they had ended it and she had left with no regrets.

now and then he would call but she never bothered to answer. she honestly wasn't completely sure she was over the breakup and wasn't ready to risk having him find his way back to her life. there was no way she was going to leave her father all alone the only time she would even think about it was when the bakery was doing great and she had trustworthy people around to help him. being home wasn't all too bad though, it was the place she grew up there were memories everywhere. the beach wasn't too far so she could always spend the few times she had off just lounging around. she sighed one more time and rested her head on the counter exhausted from all her thoughts.

Bitter.Sweet.Sundown. @caution

[cade alec montgomery]

[atrb=border,0,true][atrb=cellSpacing,10,true][atrb=style, background-color: #fff; width: 505px; border-top: 10px #ffffff solid, bTable] sparks will LIGHT YOUR TRAIL he was on the move again. this often happened for reasons among a selection of many, but this time, it was about his job. cade had figured being the night shift janitor at a museum was a fairly safe profession to choose as far as being away from people. and he could do it well. but things hadn't gone so well after the owner of the museum had hired a night shift security guard without telling cade. he felt moisture drip down between his shoulder blades despite the still cool temperatures of morning. the docks - that was around two miles now. cade gave his head an angry shake and pushed forward. no one was really out at this time - the sun had just flooded over the horizon line and was still casting warm colors across the beach and boardwalk. he was so irritated with the continuing problems with social problems. living the rest of his life in this manner would be impossible. cade turned his eyes up to the deserted running path above the beach. in some ways, he missed companionship (apart from his dog, at least). cade missed going out and smiling and laughing - having fun. these things had become foreign to him now. it might have sounded depressing, but it wasn't to him. cade had chosen that lifestyle for a reason. it wasn't safe for him to be around everyone all the time. as if he could adjust even if he wanted to. that thought brought him full circle, to what he had decided earlier. mortified at what happened early that morning in the museum, cade had left a note of resignation, cleaned out his belongings from the locker (consisting of a key and a museum t-shirt - wow), and left. now, at that time, he'd been so enraged at himself that he'd gone and rashly made somewhat of a mess of his shabby beach house. but after long enough sitting in his own anger, cade had decided the best punishment for himself was to do exactly what he didn't want to do. and get over the aversion to people. running always cleared his mind - he could go for as long as his mind would tolerate, free of thinking about the war or people or her. all that existed was his body, his breathing, the air and the announcement of sunrise from the birds and the thrum of waves on the sand. he reached the turn in the path that led to his house and stopped, breathing heavily as he walked down the steps and approached the ancient looking house. it was barely large enough to be considered a house. all it held was a cramped kitchen and living space, a bedroom, a bathroom, and a spare room, all of which were uncomfortably tight living, but cade didn't mind it. he slipped the key in the door and jiggled the key a little bit so the rusty lock would turn. she had always loved the beach, which was why cade would have never bought the bare house if it wasn't so perfect for him. it was set apart from the public beaches, and that was the only thing that had cost him the money for the property - the beach that laid in front of the meager residence. within fifteen minutes, cade was out of the shower, scrubbing his wet hair with an old towel and flicking on the decrepit television. news he didn't care about droned in the background as cade dressed casually in jeans, a white shirt, and an open flannel. just as he was grabbing the keys, the german shepherd behind him let out a long whine, staring at him pitifully. cade let out a sigh. "sorry. job hunting," he muttered gruffly to the dog, patting him on the head and slipping out of his house. it was probably somewhere around seven in the morning, perhaps a little later; people were beginning to roam the narrow streets just behind the boardwalk now, searching for whatever they were out for (the newspaper, perhaps, or a dozen doughnuts for their sleeping family). cade shoved his hands in his pockets and took a rather unknown path out of the back of his house that eventually led to the main street. he walked by stores both opened and closed - surf shops, tourist offices, travel agencies, beach apparel, ice cream parlors, jewelry shacks. nothing looked particularly interesting to him, and there was certainly nothing as indicating as a help wanted sign. until he almost passed by a quaint looking bakery. cade stopped in his tracks, staring up at the name of the bakery and then looking down into the window. the sign said open, naturally (bakeries were popular in the morning). cade's stomach jumped, and he forced his hand out to grab the handle to the shop and pull it open, taking a few steps inside and stopping at the small bell that rang. at first glance, he didn't see anyone, and was about to convince himself to turn around and walk back out and go back to the museum when his eyes landed on a light head of hair resting on the desk. he was initially alarmed and took a step towards the woman, and he swallowed once and stopped again near the door, clearing his throat. "um. are you alright?" he asked her awkwardly, thankful when she began to move and looked up at him. cade froze for a moment; he hadn't expected her to be... he forced his eyes away for a moment, reaching up and scratching the back of his neck, feeling the discomfort creep up his neck. cade turned his eyes back to hers, shaking his head once and ignoring her pretty profile. "i saw the sign on the door..." cade trailed off with a nervous flicker of an inquiring smile. "the. help wanted. sign," he clarified abruptly, internally punching himself in the face. cade seemed to be a professional of making an ass out of himself. LOOK THIS IS FOR NICOLETTE<3 AND IT IS 1,007 WORDS LONG. MY INSPIRATION COMES FROM HERE AND ONE LAST THING: IM SO EXCITED SFKLERGSEGKLFAFAWFKLSRHGDL.