FIVE

Hatch was in Paradise Village.

Summer moved through her morning in a daze. After tossing and turning most of the night, she got up before dawn and headed to the bakery. She usually came in later, dealing with the prep work for the morning rush, but since she was awake anyway, she figured she may as well be useful.

Lucy's careful eyes though, well they missed absolutely nothing. The older woman was married to and co-owned the bakery with Clifton and Isaac and had become a friend and confidante in the year Summer'd been in Paradise Village.

Summer tied on an apron and then put a scarf over her hair to keep it back. When she was washing up at the sink, Lucy gave her a look.

Summer waved a hand around the space. "What can I do?"

Lucy pointed to the other long table. "Needs kneading. By the looks of you, punching some dough might improve your mood. First, get yourself some coffee and top my cup up too. I must have been psychic when I decided to make a pot this morning."

Summer did as she was told, breathing in the delicious scent before taking a sip. Sometimes they did barter business instead of for cash. The coffee beans were payment for a week's worth of bread and tea from one of the workers who'd come through for the last tea harvest.

"Once you've got a few sips in you, get to work and tell me what's going on."

Summer let the work soothe her rough edges. The mindless rhythm of the kneading and then the flouring of the board, the dividing of the dough and the preparation of the unleavened biscuits and scones while the rest rose, helped her get herself together.

"You remember that cutie who came in yesterday? The one I invited to come to the social last night?"

Lucy pulled some trays from the large woodfire ovens, placing them on cooling racks. "Do I need to send the constable after him? Did he do something?"

In the time before the Parkington-Bay, the virus that killed nearly ninety percent of the world's population, violence against women was commonplace. In the two lost generations after Park-B, when those who survived struggled against the successive waves of contagion from all the dead, violence was an epidemic that smoothed out toward the end.

Later generations dealt with rebuilding society with less people in a landscape increasingly changed from climate change. Dealt with the dust storms and temperature hikes that rendered most of what used to be the breadbasket of the United States totally inhospitable.

But they also had to accept the drop in fertility in the people who were left, as well as what had developed over the years--a hugely skewed ratio of male to female babies.

Less people and far, far fewer women had changed their culture deeply.

In the generations since, as humans found their footing and worked to find a new way of life, they had ended up with a near reverence for women that had become enshrined in their society. Violence against women did happen, but it was a rare thing, especially in a village as old and established as Paradise.

And when it did, the response was quick and...severe.

"No. Nothing like that." She began to peel apples for the cakes. "He's lovely in fact. I...it's been a very long time since I've felt like that toward anyone. But his partner." Summer sighed.

"Not interested? That's a tough one."

"The opposite. He was my first love. The last time I felt this sort of pull toward someone? It was Hatch. Charlie's partner."

Lucy's brows rose. "What's the problem then? Did he do you wrong?"

"If I'm being totally fair, he did what he needed to do. He left Portland and went on the road. Four years ago."

"Ah."

The thing was she didn't blame him. Not totally. They'd grown up in a sort of bubble on the farm. It was just them and the extended family of New Earthers who shared the land. Moving to the city had been a shock to Summer's system, but for Hatch, it had been like a switch was thrown. He needed to see more.

"He asked me to go with him but I couldn't. One of my fathers was sick with Park-B-related cancer. He died soon after Hatch left. I needed to stay there for my mother and father." And then Dulce's tragedy had been another, far more terrible blow.

Lucy didn't push. She knew Summer would tell the story in her own time as they moved through the kitchen and out front, putting things in the cases and on the shelves. Summer got water started for tea as well.

"Last night he walked right up to me and kissed me and it was like no time had passed. Which was good and bad because I was that young woman again, who was so in love it felt like she died anew each morning when she woke up and remembered he had gone."

Lucy pulled her into a hug. "No wonder you're here hours early with dark circles under your eyes. What are you going to do?"

"I don't know. I really don't."

"What do they say?"

"I left when Hatch showed up at the social. He kissed me and I kissed him back and then I walked off. They followed me to my place and I told them to go away."

"If they sniff around today you'll know what to do next. Maybe." Lucy snorted. "We have more choices than our foremothers did, but oh boy, I bet men are still as big a pain in the behind as they were three hundred years ago. Just remember that you have those choices, no matter how his kisses make you tingle. You don't have to be with anyone who won't make you happy. You have a job. You have a place to live. You have a community, friends and your sister is here. Make the best choice for Summer." Lucy kissed her cheek. "Now get back to work."

Work she did. The first day of a new session was always hectic with newcomers trying to figure out where everything was and what their new schedules were. There was a line when she pulled open the gates at the front.

"Morning, everyone! Come on in. Order at the right, pay at the left."

She sliced and bagged, poured tea into mugs people handed her, laughed and gave directions and let herself get lost in her job for a while.

Until.

"I'd like two of those tomato and egg sandwiches on the brown bread and two slices of the apple cake."

She looked up into Hatch's face and it was like everything in her belly tightened. Hatch Mowbry wasn't handsome. Not precisely. He was compelling. It was easy to get lost in his features. He was a big man, braw, wide shouldered. His body was that belonging to someone who'd worked hard from an early age. He had rough edges, which she'd always found alluring. But now, after four years on the road they were rougher, and that worked too. He had fine lines next to his eyes and mouth.

That lush mouth dominated his face. A nose that had been broken twice by the time he'd turned eighteen now sported a piercing. Dark brown eyes that always held some sort of amusement in them. Right then, as she made the sandwiches by rote, they took her in and didn't miss the way she shook just a little.

"You're looking pretty this morning."

"Thanks." She tried for light and carefree with her tone, but failed. She wrapped the sandwiches in wax paper and dropped them in the bag before turning to grab the cake.

"Would you have dinner with me and Charlie tonight?" he asked when she handed the bag over. "We have a lot to talk about. I have a lot to explain."

What could she say? If she argued it would be in full view of everyone else in line. It was busy and hectic. Or so she told herself when she agreed.

"I'll meet you here at six. The initial rush is at five."

"How about we make you dinner instead? Our kitchen is small, but Charlie's a great cook. Then we don't have to wait in line."

"You can use my kitchen. Be at my door no later than six." She pointed down the line. "Pay down there."

He grinned at her and she used all her control to keep from blushing, turning her attention to the next person in line.

"See you tonight," he called as he moved to join Charlie, who waited nearby. Charlie waved at her and she waved back before turning her attention to work again.

"Make him work for it," Lucy said as she reached past Summer to grab a scone.

"If they don't meet your expectations, you know where I am." This from Jolin, who was her next customer and someone she'd dallied with briefly a few months before. It hadn't been enough to get her back to his bed a second time, but he was nice enough so she laughed and waved it away.

She grabbed some extra hours in the afternoon as well, a little extra cash in savings was a good thing and it also kept her busy. She wasn't surprised to find Dulce at the showers; her sister loved a long soak in the hotsprings after she closed the shop for the day.

Summer washed her hair, pinned it up and went to join Dulce, sighing when she got into the water, silky with minerals.

And then she told her sister all about it.

Dulce sighed at the end as they got out and rinsed off.

"What should I do?" They walked back to Summer's caravan, which was just two down from Dulce's, and settled on the front deck, letting the warmth of the sun dry their hair.

"What do you want to do?"

"I wish I knew."

"Or do you just want someone to tell you whatever you need to hear to convince yourself to listen to them? Because you don't need permission for that."

"He left me. Why should I allow him back in my life?"