The Bakery Next Door

For twelve years, Abbie Harlow has risen before dawn, fed her grandmother’s sourdough starter, and told herself the quiet life at the Willow Bay bakery was enough — flour, sugar, and a town that never changes, all to forget the boy next door who promised to stay forever, then left. Now Daniel Hayes is back, just long enough to bury his father, sell the family hardware store, and disappear to Portland again. But the wall between their two shops is paper-thin, and the boy who once taught her to patch drywall looks at her now like leaving was the biggest mistake he ever made. Abbie survived losing him once. This time, the staying is up to him.