Free The Cottage on the Corner by Shirlee McCoy Page B

process.
    Charlotte glanced out the window.
    The swing set stood at the back edge of the fenced yard. Old and neglected, left for decades untouched by children or adults, it had two rusty metal swings and a plastic baby swing that must have been a later addition. Mary had willed the house to Charlotte. It had been a surprise. A nice one. Charlotte had heard stories about Mary’s childhood home. She’d heard all about the summers that Mary had spent playing in the backyard and planting flower gardens in the shade of the old apple tree. Mary had moved to Billings with her husband, but had kept the family home as a rental property. Other children had used the swings in the years since Mary had lived there. The red paint had faded to dingy brown, but Zuzu didn’t seem to mind. Zim had her wrapped in the coat, her little shoeless feet hanging out of the holes in the swing. Her cheeks were pink, her hair bouncing as Zim gently pushed the swing.
    She was a cute kid. That was for sure.
    She was also a loud kid.
    Charlotte’s head ached from a sleepless night and hours of toddler chatter. Throw Zim chatter in and she’d had just about all she could take for the day. What she wanted to do was nap, but she had to bake the cookies and make the delivery on time. Her reputation depended on it. In a town like Apple Valley, that was everything to small businesses.
    Right now she was doing well, making money, shoving it all in savings. She almost had enough for a full year’s rent on the storefront she’d been eyeing. Right on Main Street, close to Riley Park, it had been a soda shop in the fifties, a five-and-dime in the seventies, and a coffee shop in recent years. The current owner planned to retire to Florida as soon as he found someone to rent the property.
    Charlotte wanted to be that person in a bad way. She wanted it so much that she’d almost signed the contract a month ago. If she’d had enough money for the first year’s rent, she would have, but she’d learned the value of being prepared after Brett’s death. Everything she’d thought was hers hadn’t been, and if she hadn’t had a good job, she’d have been forced to live in her car until she’d found one.
    Brett had been a bastard, but his kids had deserved better than a long drawn-out court battle over the property he’d left to them and their mother.
    His other wife.
    Thinking about it still made her blood run cold.
    Charlotte had relinquished the house, the property, the money that Brett had been hiding away in a secret account. She’d also given up the pots and pans and linens and everything else that they’d received as wedding gifts.
    She’d left all of it behind.
    She wished she could have left the memories behind too. Most days, she didn’t think about all the years she’d wasted with Brett, but seeing Zuzu . . .
    Yeah. That was hard.
    She’d wanted children more than she’d wanted anything.
    Maybe after she got a little more settled, got her life a little more together, she’d adopt.
    At the rate she was going, she’d be ninety by then.
    She sighed and took the cookies from the oven. Golden brown and studded with dark chocolate, they were perfect.
    She might not have had the marriage she’d thought, she might not be living the life she’d dreamed of, but she could make a perfect cookie.
    That had to count for something.

Chapter Five
    They walked out of the house with five minutes to spare. A miracle, considering how far behind Charlotte had been.
    â€œYou put Zuzu in her car seat, and I’ll put these in the back. If we hurry, we’ll be there in plenty of time to set up the table before the PTA meeting.” She slid two trays of cookies into the station wagon.
    â€œWe have to set up a table?” Zim grumbled as he put Zuzu in her car seat. “I thought we were just bringing the cookies.”
    â€œIt will only take a minute. If you can