Somewhere Near M.I.T., Harvard, And America's Bio-Tech Industry Is The Cardinal And The Jack

Nashville Tennessee 

Her father's love for blueberry scones got her baking.  

At six years old, her mother died in a car crash. Eve did not know what an impaired driver was or a centerline or what head-on meant, but she knew her Mom would not be coming back.

Jack, her father, was earnest and direct. He recognized early that Eve was more intelligent than most. They had some hard talks.

Jack Crowder knew she wouldn't like the news and would be hurt, but she would understand.

The cycle of life had already played out in the Crowder home when Mr. Buster, a cat, died in the road in front of the house—Eve moped for many weeks. She made a little circle of stones in the backyard where Mr. Buster remained underground.

The young girl brought food and a few favorite toys to the spot, and she spoke to the cat. A few times, she thought she saw him in the house in places where he liked to be. 

Losing her mother was harder. She mourned with emulation, honoring, and loving her mother by trying to be the person she loved. Jack was good about his girl's wishes to visit the grave for quiet time. Eve would tell her Mom about school, her father, how he still cried, and how she was learning to bake scones like her mother to make him happy. 

That's when it started.

She would stand on a chair in the large kitchen with her Mom's apron dangled to her feet and her black hair tied back. The flour was everywhere.

 She had helped her Mom bake many times before.

Eve's first solo efforts could be called "humorous but tasty."  She had her father read the complex parts of the recipe, and he stuck around whenever the oven had to be open. When Jack tasted the first batch, he cried.

"Daddy, why are you crying?" Eve asked. "Does it taste like Mom's?"

Jack looked at Eve and said, "Evie, do you recall when you were little, and you would have tea parties and bake pretend food for me?" 

"I'm thinking of that right now and how much fun we had pretending that clay food tasted good." "We always had a good laugh about it, Evie." "You are always my silly goose; we always had fun." "Do you remember that?"

"I do, Daddy. I do, but are the scones good?"

"Well, this is real... not pretend, and these are delicious." "Can I have another?"

Cambridge, Massachusetts Many Years Later

A thriving bakery and coffee shop is pure motion. A waitress fills coffee cups at Eve's shop and constantly moves among the two top tables. The oven doors open and close. The baked goods are hand-placed in cases where the buyer can pick them out. 

The music is not overbearing or loud because the look and feel of the place fosters conversation. The shop is in a little corner of Cambridge, close enough to Harvard, The Massachusetts Institute Of Technology, and many laboratories that kick-started Bio Tech Ventures.  

You have to know where the Cardinal And The Jack blended into the city to get to it, but everyone found it. The bike racks outside the shop are always full.

You are overtaken by the place's sounds, smells, and vibe when you enter the shop.

This is the way Evelyn Crowder planned it. 

When Eve left the financial industry after many successful years, she combined her stack with her boyfriends. They bought the building, renovated it, and lived in the little apartment above the shop while they built the business and a life together.  

One day, Jason came home and told Eve that he felt trapped by the bakery, by her, and that he had met someone else and wanted to leave. A few weeks later, with the help of her grandfather, Eve bought Jason out, and he high-tailed it for California. She held some anger, but her new man was better, emotionally stronger, and funnier, and he liked Mexican food.

Eve was thinking about her whole journey: her mother, father, grandfather, and Jason, when her new man, Thomas Allston, came through the door smiling.

He put one arm around her waist, kissed her, and said, "Will you join me on a little hike this weekend?"

"Will I get to shoot someone again?" she asked.

"Maybe"