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    The Pike: New Beginnings
    The Pike: New Beginnings
    The Pike: New Beginnings
    Ebook173 pages2 hours

    The Pike: New Beginnings

    By Erik Schubach

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    About this ebook

    Eve, along with her sister Zoey, has an uncanny knack for helping people who frequent the Pike bakery at Pike Place Market in Seattle to find love. Her meddling is a thing of legends when it comes to matchmaking. But for Eve, it is a spectator sport as she has never really pursued a romantic relationship of her own.

    Love was for other people, and she basked in the results of watching people find their happily ever afters. Imagine her surprise when serendipity came knocking and she found herself falling head over heels.

    Her family has been dying of curiosity for months to find out who has Eve sneaking off to talk to in the middle of movies, or has her turning down events because she "has a date." Her secret has them all frantically trying to discover who has stolen the red headed dynamo's heart.

    Eve promises everyone that her certain someone will be attending their annual family Thanksgiving celebration... but first, she has to pick up a family friend from London at the airport.

    (The Pike series is set in the same world as Music of the Soul and London Harmony, and can be read as a standalone book.)

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherErik Schubach
    Release dateJan 16, 2019
    ISBN9781370556281
    The Pike: New Beginnings
    Author

    Erik Schubach

    I got my start writing romance novels by accident. I have always been drawn to strong female characters in books, like Honor Harrington. And I also believe that there is a lack of LGBT characters in media. So one day I came up with a story idea that combines the two... two days later I completed the manuscript for Music of the Soul.My writing style may not be the most professional nor grammatically correct, but I never profess to be an English major, just a person that wants to share a story. I maintain that my primary language is sarcasm.Each of my books features strong likeable female characters that are flawed. I think that flaws and emotional or physical scars make us human and give us more character than simply conforming to some "social norm".I have also started a SciFi series, The Valkyrie Chronicles which features a Valkyrie, Kara, who was left behind on Earth five thousand years ago to help the Asgard race escape the onslaught of the Ragnarok horde. With the aid of a human, Kate, she holds the line in battle to herald the return of the Asgard!If you like magic, paranormal romance and witches, then my new series Fracture might tickle your fancy. In the first book Fracture: Divergence, Alex King must stop magic from destroying reality. The problem is that Alex must solve the case in parallel universes where in one Alex is male and female in the other.There is even a modern shapeshifter paranormal series, Drakon. Featuring a fiery Irish woman with a sharp wit and sharper temper who finds out she is a dragon of legend.

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      Book preview

      The Pike - Erik Schubach

      Chapter 1 – Taxi Service

      Maxine and Teddy, my niece, and nephew extraordinaire were busy in the back room of our bakery, The Pike, here at Pike Place Market in Seattle, arguing about which movie we should see this weekend. I already knew it would be Heartsong Warriors Seven: Out of Tune. I mean, who could resist those snarky movies our friend, Kylee, produced under her Babette Stevenson persona?

      The drama queen inside my head placed the back of her hand to her forehead as I imagined her saying in a southern accent, I mean, who can resist space vampires who are defeated by music and love, sugar? Why she had a southern accent, I have no clue, since I've never been to the south. Unless Portland, Oregon counts since it's fourteen minutes south of Vancouver, Washington where I grew up.

      Zoey glanced at me from where she was placing warm croissants fresh from the ovens into the front case. What are you smirking about now, Evie?

      I duck-lipped at her and said, Nothing, Zo. Just snickering about the useless debate in the kitchen.

      She rolled her eyes and smiled, pointing out, They just like to argue, it's a teen thing. It'll be Heartsong. I nodded my agreement. She pleaded, And this time, please try to return them to me a little less hyper? You don't have to live with the twins anymore as they wind down.

      I gave a silly salute as I glanced at the old clock on the wall which always reminded me of a schoolroom clock with it's black and white face. Well I can't promise anything, I am, after all, the bad aunt, not to mention their favorite aunt.

      You're their only aunt.

      I stuck out my tongue, which she ignored, then my taller redheaded sibling prompted me, And don't forget, you promised Mandy and Ana that you'd pick up that Paya Doshi woman at the airport for them this morning. Her flight from London...

      I interrupted, sighing in exasperation over the fact that she still treated me like her little sister at times. Well, ok, I was her little sister, but... shut up. ... arrives at eight fifteen. You don't have to remind me every ten minutes, Raggedy Ann.

      She snapped my butt with the bar towel she had used to hold the cooling baking sheet, as she passed back into the kitchen, ignoring the old insult we threw back and forth at each other. But it was rather apt as we both sported our signature red locks. Though hers were darker and richer than mine... more like mom's. I always got the hand me downs. I giggled at my line of thought.

      I heard her wondering in the back room, I don't know why she didn't just fly into PDX instead of SeaTac.

      Well duh, if she had flown into Portland International, then I wouldn't have been drafted into picking her up to deliver to my aunts. Maybe I would take the time to drop back by the Pike on the way down to Harmony Trax in Vancouver since Zoey and the kids haven't ever met Paya before. Though they'll get a pretty solid dose of her at Thanksgiving since Aunt Ana and mom invited her to stay for the holiday since she had a meet and greet today and finalization meetings on Friday or Monday depending on the complexity of the agreements.

      I have to admit, I got a good chuckle out of being the one asked to pick the surly Indian-Brit up when she arrived.

      Since my cousin, June, was flying home for the holidays with her wife and their child Emily, Paya was going to be discussing the new Holiday charity album that London Harmony and Harmony Trax were collaborating on. It would feature music from the artists from both labels, and half the proceeds would be going to the Flotilla Project for the homeless people of London, and the rest going to the Callahan Foundation here in Seattle for the homeless shelters and hospitalized children.

      It was a convenient excuse for Paya to travel here, when it was supposed to be her first vacation since, well, ever. Being the manager of the Flotilla Project charities that was the brainchild of none other than pop superstar Tabby Cat, kept Paya high-strung and working herself to the bone seven days a week.

      I have to say, Paya certainly is something to behold. She dresses as poshly as June, and she has the superpower all of us short people have, she's cute as hell even being thirty-ish. It is easy to see why June, Mandy, and Ana are so enamored with her.

      The first time I met her in London when I had tagged along when Mandy flew out to discuss more collaborations between London Harmony and Harmony Trax, I found that there are actually people in this world who can match me snark for snark when she showed up at the meeting to spirit June away for lunch.

      I glanced at the clock again. It was time to open up for the early birds who were heading to work. Since we were in the Post Street alley buildings, we opened before the Opening Bell of the market proper. We made sure to caffeinate and feed the people rushing off into the twilight of morning to their various jobs.

      The Twins were out of school for five days for Thanksgiving. Oh dear lord, were they really seniors in high school now? How the flipping bunny-farts in space had that happened? I was getting old.

      They were helping us out since the bakery just keeps getting busier the more press it gets with all the famous people who frequent it. It had already been busy back when Mrs. Z had owned it... before her death. But recent events have made it transform from the best-kept secret of the locals for culinary delights, to highly publicized public knowledge.

      We've even had to hire a couple people to help out with the crowds we get after Opening Bell. Though we just gave them three days off for the holiday, so the twins were a godsend.

      I called out as I wiped my hands on my towel at my hip, Releasing the Kraken!

      I heard the squeaks of distress as I headed to the doors. Max slid out putting an apron on and stepping behind the register, giving me a thumbs up. I said with a silly manic look, Here they come Maximum Headroom!

      I unlocked the doors and stepped back as our regulars started flowing in. I greeted them as I moved back behind the counter to prepare orders. Most were just coffee consumers, needing to wake up for the day, and they, of course, supplemented their liquid caffeine with croissants, scones, muffins, bagels and the like.

      Some liked to sit at the small wrought iron lawn tables which adorned the shop to have a more substantial start to the day like a breakfast bread bowl while they read the morning news.

      A few minutes later, as Teddy was bussing a table, he looked up at the wall clock and called out, Six twenty!

      I was behind the till at the time, and I looked over to Maxine, who was bringing out some fresh scones for Randall, a janitor at one of the nearby high rises. She nodded as she handed him his order, then slid up in front of me. Got it covered, Auntie Eve. When had she gotten so tall? She was easily as tall as Zoey now and had that gorgeous darker burgundy colored hair like her mom.

      I winked at her as I prepared a tray for one of our favorite regulars, Thanks, Maximus Rex.

      I stood looking at the clock as the second hand ticked up to six twenty-three. Then I went into motion as the door opened, and a woman with thick black glasses and equally as thick black hair stepped in and made her way meekly to an empty table, almost scurrying like a little church mouse.

      I arrived just as she sat, and she looked up at me with that same shy smile that was filled with the innocence and wonderment of a person who saw the world just a little differently than the rest of us. Those big brown eyes burning with so much intelligence that you just knew that in all of your life, the knowledge that you accumulated would amount to nothing when compared with her.

      I smiled at her as I placed the tray down in front of her while I said, Hi Liya! I hope you are having a good morning. Then added as I nudged my chin toward the tray, One coffee, black, with one cube of sugar, one onion bagel with butter, not margarine, and apricot jam, not strawberry. Four dollars and fifteen cents.

      I know, it should be six dollars and four cents... but... this is Liya, and you just can't bring yourself to change anything in her well structured and scheduled life, or it would throw her into a spiral of chaos that would leave her in a panic.

      She smiled as she handed me exact change and her labeled thermal mug which was one of the ones we gave to our regulars. It is indeed a pleasant morning, Eve. The temperature outdoors, while brisk, is not so much so that it cannot be offset by the exertion of walking, which generates the energy to keep your core temperature up.

      I grinned at the Filipino-American. What must it be like inside her head, where she is always thinking on a level that held her complete attention, the real world around her incomprehensible because of its chaotic nature and lack of structure. She was the woman whose research team had developed the first stable quantum computer, right here in Seattle. You sweet talker. Look at you, engaging me in conversations about the weather.

      She smiled at that and nodded while she explained, Allison has informed me that I needed to engage in the exercise of 'small-talk' to alleviate the strange looks and uncomfortable silences I get from the people around me.

      God, she was adorable. Small talk? Is that a crack about my height? I grinned as I watched her process what I had said.

      You could actually see her working through it. First was alarm, thinking I was serious. Then her brow furrowing slightly as she put it into some sort of mathematical emotional construct since she didn't understand emotion like we did. Then understanding filled her eyes.

      She giggled and explained as if I hadn't been the one to say it, That was humorous. Because you applied a deliberate misinterpretation of the descriptor small, to that of your stature. As I too am below the average height, I can co-opt this joke when I see my Allie tonight.

      I winked at her and bumped her shoulder with my hip. You do that. I'm sure she'll appreciate your sneaky sense of humor. Then I added before she could ask, I'll have your to-go coffee ready for you precisely at six fifty-one.

      She smiled again, and asserted, You are indeed the most efficient friend that I have, Eve.

      I shook my head as I walked, teasing, There you go again, sweet talking me. Let her process that one for a bit.

      Her relationship was one of Zoey and my more successful attempts at meddling. And by that, I mean matchmaking, of course. We set her and Sparky up, and it was a fire that the ex fire-fighter was happy to not extinguish. The smile she had around the short brainy one was an added benefit of seeing Allison finally happy after the accident which had made her physically incapable of fighting fires anymore.

      They... completed each other. A match made in heaven, thank you very much. I won't let Zoe take the credit for it since she stole my thunder.

      When Ligaya came up to the counter, Max stole the thermal mug of coffee from me to scoot around the counter, to hug Liya and hand her her coffee. The dark haired woman blushed profusely and prompted, Objects in motion...

      Max finished, ... stay in motion.

      Unless...

      ... acted upon by an external force.

      Liya nodded with enthusiasm and pride as Maxine said, Bye Liya. Thanks for the help in physics, I'm sure I'll ace the final.

      The woman beamed at her and said, You have been a most enjoyable student. Have a pleasant day, Maxine, Eve.

      I waved as she turned and scurried to the door like a mouse again, grasping her thermal mug to her chest along with the scientific papers she was working on. I fist bumped my niece as she said, She is soooo cool!

      Yes, she is. And now, I must be off if I'm going to beat rush hour to get to the airport early, Maximus Prime.

      She nodded and said, We'll see you at home tomorrow. By home, she meant Vancouver. I had recently moved out of Zoey's house into a little loft of my own. I had originally come up from Vancouver to help out Zo for a short time, while she got her legs under her after she became a fifty-one percent owner of the Pike. As the years went on, it seems temporarily living in her guest room had become something more than just temporary.

      Over the years I have done the bookkeeping for the Pike as well as for our family diner back home. That morphed into sourcing and ordering all of our supplies. And I don't know when it happened, but a couple years back, Zo started introducing me to people as the Pike's office manager, and all around pain in the sisterly butt. To be fair, I've been a pain in her butt for decades, so it was apt.

      So one day I realized that I was running warp speed toward thirty, and I had still never been on my own before without family support. So last year I decided that maybe Eve v2.0 needed to grow up... just a little, and I bought a loft near the Pike.

      I shook myself out of my musings, then winked at Max as I reached through the kitchen door to snag my coat from the pegs on the wall. Rodger dodger. Then more loudly, "I leave you all

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