Page 56 of Sweet Surprises

She could just see Chance hopping up and down by his sister’s side on the rink side of the park. She smiled, glad they had been put on the same team.

She was excited to watch some of the action, but a pair of young women stopped to look at the sign out front, and then came in to check out the new flavors. And by the time they had ordered, there were two other groups behind them.

Charlotte had just enough time to glance out the windows now and then as she served customer after delighted customer. It turned out that including the cows in the decor and flavor names really seemed to make people happy and interested in the farm. And she couldn’t help noticing she wasn’t getting as many concerned flatlander questions as she had before the changes.

As the snowball fight raged on, more and more pink-cheeked participants who had been knocked out of the running wandered over, a group of them actually cheering when they heard about the two-for-one special.

By the time Tag and Olivia came in around eleven, all the tables were full, and she was almost out of ice cream.

“Where’s Chance?” she asked.

“He’s still in it,” Olivia told her excitedly. “And so am I, and so is Uncle Tripp. They just gave us a fifteen-minute break.”

“They’re not going to win,” Tag said, looking annoyed.

“You’re just annoyed because you were practically thefirst oneto get hit,” Olivia told her dad.

“Don’t smirk at me, young lady,” Tag said. “And I’m not that bad of a loser. Let’s just be glad Uncle Cash isn’t here, or we’d all be in for it.”

Charlotte didn’t know Tag’s brother, Cash, but she was guessing he was the competitive type. Although she also thought Tag was mostly just teasing, because he was wearing a big smile, and so was Olivia. The sight of the two of them like that made Charlotte’s heart feel all warm and melty.

“Well, I want a ton of ice cream,” Olivia said.

“We’re almost out,” Charlotte told her. “I’ve only got Dairy-Free Vanilla Earhart and Joan of Peppermint Bark.”

“Joan of Peppermint Bark, please,” Olivia said.

“We need to do one for Stephanie Meyer,” Tag said thoughtfully.

“I got to name that cow,” Olivia told Charlotte. “What would that flavor be, Dad?”

“I don’t know,” he said, shrugging. “New Moon Pie? Caking Dawn?”

Charlotte’s eyes flashed to Olivia, who looked as amazed as she felt.

“What?” Tag said, looking back and forth between them.

“Dad, that’s so awesome,” Olivia laughed, wrapping an arm around him and giving him a squeeze.

Tag looked so gratified that Charlotte wished she had her camera handy. But she would have to settle for recording his wondrous expression in her mind.

Another group from the snowball fight came in laughing, and she got back behind the counter just as Tag mentioned that they were heading to the country store to grab some bread.

Chance started jumping up and down with joy about it, but Charlotte was too busy to hear why he was so happy about something as simple as a loaf of bread.

By the time the snowball fight break was over, she was out of ice cream. She put a new message on the sandwich board out front, encouraging people to come back tomorrow.

She flipped the sign in the door toCLOSED,and hung around while the people sitting at tables finished up, wondering what a normal day would be like, and if there was any way to store more ice cream for busy days like today. Once the place was empty, she wiped everything down, cleaned the creemee machine, and locked up, hoping she could still catch the end of the big competition.

It was freezing cold outside, but the sunshine took the edge off as Charlotte crossed the street with a spring in her step. The park was still crowded, but it looked like most of the people there were just watching.

“Hey,” Tag said, smiling when she approached. “Tripp’s out now.”

“Don’t rub it in,” his brother said with a grin. “Hi, Charlotte. Are you actually out of ice cream?”

“Yes,” she said, still unable to believe it.

“I’d say I can help you restock, but honestly it’s probably better marketing if people see how popular it was,” Tripp said thoughtfully.

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