Page 26 of Honeycombs & Homecomings

Jo laughed out loud this time, Jessie joining in, and nodded in agreement. “I know, I’m ripe, aren’t I?”

Caroline turned. “Now go, take care of yourself. We got this.”

Jo glanced at the three women, so grateful that she had such amazing cousins, and loyal employee in Kathy.

“Go, go!” Caroline grabbed Jo’s shoulders and shewed her out of the tent. “Go.”

So, she went, sprinting back through the crowds to her store, a newfound determination rising within her. She was getting these investors no matter what it took.

Chapter 9

Several sacks of groceries hanging from both hands, Cash made his way to the back door ofSticky and Sweet. He could duck in real fast, sneak upstairs and stock the fridge. He’d be out of there before Jo knew what happened. The back door was unlocked, which kind of made him want to find her and rattle her senseless, but he pushed that desire aside. It had allowed him to sneak inside, and that was all he wanted.

At the top of the stairs, he froze in place just around the bend that would bring him into the apartment as several voices drifted down to him from the loft. He leaned against the wall, despite the fact the bags were pinching his fingers.

“Oh, so you live up here?” A woman’s voice, haughty and deep, reached him.

Jo’s spoke clear and even, her smooth timbre finding him without erring. He’d recognize her voice in a thunderstorm. “It’s a temporary situation,” she said. “With the festival in town, we decided it would be better to focus our attention on it instead of finding a new place to live. And since we had this cozy little apartment up here, we figured we could hunker in for a month before looking for other living arrangements. The festival is a busy time of year for us.”

This time a man spoke. “That line out the door was very impressive.”

“Thank you,” Jo said, a confidence in her tone that he’d heard from her many times before, a tone that her sister, no matter how fun and vivacious, lacked. “We’ll head over to the festival after dinner and you’ll see the line is just as long there. Our honey has gained quite the reputation for tourists.”

“Do you depend heavily on the festival for your income?” the man asked, and Cash had the urge to punch the guy in the nose. It wasn’t so much that he minded the question. Cash ran a business and understood the kinds of questions investors asked and why they asked them. They weren’t always easy, but there was something in the way this man had asked it that irked him.

“We do very well all year round,” Jo said. “The festival provides a comfortable boost, but I see it more as a buffer than anything.”

“Excellent, excellent.” The woman said. “Now, where’s that delectable fiancé of yours?”

A cold, unforgiving chill shot through Cash. Jo was engaged? She hadn’t said anything. She hadn’t even been wearing a ring.

“Tony?” Jo said.

Tony? Wasn’t that Allie’s fiancé? What was going on here?

Jo stuttered. “He-he’s . . . He had an emergency out of town—”

“What kind of emergency?” the man asked.

“Just a family thing—”

The woman cut Jo off this time. “Now, Allie . . .”

Allie? What on earth? He glanced around the corner, staying out of sight.

The woman, tall, slender in an expensive navy-blue pantsuit, with cropped brown hair, wrapped her arm around Jo’s shoulder. “I thought we talked about this on the phone. If Tony’s not here, then there’s nothing to discuss.”

Cash stepped back as he realized what was going on. Jo was pretending to be Allie so these investors would work with her. And with Allie and Tony running away for the weekend, and with these investors so adamant they work with Tony, the gig was up unless . . . .

A smile crept over Cash’s face as the solution hit him straight on.

Adjusting the groceries, he stepped out of the stairwell and into full view of the group. “Hey, babe. Want to help me with these groceries?”

“Cash?” Jo said, whipping around to face him.

He rolled his eyes. She’d never been the deceitful type. “Yeah, I paid in cash.”

“You’re Tony?” The woman’s eyes went wide?

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