Page 24 of Meet Me at the Fudge Shop

“True,” Dani said. “So if all the involved parties recused themselves—Uncle Seb and the Kelleys—that would just leave Tara Chamberlain and Janine Dirks. And wasn’t Tara there when Declan mentioned the contest?” She took another sip of her cocoa. “What did she say about it?”

“She was all for the idea.” And that had hurt, given Tara’s knowledge of the past. “I know she was trying to be fair, but still.”

“Listen. You got this,” Mia said. “You can totally whip Declan at making fudge. I mean, did you ever see him in his family’s shop growing up?”

Hmmm. “Not really. He was more interested in school and helping his dad with the financial parts of the business. Probably why he got his MBA.”

She looked away from her friends. Yes, Lily was completely aware of exactly where Declan had been and what he’d been doing. You couldn’t live on a small island—even go home and visit that island—without hearing all the gossip about former and current residents.

And shoot, but she’d listened, her broken heart just a little too curious.

“Whereas you worked in that shop basically since you were born,” Dani said, reaching for her hand. “Plus, you’re no business slouch. I know they taught you how to run a business in that fancy culinary college.”

She sighed.

Silence, just the wash of water on the shoreline, a few kids shouting, rocks spilling as they ran up the beach.

“Right?” Dani said.

She looked at her friends. “I may have failed out of the last year of school. The part that focused on running a business.”

Dani raised an eyebrow.

Mia made a face, scrunching up her nose. “Oh boy.”

“I know.”

“Do your parents know that?” Mia said. “Does Cody?”

“No, and you can’t tell them. They think I can do this?—”

“You can, Lil,” Mia said. “You’re an amazing candy maker. Creative. Great instincts. And, you were in the fudge shop every day, working with your grandparents and then your mom. You know how to run a store—with or without a degree.”

Um…and even as she looked at Mia, her grandfather’s voice raked through her head.Get your head out of the clouds, girl. You won’t get anywhere in life if you can’t focus for more than a minute. There’s no room here for such impulsiveness.

But—well, he wasn’t here anymore, and maybe she’d changed. Not a renegade anymore, but a businesswoman. A fudge shop owner. She pushed out a tight breath. “I don’t know. But I do know one thing: I’m not letting the Kelleys run me out of town again.”

She got up, stared out across the blue, the sky pale and clear, the sun just starting to drop. “I’m going to win that stupid contest. And Declan Kelley isn’t going to know what hit him.”

* * *

“Just what exactly were you thinking giving Lily Hart the chance to own that fudge shop again?”

Declan sighed at his mom’s voice, coming from behind him. He stood at his parents’ living room window drinking his morning coffee—in peace, until now.

Fog twined through the trees in the front yard, despite the sun’s valiant attempts to cut through. The golden sphere was a blurred orb of light.

He turned from the window. “Good morning to you too, Mom. I figured you’d be at work already.” Had been counting on it, actually. After a full afternoon and evening spent scrubbing every inch of the fudge shop, he’d timed his arrival home perfectly—his parents in bed, and Isaac busy in his room with his computer, headset, and video game controller in hand.

“Trying to avoid me?” Mom pulled the coffee pot off the warmer where Declan had left it. She wore her standard uniform of soft linen pants and black shirt. “I heard you come in late last night.”

“Spent all day and late into the evening cleaning the shop.” And tried to tell himself that he hadn’t just set himself and his family up for disaster. Because the Harts knew their fudge.

And he wasn’t entirely sure that the rumor about his own family and the “stolen recipe” wasn’t true. At least, that’s what he’d thought years ago. Now, maybe it didn’t matter.

But cleaning had sort of helped him get Lily’s expression—and her fury—out of his head.

Oh, she was going to be trouble, he knew it in his bones.

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