Page 26 of Meet Me at the Fudge Shop

“So you’re working at the diner? Are you cooking?” Declan asked.

“Bussing tables.” Isaac tore open a cellophane package and pulled out a brown sugar Pop-Tart. “I’m not the family savior, you are.”

He frowned. “I?—”

Isaac held up a hand. “Listen, bro. Not everyone wants to go to school and change the world.”

“You like living at home, spending all your days playing video games?”

“Yep.” He glanced at the toaster, his mouth tight.

Declan shook his head. Turned on the grinder.

The Pop-Tart finished cooking, and Isaac grabbed it out as Declan filled the coffee maker.

Isaac headed for the door, but stopped and turned. “Just watch your back. That Hart girl’s gonna get her claws into you again, then she’s going to smoke you. And poor Grandma’s gonna suffer for it.”

“Thanks for all the support, bro.”

“Just here to keep you humble.” His brother lifted his Pop-Tart in a salute. “But don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

Declan didn’t need a warning. He needed a plan. A plan not to let Lily Hart derail his life again.

ChapterFive

The reopening of Hart Family Fudge would be an epic comeback—because epic was Lily’s style. Go big. Be innovative. Create unexpected surprises to enhance the customer experience.

Win this thing.

She inhaled the morning air, letting the sunlight—and her friends’ encouraging words from their conversation last night—infuse her with hope as she rode her old pink Schwinn cruiser down Lake Shore Drive. Her parents lived in the upscale Driftwood Hills neighborhood on the west side of the island, so while she could have walked the mile and a half to the fudge shop—herfudge shop, whatever the Kelleys said—the bike allowed her quicker access. Hopefully, she’d beat Declan there.

And given his lack of a key, if she just so happened to get busy in the back storeroom, unable to hear him knocking on the front door, well.

That would just be sounfortunate.

Lily couldn’t help but grin as she rounded the island’s southwestern curve and came upon the Grand Hotel, in full renovation mode with its specially permitted cranes and construction vehicles beeping through the early morning haze. She waved to Liam Stone, Dani’s boyfriend, who was talking on a phone in a yellow hard hat near the side of the road.

Dressed in jeans and a T-shirt, the handsome California businessman looked like he’d relaxed a lot since arriving. She’d met him last night when he’d swooped in and stolen Dani away mid-walk, unable to keep himself away from her for a second longer despite their canceled date.

Lily was happy for her friend, but there had been something of a pinch in her chest. Because the only guy who had ever really looked atherlike that had ended up tearing her world apart.

And now he was trying to do it again.

Lily’s grip tightened on the handlebars as the asphalt of Lake Shore Drive turned into the cobblestones of Main Street, where there were more pedestrians and other bicyclists. As she bumped along, Lily smiled and nodded at forty-something Allean Meyer, who was on the public library’s steps flipping the sign from Closed to Open. Just beyond that, Martha’s on Main was crawling with customers, the line out the door.

It was good to see the town returning to life in a way it hadn’t for a decade—even if it did benefit the Kelleys too. Lily missed the clomp of hooves from the dray wagons hauling goods or the carriages toting tourists. Hopefully, someday, they’d return too.

She’d have much preferred their presence to Declan’s.

Unfortunately,thatshe couldn’t escape. Because there he stood across from Martha’s, leaning against the wall of the fudge shop. Waiting with those stupid aviator sunglasses, sunlight turning the highlights of his hair copper.

Every girl’s dream come true.

Well. Every girl but her.

For a brief moment, she considered passing him and heading for the back alley door that led into the kitchen. But knowing Declan, he’d anticipate what she was up to and follow her.

There was nothing for it. Guess she had to let him in.

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