Page 99 of Meet Me on Lilac Lane

Lily stopped at the exasperation in Kayleigh’s tone. “Clearly you do.”

Kayleigh picked up the mold, started scrubbing. “You just always do this.”

“Do what?”

“Lose track of time, get your head stuck in the clouds, forget about what you’resupposedto be doing.”

Her words struck something deep inside Lily—and a memory surfaced from long ago. Another voice, much angrier, more masculine, saying similar things. She pushed the thought aside. No. She was different now.

But Kayleigh’s words still stabbed at her. And maybe she hadn’t changed that much because shoot, it ignited all her defenses.

“What I’msupposedto be doing here is becoming a better chocolatier. Learning from one of the greats. But how can we become great, how can we push ourselves to become better, if we aren’t allowed to experiment, to create? That’s the best part of this whole job.”

Kayleigh dropped the clean mold into the rinse sink, looked at her, suds on her arms. “The best part of this job is keeping it. We’ve got an amazing opportunity here.”

“I know that.”

“Especially after the pandemic.” Kayleigh dove again into the sudsy water, this time with the auger. “You’re lucky you had a connection with Mr. Sullivan. I waited two years, and called every week, hoping they’d take my apprentice application.”

No, she was lucky that her childhood friend Dani Sullivan had talked up Lily to her father, Daniel, who had grown up eating the Hart Family Fudge.

No, lucky might be her family’s shopnotdying after the pandemic.

Maybe she didn’t believe in luck, really. Just…reality. Tempered occasionally with a good dessert. Like Mr. Sullivan said, desserts brought people together.

She wanted to believe that with everything inside her.

“Listen, I’m grateful that Oscar hired me.”

“Are you?” More suds went flying as Kayleigh dropped the auger into the rinse sink. “Because you seem intent on throwing that opportunity away.”

Okay, ouch. “I just think this job should be, I don’t know, fun. Creative.” She scraped the remaining chocolate down the drain.

Kayleigh sighed. “I’m sorry, Lily. I shouldn’t have said that. You’ve clearly got a lot of talent. I just think you should be careful. Stay focused. I won’t always be here to clean up your messes.”

Lily’s head shot up. Never mind theclean up your messespart. “Are youleaving?”

Kayleigh grabbed a towel. Turned, her mouth tight.

Oh no.

Finally, “Oscar recommended me for a job as Assistant Master Chocolatier at a new hotel in Nashville.”

A beat. Then, somehow, “Wow. Congratulations,” emerged from her mouth. Nah, she could do better. Kayleigh was herfriend. “That sounds like an amazing opportunity. But I’ll miss you.”

Kayleigh lifted a shoulder. “They wanted someone with a degree. Otherwise, I’m sure Oscar would have recommended you, since you’ve been here longer than me.”

She didn’t bother to argue that an associate’s degree was a degree. But Lily knew what Kayleigh meant. They wanted a bachelor’s degree, and Kayleigh had graduated top of her class with a bachelor’s in Chocolates and Confectionery Arts Entrepreneurship from the Sunshine State Culinary Institute.

The same program Lily had failed out of five years ago. So yeah, there was that.

“Lily…” Kayleigh took a step toward her.

Lily held up her hand. “I’m fine. It’s fine. And great for you. Seriously. You deserve it.” She gave Kayleigh a quick hug. “And to celebrate—here.” She moved to her plate of chocolates, pulling one off and holding it out to Kayleigh’s hands. “You can be the first to try them.”

“You haven’t tried one yet?”

“Don’t need to. I did several small batches that weren’t right, but I just have a feeling about this batch.”

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