Chapter 4
Chapter Four
“A contest?” As a slight wind blew off Lake Huron, Mia scooped up a handful of her brown curls and pulled them back into a messy ponytail. “What kind of contest?”
They walked along the boardwalk, the sky clear, blue, summer in the breeze.
“Yes, I’m intrigued too.” Dani Sullivan, Mia’s cousin, sipped her hot chocolate in a to-go cup.
“What’s the big SOS you called tonight? I had to cancel a date with Liam.
” But she winked, a teasing glint in her blue eyes.
She’d lived on the island longer than either of them, since birth, and she’d never left.
Someone whizzed by on a bicycle, their bell dinging. Jack, the town terrier, trotted along beside them, tongue lolling. More crowded than usual tonight, half the town seemed to be out enjoying the beautiful summer weather. She’d forgotten how the sun wouldn’t set until later.
“I’m just glad Cody was able to watch my kids.” Mia was a bit younger than both of their twenty-eight years, and despite the fact her family had founded the island over two hundred years ago, she hadn’t moved here until she was in grade school.
“Seems like he’s bonding well with them,” Dani said. Then she grabbed Mia’s left hand and sighed. “Feels like there should be a little hardware here soon.”
Mia laughed and pulled her hand away.
Sweet. At least her friends had their lives figured out, and not completely derailed. “I called in the SOS to help me sort out this mess.”
“The Declan Kelley mess? Oh, honey, that’s way above our pay grade,” Dani said.
“No—I didn’t mean that. Listen, Declan and the Kelleys are trying to push the Harts out of the fudge shop?—”
“Here we go again.” Dani sipped her coffee.
“Yeah, well, the Kelleys are starting it again. Apparently, they say our lease lapsed. And your dad is out of town, so he’s not here to sort it out.” She directed the statement to Mia. “And in the meantime, the council voted in their fudge shop to take the place of ours!”
“What do you want us to do?” Dani asked.
“I’m hoping you can exercise your power as tourism director and mastermind of this dollar-house scheme and get the council to rescind the approval.”
Dani made a face. “I am so sorry, Lily. Yes, I thought up the dollar-house plan, and got the Grand Hotel project going, but you know the council. They make their own decisions.”
Mia tucked her arm through Lily’s. “I’m just sorry I didn’t know about the lease situation before you packed up your life and moved back.
I wish there were something more I could do, but until Dad gets somewhere with service—and chooses to check in—I think it might be a sit-and-wait situation.
Even then, I don’t know if he has the power to undo it since he basically agreed to give the town council the right to select tenants for all unleased property on Main Street as part of the revitalization project. ”
“Well, Mom had already emailed him. Apparently, she knew about the lease issue, and when I told her I was coming home, she shot off a note. But he was probably boarding his cruise about then, so…” She sighed. “Let’s hope that counts for a renewal notice.”
“Maybe. The law is a bit gray,” Mia said. “I looked over the paperwork, and even with my realtor’s license, I’m having a hard time knowing what’s technically right.”
Lily pulled away from Mia’s grasp, stopping in the middle of the boardwalk, the pebbled public beach behind her.
“But you don’t think it’s right that they get the shop, do you?
It’s been in my family for decades.” She looked past Mia to Dani.
“This isn’t okay. They can’t just steal my shop from me. ”
Dani squatted to pet Jack. “Maybe they have a reason.”
“Like wanting to own the entire town, not to mention win the Great Fudge Wars, finally.” She also bent to pet Jack, who rolled over to expose his belly.
“I mean, when they open Kelley’s Classic Fudge, they already owned five restaurants on the island.
Talk about greedy. And never mind that their fudge recipe tasted just a liiiitttle too much like ours. ”
Dani stood up. “Come on, Lily. You never believed that. You were always the one in high school talking about how stupid the feud was. I mean, you and Declan were even friends.”
Try more than friends.
Lily stepped off the boardwalk onto the beach, where a few families with young kids skipped rocks off the gently lapping lake. She crossed her arms over her chest and looked out across the expanse of sparkling blue. “That was before I knew better.”
Before she knew not to trust a Kelley.
And so what if he’d looked surprised to see her today. Yeah, that’s right, Slick . He might have shattered her heart and sent her running, but hello, she was back, heart intact and stronger this time.
Still pinched, just a little, that he’d sided with his family. Especially after knowing her plans for the shop. But she should have known he hadn’t changed, even after a decade and his fancy education. Rules versus renegade, that’s what her mom had always said about the two of them.
Oil and water and flames. Talk about reigniting the family feud.
Her friends joined her on the beach, Jack sitting at her feet. Sweet. She ran her hands over his ears.
“So, how was it?” Dani asked. “Seeing Declan again?”
Oh. Clearly they could still read her thoughts. “Perfect. I don’t know why he’s even here—he wore a suit. Who wears a suit on Jonathon Island?”
“Liam wore a suit when he got here—” Dani said.
Lily shot her a look. “Yeah, but Liam wasn’t from JI. You know what I mean. And he was wearing these stupid aviator sunglasses, and…”
“I thought he looked pretty good when I saw him in town,” Mia said.
Lily looked at her. “Seriously.”
“Aw, c’mon, Lily. Declan was never hard on the eyes. Dark hair, deep blue eyes, and it looked like he still works out. And once upon a time, you called him charming?—”
“Well, now he’s arrogant and sneaky.” She picked at the pebbles on the beach, found one and threw it into the water. “I can’t believe he suggested a contest.”
“Okay, what are the terms of this contest?” Dani said. “You make it sound like he stabbed you in the back. Unless it’s sheep herding, or a horse race, you can bake circles around Mr. Windy City?—”
“Slick.”
Dani laughed. “Right. Slick. Against Ms. Orlando cooking school graduate, and master chocolatier. I don’t see the issue.”
Lily winced at the mention of her supposed graduation. “He wants to share my shop.”
Mia raised an eyebrow. “Wait. Work in the same space?”
“Until the Main Street Festival. And whoever sells the most fudge during that time gets to keep the shop. Permanently.”
Mia and Dani eyed each other over Lily’s head. Smiled.
“Stop. I can see where you’re going with this. No way, no how are Declan and I going to be friends again. He’s the enemy.”
“Come on, Lily. It sounds like he’s trying to make the most of a difficult situation,” Mia said.
“Wouldn’t it be worse if Uncle Seb got back and decided that the council actually had the right to give the shop’s lease to the Kelleys? Then you’d have no shot at all.”
Lily sat up. “You really think that might happen?”
“You know the Kelleys. Especially Martha and Patrick. They’ll go to the mattresses for this shop.” Mia tugged her sweater close against the breeze off the lake. “I wouldn’t be surprised if they tried to get my dad to recuse himself.”
“Why would he?—”
“Because his daughter is going to marry a Hart.” She winked. “Hopefully.”
Dani bumped her shoulder, and Mia grinned.
Lily stared at her. “You’re saying it’s a conflict of interest for Seb to side with us.”
Mia shrugged. “You know they’d try it.”
“That’s hardly fair, given the fact they’re on the council.”
“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.