Chapter 19
Jo left the diner an hour early because Candy practically pushed her out the door.
“Go,” Candy said, already untying Jo’s apron for her. “I’ve got this shift. You have a party to go to.”
Jo pedaled home along Orange Avenue with the afternoon sun warm on her back.
She’d spoken to her new personal banker, and her line of credit for working capital had been approved, so she’d immediately placed orders for coffee, merchandise, and shipping supplies for the crowdfunding campaign.
With that off her mind, she was looking forward to seeing Maileah and Sailor this evening and celebrating their elopement.
That was worth taking off work early for.
She left her bike against the porch rail and went straight inside to her laptop, still in her Cuppa Jo’s shirt, coffee grounds under her fingernails.
She’d promised herself one quick check of her slowly rising crowdfunding dashboard before she showered. Fortunately, the campaign had cleared the low bar, but she wasn’t sure it would reach what she needed.
The screen flickered to life. She logged in, slipping off her sneakers while she waited. Finally, her campaign dashboard appeared.
She inclined her head, momentarily confused.
The numbers didn’t make sense. She read it again, her finger hovering over the trackpad like it might change if she touched it.
The campaign was already funded, of course. But since she’d last checked this morning, the number of pledges and amount of funds had sailed straight past the stretch goal. Her real goal.
The mystery fourth level, the Imperial Cloud Forest coffee, was unlocked.
Jo pressed both hands over her mouth. “Oh, my gosh!” she shrieked. She didn’t know how it had happened, but it was real.
The realization that she’d be able to pay off her second mortgage and have Hugo’s tuition, in addition to repaying the bank loan once she received and shipped her inventory, released an enormous load from her shoulders.
She grabbed her phone to text Junie but tossed it back on the bed. Some news you simply couldn’t text.
She flung open the door and raced across the street in her socks.
Junie opened the door quickly, because Jo was pounding on it with the flat of her hand like the house was on fire. “What happened?”
“The campaign reached my magic number.” Jo grabbed both her hands. “And blew right past it. The Imperial Cloud Forest is unlocked.”
Junie screamed and flung her arms around Jo. They hugged and jumped on the doorstep like teenagers. Junie’s sprinkler kicked on, spraying them, which only made them laugh harder.
“That’s wonderful,” Junie said. “I knew you could do it.”
“We did it,” Jo said. “I couldn’t have done it without you.”
Junie shook her head. “You’ve done most of it. I just shared my suppliers with you.”
Jo knew it would have taken her a lot of time to find and vet good ones.
“I had to tell you first.” Jo was grinning so hard her cheeks hurt. “But I still need to get ready. I’ll tell Maileah and Rocky at the party.”
“Go, I’ll see you there,” Junie said, still laughing and wiping her eyes.
Jo ran back across the street to get ready.
Ella’s rose-colored cottage on Beach View Lane had a beautiful garden blooming with bougainvillea and lilies. A curved stone walkway led to the front door, which stood open. Jo stepped inside.
The living room was full, and the party had already spilled out the open doors and into the rear yard. She followed the sound of Adrian’s guitar.
“Welcome,” April said, meeting her in the entry. She was dressed in pink linen with her hair softly styled. “I’m so glad you’re here. Come this way.”
Maileah and Sailor stood in the living room talking to people, and Jo smiled at the sight of them. They wore white, wrinkled linen outfits and still wore the shell necklaces from the wedding photos that had been surreptitiously taken and released.
Maileah called out her name and swept her into a hug. “Junie just told me the good news.”
“Your news is better,” Jo said, squeezing her hands. “Tell me everything.”
“I think you know it all,” Maileah said, laughing. “We’d planned to elope on a beach in Tahiti, but we didn’t think it would make the sports channel.”
“Sailor has become kind of a big deal,” Jo said, playfully punching him in the arm.
He laughed and kissed her on the cheek. “The only one I care about is this woman,” Sailor said, putting his arm around Maileah’s waist.
“The sports channel,” Jo said, grinning. “I still can’t get over that part.”
“It was Sailor’s fault.” Maileah elbowed him.
“Another guy overheard him on the phone, arranging the time with the island minister who married us.” She spread her hand in the air.
“Champion surfer weds on the beach. Who knew it would be major news? At least they spelled my name right. I half expected May Raines, like a weather report.”
“It’s such a feel-good story,” Jo said. “I thought maybe you’d planted it.”
“I try to plan everything, but not that,” Maileah said. “We wanted a quiet, simple ceremony. No fuss, no seating chart, no argument about whether my father gets an invitation. Just us and the minister and his wife to take photos. And someone who snooped on us, evidently.”
“We’ll have another party for more friends in a couple months when I get a decent break,” Sailor said, catching Jo’s eye. “Tonight is just for family and our closest friends.” He kissed Maileah’s cheek.
“I like that you did it your way,” Jo said.
Someone called Sailor’s name from the yard, and he went, speaking to everyone he passed.
“I’m so happy for you,” Jo said, squeezing Maileah’s hands. “Go catch your husband. There are a lot of people who want to congratulate you two.”
“I’m glad you weren’t upset about us doing it all on our own. I thought Mom might be upset, but she’s okay.”
“She’s happy for you. You should have seen her crying with joy at the diner when we found out.”
“Thanks for telling me that,” Maileah said, hugging her again before she followed Sailor outside.
The back doors stood open to Ella’s garden. Small white lights were strung from trees even though the sun hadn’t begun to set. Citrus trees still had oranges on them, and roses bloomed along the back fence.
Someone had set out a folding table of lemonade and appetizers, which Jo picked at. She liked the cheese and cracker assortment.
Adrian sat near the edge of it all with his guitar, strumming a smooth, easy tune, and beaming at his son and Maileah. She made her way to him.
Adrian nodded to her. “Isn’t this something? I can hardly believe the kid eloped.”
“Are you okay with that?”
“Oh, sure.” Adrian looked at Maileah with admiration. “They’re good together.”
“Have you had anything to eat?”
He shook his head. “I’ve been sitting here playing for everyone and taking it all in. Things like this don’t happen every day.”
“I’ll bring you something.” Feeding people was natural to her.
Jo prepared a plate of appetizers and lemonade and took it to Adrian. She wove past Deb and a cluster of neighbors. After leaving it with Adrian, someone called her name.
Rocky was standing off to the side with a huge smile. He motioned her over, looking like he was bursting with news.
“There you are,” he said, and the grin that broke over his face made her laugh before he’d said a word. “I was hoping you’d get here early.”
“Candy kicked me out. What’s going on with you?”
“Well, first, Junie told me about you hitting your goal. That’s fantastic,” he added, giving her a high-five.
He was back to the old Rocky, without a hint of discomfort over their closeness at the beach that had almost tipped the scale on their friendship.
“You helped make it happen,” she said. “And what else is going on?”
Rocky nodded toward Ryan, who was standing with April. “Ryan called this morning. After I talked to Whitley and Knox, Ryan’s assistant called me in for an interview with him. I guess they liked me, because he offered me a job. I start next week.”
“That’s fabulous,” she said, giving him a quick hug. “That’s exactly what you wanted.”
“You introduced us and put in a good word for me.”
“What will you be doing?”
“He’s considering another property on the mainland. It’s a historic building, and it needs the same kind of work he did on the Majestic. He wants me to go look at it with Knox and get a first read on the scope. And if it goes forward, I’ll be working between Knox and Ryan on the business side.”
“That’s what you’re good at.”
Rocky ran a hand through his hair, still looking a little stunned. “Ryan wants me to be his eyes and ears in the field and find other properties, too. I won’t spend much time on the island anymore.”
“I’ll miss you, but I’m truly happy for you. A month ago you were drafting an email you were too nervous to send.”
“A month ago I was fixing your shake machine to kill time.” He laughed, almost in disbelief. “I keep waiting for someone to tell me it’s a mistake. Wrong, Rocky Bay. Try again.”
“It’s not a mistake. You earned this through your education and background. Are you leaving right away?”
“End of the month.” He looked at her and smiled like he had when they were alone. “I wanted you to hear it from me before Maileah turned it into an announcement with a hashtag.”
“I’m so proud of you.” She squeezed his arm. “You’re going to be so good at this.”
He covered her hand with his for a second, then let it go. The motion wasn’t uncomfortable, but it was meaningful to her.
Jo thought about their sushi dinner, the sake, and the way he’d listened to her talk about the diner like it was the most interesting thing he’d ever heard. Maileah had raised an eyebrow at her, more than once.
Jo had always shaken her head, denying there was anything between her and Rocky, but Maileah had sensed something. On Rocky’s part, for sure. Maybe a little on hers, too.
She smiled at him for what might have been. “I’m going to miss having you at the counter with your laptop open.”
Rocky’s mouth curved. “Whenever you’re ready to take another step, call me. I won’t be far. But I don’t think you will, at least not for a while. You’re still in love with Blue.”
Yet his words were edged with hope. Jo’s breath caught. She hadn’t expected that from him, not with that much kindness in his voice.
“I’ve let him go,” she said, her words steadier than she felt.
Rocky studied her for a moment, the way he focused on a spreadsheet when the numbers didn’t quite add up.
“Maybe,” he said. “I hope so, for your sake—and mine, too. But I’ve watched you look at the end of that street more than once, and I don’t think you’re finished yet. I won’t rush anything. We’re still friends, and if that’s all you ever want, that’s okay, too. I just like being around you.”
Jo didn’t know how to answer that, so she hugged him instead. He held on a little longer than a friend might, and so did she.
“Go be brilliant,” she said.
He laughed, breaking the tension. “Go sell a million bags of coffee.”
She walked away to rejoin the party. When she looked back, he was gone. She went on.
The sun was sliding toward the horizon, and everyone was having a good time.
Adrian’s guitar filled the air. Knox was spinning Penny in circles, while Junie laughed and told them a cake was coming.
Whitley stood near Ella at the edge of the patio, her hand tucked into the crook of his arm.
Ryan was with April by the drinks table, making her laugh at something Jo couldn’t hear.
Jo watched all the people she loved enjoying themselves in the golden waning light of Ella’s garden. She was so happy to have all of this in life.
She recalled her grandmother’s advice. Jo had a diner with her name on it, and a coffee brand that was going to happen. She had friends who screamed with her on doorsteps and others who fixed her shake machine on a Friday night. And none of them ever asked her to be smaller than she was.
Yet, standing in the middle of all that good fortune, the one thing that was missing bubbled up before she could stop the thought.
Him. The feeling of him was so real that she scanned the yard for a tall, broad-shouldered man in off-duty jeans, his hands in his pockets, waiting for her to notice him.
He wasn’t there. Probably not ever again. She blinked hard and turned away.
Quickly, she picked up a cup of lemonade and drank it down. She pressed the cold, empty cup to her heated face.
She told herself that she accepted this reality. That she’d made her peace with Blue, packed up what they’d once had, and moved on. Just as she would advise a good friend.
The logical side of her mind believed it. Yet her silly old heart, stubborn as ever, was still on the dock, waving to him on the ferry.