Chapter 51
Chapter Fifty-One
THEO
“Still no response?” Rupert asks as our Uber pulls into Cape Meril.
I shake my head as I stare down at my screen, hoping that her silence doesn’t mean she’s distancing herself from me, although it’s hard for my head to not go there.
“Nothing.” I let out a deep sigh, the lack of sleep already eating away at me. “Fuck, what if—”
“Don’t.” Rupert shakes his head. “Do not start with the ‘what ifs’; they will do nothing for you other than wear you down.”
I nod because he’s right. They do nothing to help.
We pull onto our street, our house still ours since we rented it for the whole summer, and our Uber driver drops us off.
We pull our large pieces of luggage, more than when we first arrived, up to the porch.
Elizabeth and Hannah promised they would empty out the cottage for me and pack up my things before Father could destroy them.
I took what I could, my clothes and what mattered the most to me, with the hope that I can figure out a way to stay here… for good.
“Theo?” I hear a voice say as I’m about to open the door. I turn to find Tilly on the lawn, headphones around her neck, looking fresh from a run. “You’re back.”
“Hey, yeah, just got here.” I move down the porch. “How’s it going?”
She glances toward Renley’s house and asks, “Does she know you’re here?”
“Not really. I tried texting her but she hasn’t responded. Please tell me she hasn’t completely forgotten me and moved on already.”
“I think we should go inside.” She nods toward my house, her answer not calming the fear that has been eating away at my stomach the entire trip here.
I open the door and let her in before Rupert and I drag our luggage in as well. When I close the door, I turn to her and ask, “What’s going on?”
“Yesterday Renley and I were cleaning out the apartment that’s above the shop because she feels she needs separation from Kitty, and when we were there, Marjorie stopped by.”
“Is she the bitch with all the watermelons and champagne who was mean to Renley?”
“That’s her. She told Renley that the business society made an executive decision and she now only has until next week to open the candy store, or else they’re going to confiscate the space and sell it to the chain store that has offered them a great deal of money for it. They’re going to sell.”
“What the actual fuck?” Outrage billows and swirls around me. “They can’t do that. They gave her the keys to the store.”
“They can. She signed a paper that was part of the contract that stated the business society could take over the store if she doesn’t fulfill their requirements. So giving her a week is basically setting her up for failure.”
I push my hand through my hair as my mind races. No wonder she hasn’t been messaging me back; she’s been completely and utterly devastated.
“Where is she now?”
“At my place. She’s been staying there ever since you guys left. She was fixing up the apartment above the shop to move into so she didn’t have to stay with me long, but I told her she could stay as long as she needed to.”
“Is she trying to open in a few days?”
Tilly shakes her head. “She’s given up. She’s not talking to Kitty right now, she really only has me, and she said she’s not going to put that kind of pressure on me to help. So she’s just lying in my guest bed…crying.”
Fuck. That…that makes me feel sick.
“What does she have to do to open?”
“Finish the bathroom, get her permit to open, and then obviously stock everything, but she won’t have all the stock in for a while. So it just seems, as she put it, impossible. I told her I was willing to try though.”
I scratch my cheek, trying to see a way around this.
“Where do you get a permit?”
“I actually know someone who could help us out with that. I think the bigger thing is setting up the shop, filling it with product, entering everything into the register, and marketing.” She shrugs. “It’s a huge undertaking and Renley is already tired and—”
“We can do it,” I say.
“What?” Tilly asks.
“We can do it. We can open this shop. The biggest roadblock in my opinion is the permit, but if you know someone, everything else we can do.”
“How?”
“Rupert, remember when we were in Boston, we were talking to that one bearded guy about how he had to go to some surplus place to get meat for his food truck?”
“Yes, Jared was his name.”
“Sure, but there have to be other stores where we can buy a surplus of product. There has to be a candy store, someplace where we can load up a truck and at least have something for people to buy until we get stock in. She has the scoops and the storage for the candy. She just needs the candy.”
Rupert pulls his phone from his pocket and does a quick search. His eyes light up before he turns the phone toward me. “There’s a wholesale candy store in Boston.”
“Really?” Tilly asks, looking at the phone as well. “Oh my God, there is.”
“I can go to the store and purchase all of the candy. I know what she wants because she’s talked to me about it so much.”
“I can call Lamar and have him take us,” Rupert says.
“Yes, call him.”
“On it.” Rupert steps to the side and I address Tilly. “I don’t want you saying anything to her, not yet, not until we get back. I need her to be able to see the potential first, because if we tell her now, I bet she will say no.”
Tilly nods. “You’re right about that. She’s in such a bad headspace that there’s no doubt in my mind that she’ll turn down the idea. So what should I do?”
“Get her to the shop when we’re ready. And get Kitty there too.”
Tilly’s face falls flat. “Do you think that’s a good idea? They’re not talking.”
“Trust me, it will work.”
“Lamar is on his way,” Rupert says. “Let’s get changed. He’ll be here in five.”
“Okay.”
I turn to leave, but Tilly grabs my arm. “Is this actually going to work, Theo? Because I don’t want to do this, get her hopes up, only for it to come crashing down. We need to make sure this will actually be feasible.”
“I will make sure it happens, even if I don’t get one ounce of sleep in the process. I refuse to let her give up on her dream. I refuse to let the bad people win. She’s worked too damn hard to just let it all go now. She might not think she has help, but she has help now.”
Tilly smirks. “That’s what I wanted to hear. Let me see your phone. I’ll put my number in it, and you can text me when you want her to show up at the store and I’ll make sure she’s there.”
“Thank you,” I say as I grab my luggage and start toward the stairs.
“She deserves you, Theo,” Tilly says as I take the first step. I glance over my shoulder and she smirks at me. “You’re a good man. I knew the minute you walked into her house, looking for your fiancée. And the way you pursued her, you are exactly what she needs, and I’m so glad you’re back.”
“Me too,” I say with a smile and then head up the stairs to my bedroom.
We have some candy to purchase.
“They should really give us the chance to taste test,” Rupert says as he examines a package of Bottle Caps. “How do we know this is what we should sell?”
“Because it’s what Rudder’s used to sell. Look.” I show him a picture on my phone of Rudder’s and all the candy that used to be in the store. “Renley said she wanted to serve all the same things.” I take the box from him and put it in our second trolley since the first one we have is already full.
On the drive over, we caught Lamar up on everything that’s been going on, and he offered up his help, along with that of a friend. They decided that after getting the candy, they would tackle the upstairs so she either has a place to stay or could rent it out for more income. Up to her.
I told Lamar I owed him big-time and he just shook his head and said that’s what friends are for.
Fucking Lamar. Such a good man.
Once we caught him up, I made a list in my notes app of everything we needed from things I remember Renley saying, like that she wanted a jelly bean wall.
Looking at old pictures of Rudder’s online, I make sure to grab as much as I can.
Lamar has been a huge help because there was some candy we didn’t recognize and he’s been able to help us figure it out.
“Got the Tootsie Pops,” Lamar says as he strides up to us with three boxes.
“Splendid. Put it in there.” I review the list and say, “We need some jawbreakers, candy buttons, and we have to go down the gummy aisle one more time because I don’t think we have enough.”
“Agreed. You need a decent amount of sour and regular,” Lamar says just as his phone rings. “Excuse me.”
He steps off to the side, answering his phone while we go back down the gummy aisle.
“I really don’t want to forget anything.”
“If we do, we can come back, it’s not that big of a deal.”
“I know, but wasting time driving is not ideal. I would rather grab everything we need now.” I put a few differently shaped gummies in the huge trolleys we have and keep moving. I pick up a barrel-size canister of chocolate-covered raisins and ask, “What about these?”
“Absolutely, and the peanuts and pretzels as well. Those are classic candy store items.”
“Okay.” We grab a few of the barrels, losing sight of what room we have left just as Lamar comes back.
“That was my buddy at the news station. I told him about Rudder’s, and Renley’s story, and they love it. They want to do a piece on it for Wake Up Boston, the morning show.”
“Seriously?” I ask, feeling my eyes nearly bug out of my head.
Lamar nods. “Yup. So we better hurry up, because the shop needs to be done in three days before they come out.”
I grip Lamar by the shoulders, pull him in, and kiss his cheek. “You are amazing.”
He blinks a few times and then wipes at his face. “Shit, dude, save the affection for Renley.”