When Iris lifts her brow at me, all I can do is shrug. “What? I did it when I was little.”
“Mom said you used to eat crayons too. Are you going to let her do that as well?”
First, I was, like, three. And I wanted to see if the colors tasted differently. They didn’t.
“I wanna eat crayons!” Ella chimes in.
I give her pigtail a tug. “No, you don’t. They taste really, really bad.”
Iris’s keys jingle when she pulls them from her pocket to unlock the door to her car.
That’s when I notice a folded piece of pink paper on my motorcycle’s windshield. When I open it up, my brows draw together. A fucking ticket for parking too far away from the curb even though I’m as close as everyone else on the street? I know exactly who wrote this bullshit before I scan down to Nate Williams’s chicken-scratch signature at the bottom.
I ball the ticket in my fist. It’ll be a cold day in hell before I pay this fine.
“This is a great location,” Iris murmurs, dragging back my attention. “Three empty storefronts right beside each other would be such a waste.”
I stuff the ticket into my back pocket, still seething. “Maybe you should ask Ella for counting lessons. There are only two empty storefronts.” My apartment and the old Harringtons restaurant.
She pushes off the car and nudges me with her elbow. “Not for long.”
Something in her tone makes my sore shoulders tense up. My gaze flickers to Jade’s store before falling on the brick building a few doors down from Harringtons. “Is Brenda O’Malley selling the bookstore?”
Iris shakes her head.
That means… “Quinn Brothers is closing?” Jade hasn’t mentioned anything about giving up the store. Not that we’re close friends and talk about that sort of stuff. Still, something that big surely would’ve come up in conversation, right? The store seems so important to her.
“A little bird told me they’re behind on loan payments,” Iris says. “If we make an offer now, we could own all three.”
This is what our family does. Buys and sells property; builds businesses. And we make money hand over fist doing it. But something about this idea feels wrong.
Quinn Brothers is a staple in this town. According to the sign, the place has been open for almost a century.
Iris grabs my bicep and shakes it so hard that tears prick the backs of my eyes. “This could actually work, Dyl. Dad always dreamed of having a store in town, but none of the buildings were big enough. We’d reach the tourist market when they come to the springs and catch all the foot traffic from the farmers market on weekends.”
I never knew Dad wanted to open a Kings in town. He always seemed content with the larger locations outside Still Springs.
Maybe Jade would be happy to have a decent offer on the store. If it’s true that she’s not able to make the loan payments, she might be thrilled to have the trouble taken off her hands.
There’s only one person who can answer that question—Jade Quinn. Unfortunately, though, King’s Code forbids unnecessary interactions.
Thinking about Jade’s store being under that much strain makes me feel guilty for the text I got earlier from Sunny confirming that she wants to feature Kings in her article. “Hey, sis. Before you go, do you mind giving Sunny a call for a quote or two? I can text you her number.” I really don’t have anything to say to the woman.
“Yeah, no problem.”
“Oh, and you might mention Quinn Brothers. Sunny asked me about using some of the photos I took from Fall Fest, and there are a few really good ones of this place that I’d love her to include.”
Although Iris gives me a strange look, she agrees to mention the store.
After she thanks me again for watching Ella, she hops into the car and clips Ella into her car seat. When Iris drives away, I’m left standing here, not-notstaring through the glass, hoping for a glimpse of my cute neighbor.
I love my baby sister, but right now, I kinda want to tell Hayley to take the code and shove it.
Hayley’s just being protective of Jade because she thinks I’m going to hurt her—I get that. But I don’t have any plans to hurt Jade. As long as she knows I’m leaving town, I don’t see why we can’t hang out together. We can be grown up about this thing between us—whateveritis—and see what happens.
I drag my thumb along my lower lip, reliving the incredible feeling of Jade’s soft mouth on mine.
Hayley has a problem with me not going on dates with women, huh? I squint up at the Quinn Brothers sign.
