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“But I do. We do,” Mary said, staring out at the fifty-plus employees that made Melt Me Enterprises more than a business. They were family, scrappers who stuck together and made their way to the top on nothing but hard work and the refusal to stay down in the gutter where the world wanted them.
She owed it to them as much as to herself to stick with the original plan. She’d done what she had to do to get Annabella Quinn out of the picture, now she just had to wait for Heath to come to his senses.
He would, she was sure of it.
It was only a matter of time.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Two and a half months later
Bella
If there was one time of the year even crazier than Christmas for the Incredible Edible Quinn Candy Company, it was Valentine’s Day.
Considering Bella had spent most of the time before her thirty-first birthday avoiding men and relationships like the plague, it had never been her favorite holiday. This year—when she should have finally been able to enjoy flirting, dating and maybe even finding a guy with whom she’d like to share a box of Valentine’s Day chocolates—she was more miserable than ever.
It stunk, especially since she had so much to be thankful for.
“Bella, guess what happened today!” Gretel shouted as she burst through the elevator doors that led into their new loft apartment in the city. “Emmy and Beth let me sit at their table and told me that my hair was the prettiest hair in the entire third grade!”
Bella hadn’t been able to stay in the cottage after the package came from Heath. She’d understood what he’d been telling her with the three-inch thick medical file and the hastily scribbled note confessing he was ill and had even ended the life of someone who had wronged him.
What she couldn’t understand was why he hadn’t bothered to tell her in person why they couldn’t have a future together. Not speaking with him and honoring his request not to accept any phone calls or letters that might come from him after the package arrived had been…unspeakably hard. Her cottage had become haunted with memories of their time there, and by whatever spirit had lured them together for that one night of passion.
Literally haunted in the second case, by a very unpleasant demon spirit.
The damn thing kept showing up for weeks after Heath left, whispering in Bella’s ear, doing its best to jade her to men, love, and the world in general, until she’d finally called the village exorcist in for some spring cleaning right before their big move. The small, dark-haired man had been thrilled to get the job, insisting he’d been certain the Quinn family was plagued by a Bitterness demon for years.
Annabella had just been glad he was capable of ridding her of the thing.
The horrible little beast had caused enough trouble for her family, and it was long past time to put an end to its evil mischief. Bella didn’t need its help to make amazing candy any more than she needed a cane to walk. Her great-great-whatever-grandmother might have been insecure about her skills—and bartered her offspring into a curse to become a better baker—but Bella most certainly was not.
It had been a nasty few days as the demon clung on, fighting destruction, but they’d finally put it to rest. Still, she couldn’t bring herself to hate the pathetic creature. The spirit hadn’t sent that package, Heath had, in what she supposed was his way of explaining why he never wanted to hear from her again.
“Do you think I have the prettiest hair in third grade, Bella?” Gretel asked, bringing Bella’s thoughts back to the present.
“Of course you have the prettiest hair, it’s exactly like mine,” Bella teased, pretending good spirits as she tossed her hair around her shoulders and smiled.
It was really amazing how much she and her half sister resembled each other, though Gretel seemed to have taken after her mother with regards to her physical build. She was still one of the most petite girls her age, despite Bella’s valiant efforts to put some meat on her tiny bones.
“Are you two going to start talking girl stuff? If so, I’m going to my room.” Hansel heaved a put-upon sigh, though she could see the smile tugging at his lips. He loved both of his sisters, even if he did complain about the trials of being the only man in a house full of women.
“No, no girl stuff, but I could use some taste-testers if you two are in the mood.” Bella motioned to the coconut truffles cooling on wax paper in the center of the island in the open kitchen.
“Blah!” Gretel, who for some strange reason hated sweets, wrinkled her nose at the truffles and ran to her room to change out of her school uniform, calling ov
er her shoulder, “Can we have pizza?”
“We had pizza two nights ago. I made curried rice.” Bella still found it hard to believe her own kin dreaded her cooking when every friend she had said they would pay good money to eat a Bella-cooked meal on a regular basis.
“I want Chinese,” Hansel said.
“No, pizza!” Gretel shouted.
“You’re going to turn into a pizza. I know you had it at school yesterday,” Hansel teased as he threw his book bag on the couch.
“Listen, you two. I know that after a lifetime in the Deepweeds all this city takeout is very exciting, but it’s bad for you. Loaded with sodium and—”
