We don’t say anything more. We don’t have to. As we head back to the shop, I am almost skipping with glee. I see it now. This is how it happens. This is how my vision is going to come true.
* * *
“What are youall still doing here?” I ask in surprise as we walk into the fudge shop after our stroll to find Dani and Gus standing with Mom and Dot, peering into several open cardboard boxes of candy. Mom sighs wearily as we approach. She looks tired and is leaning heavily on her cane.
“The leak went through the back wall of the bathroom and soaked some of the inventory in the storage closet,” she explains. “We’re sorting through it now. I think most of it’s going to have to be thrown away.”
“Oh no.” This is not good news. Damaged inventory means more lost money. I wince at the thought. I hear metallic clanking coming from the bathroom and glimpse a pair of long, blue jean–clad legs through the doorway. Jakob appears to be still hard at work on the plumbing. Nearby, Mr. Butters is snoozing in his bed wearing a doggy-sized bumblebee costume complete with antennae on springs, oblivious to the chaos around him.
“More bad ones, Grammy.” Gus holds up a handful of waterlogged M&M packets to show my mom, the rainbow colors from the candies seeping through the brown wrapper and staining his hands with red and blue and orange dots. He throws them intoan industrial-sized garbage bag on the floor. The bag already looks half-full. “Mom, did you know that M&M’s were the first candies to go to space?” he asks.
“I did not know that, honey.” I glance around at the carnage in dismay.
“This whole box is bad,” Dot announces, squatting over a box filled with a variety of old-fashioned candies in waxed white paper bags. She opens a bag of lemon drops that have melded together into one solid clump. “It’s not looking good for the other boxes either.” She shakes her head and pitches the entire contents of the box into the garbage bag.
Henry takes off his swazer and lays it aside. “What can I do?” he asks.
“Are you sure?” I look at him doubtfully. Is a famous TV host really going to sort through our flood debris?
“Absolutely. Put me to work,” he says firmly.
I eye Mom in concern and send Henry to get a chair from the office for her. Then we give him the task of hauling trash to the dumpster while I check unopened boxes of candy for water damage. With two extra sets of hands, we get a lot done. After a half hour though, Henry checks his watch, an expensive-looking Omega. “I’m so sorry,” he says in a low tone to me. “I’ve got a work call with my producer in fifteen minutes. I’ve got to go, unfortunately. I hate to not stay and finish.”
“You’re being plenty helpful withSavor,” I tell him. “And thanks for staying to help out. That was very kind.”
“I’ll call you after I talk with my production team and work out the details,” he tells me, checking his watch again. He says goodbye to everyone, but his smile is just for me. I walk him to the door and he clasps my hand briefly. “I’ll be in touch soon,” he promises. And then he is gone.
As soon as he’s out the door, Dani whirls on me. “So?” she demands. “Tell us everything.”
I glance around the circle of expectant faces. Only Gus is going about his business, focusing on finding more ruined candy and clearly not interested in adult conversation. The clanking from the bathroom stops. I wonder if Jakob is eavesdropping.
“Well, I have big news.” I look around at their eager faces. “Henry wants to feature our family in an episode ofSavor.”
Dani screams, Mom gasps, and Dot whoops and high-fives me.
“Attagirl!” she says.
I tell them all about Henry’s idea to feature both the Happy Viking and my new shop.
Mom puts her hand to her heart when I finish. “Oh, Emmie, this is such wonderful news.”
“And of course you’ll have to spend lots of time together,” Dani says slyly.
I glance up to find Jakob standing in the bathroom doorway, one toned arm gripping the doorframe, a length of pipe in his other hand. He’s staring at me with an expression I can’t quite place. It looks a little like annoyance. I get the feeling he’s heard everything we’ve said. He turns and goes back into the bathroom without a word.
“I hear wedding bells in your future!” Dani predicts as she flings handfuls of ruined boxes of Mike and Ikes and Good & Plenty into a trash bag. “Dibs on being maid of honor.”
“Way too soon for all of that,” I scold her. Yet as I grab a big box of waterlogged Skittles, I’m smiling from ear to ear. We are on the cusp of something new. I can feel it. Somehow I can’t shake the most nervous, delicious feeling that everything is about to change.
Chapter 14
“This place looks like a crime scene,” Dani hisses in my ear, wrinkling her nose in disgust as we wander through one of only two available storefronts for rent in Kingston. It’s a few days after my spontaneous walk with Henry, and we’re searching for the perfect location for my chocolate shop. This is clearly not it. So far we’ve seen a handful of places, all of them very underwhelming.
Across the room, our real estate agent Dawn is extolling the virtues of the plastic louvered blinds to block out light. She’s really scraping the bottom of the barrel here, though to be fair, it’s not her fault. As she explained to us, there are very few storefronts available at any given time. When I shared my list of specifications and the amount of rent I could afford, she looked alarmed.
“If you can wait a year or two, something might pop up that’s more in your range,” she told me, trying to be tactful. “As it is,you’re going to probably have to budge on price or your requirements to get something soon.”
I’m holding out hope for a miracle, but frankly I’m starting to panic a little. What am I going to do if I can’t find a space that will work?
