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Luna watched the others arrive that she’d met that night at Tea Total and the Lodge. This was community, she thought. Friends were real friends here, and they’d come out because Mandy had told them to.
“Luna!” Albert hurried to greet her as she entered his shop. His smile was wide. “Look at all the people.” He kissed both her cheeks as if they’d been friends for years and not known each other two days. “Isn’t it wonderful?”
“I’m so happy for you, Albert.”
The decor was amazing. Rich caramel-colored walls with a chocolate and cream stripe around the middle of the entire shop. Tables were cream, and the floor black-and-white checks. She looked at the wide glass display cabinets that held dainty chocolates on one side and delicious cakes and pastries the other.
“We have an outside area also, which will seat a lot more people.” He beamed at her. “But now I must go and help.”
She ordered hot chocolate for her and Charlie, who was arriving soon.
“Luna, sit here,” Piper said, waving to a spare seat at the table they’d taken in the corner.
“My vote is for Chandler or Ross,” Rory said, taking the seat beside Piper.
“I see where you’re going with that,” Jack said. “But Scrooge still gets my vote.”
“Vote?” Luna looked at the faces around her.
“For Monica’s duck. It needs a name, so the Facebook page is running a poll,” Piper said.
This town, why did she love it so much?
“Webbigail Vanderquack,” Dylan said.
“There is no way you came up with that on your own,” Piper stated.
“You don’t know who Webbigail Vanderquack is?” Dylan looked at the blank faces around them.
“You tell them, Daddy,” Grace said, swinging her feet back and forth under her seat.
“Her father is Scrooge McDuck, and her siblings are May and June.” Dylan high-fived his daughter.“She also has a quacky patch doll.”
“I’d like a doll like that,” Grace said.
“And to think, once you were someone I could look up to,” Jack said, shaking his head.
“One day you’ll understand,” Piper said, kissing her husband’s cheek.
“The name’s kinda cool though,” Rory said. “Can I put it in the poll? The winner gets a free scone and cup of tea from Tea Total.”
They all looked out the windows to the shop across the road.
“I feel like I’m sleeping with the enemy,” Rory whispered.
She hadn’t laughed this much in ages, and Luna thought it felt good. The ping of her phone had her reaching for it. She always checked in case it was family. It was Hugo, and he’d written RING ME in large shouty capitals.
“Excuse me a minute.” She slipped out the door again and onto the street. “What’s up?” she said when her business partner answered.
“You eating chocolate is splashed all over social media with the words, ‘perhaps Luna McKinley has been fooling us this entire time. Clean and healthy? I don’t think so.’ Olivia is having fun with this.”
“That was fast,” she said, scrolling through one of her accounts. There she was outside Chocolate On The Rocks with her mouth open and the chocolate poised.
“The point here is, you eating chocolate is not a good look when you’re promoting healthy living, which includes eating. Plus, it’s a terrible picture,” Hugo snapped. “She has her tentacles everywhere, even in a small backwater town.”
“Don’t insult an entire town, Hugo. You haven’t seen this place; it’s amazing.”
“It’s not Chicago, and you should know better than to eat chocolate in public.”
