“Yes and no,” Jimmy said. “My furniture hasn’t arrived, so I’m sleeping on a pallet until the end of the week. Miz Beezy sent me to talk to you about helping me with the youth program at the church. She says you’ll be the best person in town.”
Grace took the order to their table and then went back to the counter. She would bet that Beezy had had more than the teenagers at the church on her mind when she had talked to the new pastor. Grace could already hear the rumors that would soon be flying around town. They would say that he had come to Devine because he and Macy had met somewhere in the past and already had a romance going.
Grace’s mama popped into her head.And what about Sarah? The gossip will be that she met Brock in a bar and has broken up his marriage. He did tell Sarah that he and Angela have been on their own since the little girl was a year old. I’m guessing the mother passed away or left them.
Grace loved the times when she could hear her mother’s voice, but before she could say another word, the bell above the door jingled, and Travis’s bright smile greeted her. She looked at Brock and then over at Jimmy. Could it be possible that, on down the road, Macy and Sarah would find someone to make them as happy as she was with Travis? She surely hoped so.
“Good mornin’, lovely lady,” Travis said as he crossed the room. “I am here to buy six dozen doughnuts for the break room at the company, but it looks like I’ll be lucky to take home five.”
“Thank you, and good mornin’ to you. It looks like five is about what I have,” Grace said as she started boxing up his order. “Got time for a cup of coffee or a sweet tea?”
“Always,” Travis answered. “Sweet tea sounds good.”
Grace finished the order, set the boxes on the counter, and ran Travis’s credit card through the reader. “Give me a minute to lock up, and we’ll take our tea to the kitchen.”
Travis looked around at the two tables and raised an eyebrow.
“Macy and Sarah will let them out when they are ready,” she said with a bright smile.
Suddenly, it didn’t matter if the Devine Doughnut Shop came to an end in the next year or lasted on to another generation or two. What really mattered was that there were three very real possibilities for happiness and a future right there in the shop at that moment.
Grace Dalton was as sure about that as she was about her feelings for Travis Butler.
Epilogue
ONE YEAR LATER
Audrey and Raelene had decorated the dining room of the Devine Doughnut Shop with pink and blue balloons and were even more excited than Angela was that morning. She was bouncing around the whole shop, asking so many questions that Sarah couldn’t keep them answered fast enough.
Today was the gender-reveal party for Macy and Brother Jimmy’s first baby, who would arrive in late summer. The due date was the same as their first anniversary.
Grace brought in the cake she had made in the kitchen and set it on one of the tables. It had pink icing on one end and blue on the other. Audrey and Raelene were the only ones who knew the gender and would cut either a pink slice if it was a girl or a blue one if it was a boy, and serve it to Brother Jimmy and Macy.
“Beautiful cake. You did a good job,” Sarah said and gave her sister a hug. “Has Audrey told you if she’ll be cutting pink or blue?”
“Nope, she and Raelene are doing a good job of keeping it a big secret,” Grace answered and waved at Travis, who came in through the kitchen. “We’ve sure come a long way since this time last year, and Ikept my promise about waiting a year—not that I can say the same for you and Macy.”
“Hey, we didn’t make a promise,” Sarah told her. “And I never believed in love at first sight before, but I think I fell in love with Brock that day on Shell Island. Are you sad that we closed the shop right after Macy and Jimmy’s wedding?”
“Not one bit, and I’m not sad that I can sit in Mama’s rocker each evening and wait for Travis and the girls to come home. Every now and then, I whip up a few dozen doughnuts in the kitchen for Travis to take to the break room. I’ve been helping Macy fix up her nursery and volunteering with the new youth program at the church. Audrey and Raelene are really enjoying all the fellowship with the teenagers that are flocking to our church now. I’ve been so busy that I don’t know when I would have time to make doughnuts. And then”—she smiled—“I’ll be busy helping you out with your nursery before long. Plus, I’m so excited that I can be more involved in Audrey’s senior year.”
Sarah laid a hand on her small belly bump. “I’ll sure enough need help, but mostly to keep Angela from trying to put a kiddie swimming pool and swing set in the nursery so the baby will have something to play with.”
“She reminds me so much of Audrey at that age that they could share DNA,” Grace said.
“Think you and Travis will ever have kids?”
“We wouldn’t mind having one or two, but Travis says the two girls we’ve got are enough if it never happens. Speaking ofourgirls, they are eager to get back to full-time work this summer. Delores says that Audrey is a natural, and there’s real hope that she can grow into bigger positions after Delores gets ready to retire. And Lucy says that she’s never had an intern as smart as Raelene. That girl aced every single one of her college classes this year,” Grace said and pointed out the window. “Look! There’s Jimmy and Macy coming now.”
“What’s your guess: Boy or girl?” Sarah asked.
Brock slipped up behind Sarah and put his arms around her waist. “I’m guessing it’s a boy because she’s already settled on a name.”
“I’m not guessing,” Grace said.
Travis kissed Grace on the forehead. “Let’s get this over with so I can sit on the porch with you and watch the sunset. I’m loving this country life and having a family to come home to at night.”
“And I’m loving that we have kept this building, and that Sarah, Macy, and I can have our sister day every couple of weeks here to have a catch-up afternoon,” Grace said.
