My hand connects with the velvety skin of her nose, drifting farther up the front of her face as I give her a scratch. She sniffs the side of my face, lightly brushing her nose against my temple before she backs into her stall and turns away from me.
“There you are,” Noah says as he comes striding into the barn with Otto on his heels.
“What’s going on?”
He walks closer to me, brushing his hands on the front of his jeans as his eyebrows tug together. “What’s that?” he asks, pointing at the paper on the clipboard in my lap.
“My plans for the store.” I look past him, glancing out toward the barn door. “What’s up?”
“Oh, yeah,” he says, leaning down to hand me something. “Try one of these.”
I hold my hand out and Noah drops a small piece of wrapped candy into my palm. “What’s this?”
“I wanted to try a maple taffy instead of just hard candies.” He stares down at me as I twist the ends of the paper and pop out the small soft, caramel circle. Lifting it to my mouth, I open the paper and pop it in. The sweetness on my tongue is instant. After letting me take a moment to roll it all around my mouth and across my tongue, Noah says, “I feel like it’s missing something.”
“Hmm,” I murmur, slowly pushing the candy between my molars as I sink them into the soft, chewy taffy. “I don’t think it’s missing anything,” I say, letting the sweet dissolve in my mouth. “I think it tastes really good.”
Noah’s eyebrows lift with hopefulness. “Really? You don’t think it needs more vanilla or something?”
Shaking my head, I chew the remaining bits and swallow them down. “Not at all. I think if you were to add anything more, it would ruin it. The maple flavor is exactly how it should taste.”
He lets out a sigh of relief, his shoulders immediately sagging. “Oh, thank God. I lost count of how many different times I tried adjusting it. I think I was starting to lose my mind and everything was beginning to taste the same.”
“No, no,” I say, rising to my feet while I shake my head. “This is good. Really good, actually.”
A smile crooks his lips. “Want to sell them at the store?”
I raise an eyebrow at my brother. “Does Finn know about this?”
He chuckles, his head shifting back and forth. “Nope,” he says, popping theP. “The store is supposed to be your thing now, but it would be a great place to sell these.”
“I agree. I think everyone would love them.”
“I’ll send you a box on the down low then,” he says with a wink. His gaze drops down to the paper in my hand and he tilts his head to the side. “Do you need any help with that?”
“No,” I pull the paper away, cradling it against my chest. “You’ll see it when it’s finished.”
Noah frowns, half pouting as my phone vibrates in my pocket. “Fine, I’ll wait.”
Pulling my phone from my back pocket, I see my best friend Mia’s name flashing on the screen. I glance up at my brother. “I gotta take this,” I say. “It’s Mia.”
“I’ll catch up with you later. Thanks for trying the taffy for me.”
“Of course.” I smile at my brother, sliding my finger across my phone screen before lifting it up to my ear. “Hey, girl.”
Noah heads back out of the barn and I meander away from the stalls, making my way over to the doors.
“Hey! What are you doing? Are you busy?”
“Never!” I let out a soft laugh. “Noah was making me taste his newest maple invention. It was actually pretty good.”
“What was it?”
“Maple taffy,” I say, stepping through the barn doors, watching as an old red truck comes down the lane, kicking up a cloud of dust. I would know that truck anywhere.
Jace.
“What is he doing here?”
