Eloise peers up at Philip, looking just shy of predatory. Her cunning gaze sweeps over him from head to toe, then, with a tiny smirk, she lifts her ice cream. She takes one huge bite from the top before unceremoniously dropping the entire thing.
Or maybe she tosses it? I can’t be sure.
But we all watch with wide eyes as a mound of bright-blue ice cream plops onto Philip’s leather shoes. For a moment, none of us react, we’re all frozen in place.
“Oops,” Eloise says, her mouth so full I almost can’t tell what she said.
Philip lets out the most childish whine I’ve ever heard. “Are you kidding? These are expensive!” He jumps back, trying to kick the ice cream off his shoes.
Millie and Finn are there in a heartbeat, apologizing and herding Eloise away, but judging by the smug grin on her face, I’d say that went exactly how she intended.
That little troublemaker sacrificed her ice cream for that stunt. I’d better go buy her a new one.
A burst of cheering sounds from Main Street, and Fable slips her hand in mine. “The parade is starting. Let’s go.” She tugs me in that direction, leaving a pissed, cursing Philip in our dust.
We manage to wedge ourselves into a spot in front of the hardware store with a perfect view of the parade. Ikeep Fable pressed to the front of my body, my arms around her the entire time, unable to let her go.
As expected, the preschool walk is adorable. All the kids carry their favorite stuffed animal and Maddox and Vivian’s son Carter needs an entire wagon for his. There are homemade floats, a group of children with colorful flower crowns, and a bike procession from a local nature club.
And as the high school athletics teams go by, I pull Fable closer, savoring how far we’ve come since that day. How much life has taken us on a meandering, winding path to bring us right back here. Together.
When the parade is nearly over, she curls her hand around my wrist and pulls me to follow her. “Come on. Ineed to show you something before the adopt-a-thon starts.”
And I let her lead me through the crowd, because I’d follow her anywhere.
Chapter 39
Fable
Awarm breeze billows through the alley behind my future bookshop. Theo’s surprisingly quiet while I find the number in my phone, then type it into the keypad. The lock clicks, but before I open the door, I look up at him.
“Callum Properties called back yesterday.”
“To ask you what kind of smoothie you like at Smoothie Bro?” There’s a teasing glint in his eye.
I grin. “No, the bros fell through.”
He reaches out to lace our fingers together. “And what does that mean?”
“It means”—I push the door open with my free hand and lead him inside—“the space is available.”
My legs feel wobbly as I step over the threshold and into what appears to be a storage room. Or maybe a trash room? Aconstruction zone? It’s a mess—a crumbling shelf full of cardboard boxes against one wall and several sheets of drywall and plywood along another.
“They’re willing to work with me on fixing up the place and taking it out of my rent,” I explain, stepping over a pile of boards and around some paint buckets.
“That’s great. You have a lot of helpers.”
“I do.” A whole crew of people who would help me with anything. I’m not nearly as alone as I thought I was.
We reach another doorway, which opens into the main part of the store, and my feet pause at the view. It’s still a mess, but it’sbeautiful. The doorways are arched with intricate trim details. Decorative light fixtures hang throughout the space. The crown molding around the ceiling gives the room an old, charming feel.
There’s history here, and I can’t wait to learn every detail of it.
This storefront was never meant to be a Smoothie Bro. It was meant to be a bookstore—the kind of place that feels like a home away from home. Where you grab a cozy seat and find new adventures between the pages of a book.
I wish Gramps could see it. He’d be in love.
Tears press at the backs of my eyes as I let go of Theo’s hand and stroll to the front door. The crowd is loud on the other side. Ipeek through a tiny gap in the paper to see everyone milling about.
