by Phoebe Mills
With thousands more square feet than she and her grandma needed, it had only made sense to make it the base for the Sunshine Corner. That she was able to offer a safe space to other kids who might need it filled her heart to bursting. The trouble was, there was much work to be done on it before it was ready to house the preschool program that’d been in her goal planner for the past three years, and time was ticking down to her target date.
“Hellooo,” her friend Gia said into the phone. “Are you even listening to me?”
Abby shook her head, breaking her stare-down with the overwhelming display of tools she’d been looking at. “Sorry. I spaced. What’d you say?”
“I asked if you wanted to hang out later. It’s poker night for Marco—thankfully not at our place—so it’ll just be me and Ollie at home. I contemplated leading a paint-and-sip thing over here…”
Gia was an amazing artist who filled her time as a traveling instructor, teaching weekly art classes for the kids at the Sunshine Corner, plus the nursing home in Heart’s Hope Bay and the community center. She was well loved around town—both for her art and for her canine companion, Ollie, that she brought along. She also supplemented her income with paint-and-sip events at local bars and restaurants—obviously sans dog—but once in a while, she did a private event at her home for just a few girlfriends.
“Actually,” Gia said before Abby could respond, “never mind. I don’t want to be on tonight, you know? How about a couple bottles of wine and a marathon featuring one or more of the Chrises instead?”
Abby laughed, tucking her phone between her ear and shoulder as she pushed the cart into another aisle, hoping she’d somehow stumble upon what she needed. “Honestly, that sounds amazing. I was just thinking about how I used to spend my weekends doing fun things. Remember when we met at that bullet journaling class at the craft store? That was fun. And now I’m over here, roaming around the hardware store. Worse is that I don’t even know what I’m looking for.”
“What are you looking for?”
“I just said I had no idea.”
Gia snorted. “I mean, why are you there? What is your purpose for stepping foot into Hank’s domain?”
Hank—as in Hank’s Hardware—was anywhere between eighty and a hundred twenty years old and had owned the hardware store ever since her grandma had been young. If you needed something, chances were he had it or could get it. The trouble was, Abby had no idea what it was she needed.
“I’m trying to get wallpaper down from the second-story landing. You have any experience removing wallpaper?”
“Not even a little.”
“Damn.” Abby blew out a long sigh. “I need to find Hank and ask him. I better run.”
“Okay, but I’ll see you tonight? Eight work for you?”
“Yep, I’ll be there. You want me to invite Savannah?”
“Definitely.”
“Will do.” Abby ended the call, slipped her phone into her purse, and whipped her cart around to head to the front of the store, only to stop short when she crashed straight into another person. Or another person’s cart, anyway.
“Oh my God, I’m so sor—” Abby’s words died in her throat as soon as her eyes connected with who she’d run into.
Carter stood behind a cart, his long fingers gripping the handle, looking just as surprised to see her as she was to see him.
“Miss Abby!” Sofia twisted around where she sat in the cart, her eyes bright and smile wide.
Abby’s shock at seeing Carter melted at the sight of her. “Hi, Sofia! I like your sweater.”
The little girl’s smile grew impossibly wide as she looked down at the pink sweater with a teal mermaid on the front, her tail curling around the side to the back. “Thanks, it’s my favorite!”
Abby smirked, catching the subtle shake of Carter’s head and the fondness in his eyes when he looked down at his niece. He’d no doubt become familiar with the fact that the girl didn’t play favorites, in that every single thing she touched, played with, wore, or ate took that spot at any given time.
“What are you guys doing here?” Abby directed the question at Sofia, but the little girl’s attention had already been drawn back to what Abby assumed was Carter’s phone and a game she was playing. Abby lifted her gaze to Carter and found him watching her, his eyes pinning her in place.
It was unsettling how much that stare affected her, even after all this time. How she felt it in all kinds of places that had no business perking up for him. But she couldn’t deny the facts of both any more than she could deny her own name.
“We’re just picking up a few things so I can fix a leaky faucet for Becca.”
The corner of Abby’s mouth lifted, her heart warming at that. “That’s sweet of you.”
He shrugged in a way that suggested he didn’t think much of it at all. “No big deal. I help where I can. Speaking of…I didn’t mean to eavesdrop, but I heard you say you need to remove some wallpaper?”
Abby’s shoulders slumped. “Yeah, but I have no idea what I need. I was just headed up to ask Hank.”
“I’ve done it more than should be allowed in a single lifetime. You want some tips?”
“Yes!”
He chuckled at her exuberance, and Abby found herself smiling in response. It’d been so long since she had heard his laugh, she’d forgotten the sound, all warm and inviting, like the sun peeking out after a long stretch of clouds.
“Okay, then. You’ll need a scoring tool to perforate the paper, and then you just spray the sh—” He glanced down at his niece, then amended, “Crap out of it with some hot water. It’s best if you use a compression sprayer and not just a spray bottle so the glue gets really saturated. Then just let it soak for a bit and scrape it off with a putty knife.”
“That’s it?”
Nodding once, he said, “That’s it.”
“Oh, thank God.” Abby sagged against the cart. “I thought I was looking at hundreds of dollars just in equipment.”
“Glad to be the bearer of good news, then. You guys finally getting rid of that wallpaper from the eighties upstairs?”
Abby had no idea why, but it made her go all gooey inside that he remembered an innocuous detail like that from her grandmother’s house. What was wrong with her? “We’re actually turning it into the coatroom and cubbies for the preschool I’m planning to open.”
“Oh yeah? That’s great. Becca told me you were expanding.”
“That’s the plan—but I need to get in gear if I have any hope of it being ready by the fall.”
“Mommy says that’s the preschool I’m gonna go to!” Sofia chimed in. “The Sunshine Corner is my favorite.”
Abby’s and Carter’s laughter mixed together, and their eyes locked, electricity sparking between them despite their distance. More than ten years and a lingering heartbreak hadn’t changed how the whole world seemed to disappear when he was around. Her breathing went shallow, her throat dry as she got lost in the depth of his gaze and memories that had no place in mixed company.
Carter broke eye contact first, glancing away as he cleared his throat. “Well, I’ll let you get to it. See you on Monday.”
Abby blinked, struggling to snap out of her trance. “Yeah, see you.”
“Bye, Miss Abby!”
She returned Sofia’s wave as the little girl and Carter strolled off. She pretended as if she was suddenly very interested in the ant traps she’d been standing in front of and not flustered by the spark she still felt every time she and Carter got close.
* * *
Abby didn’t like to show up anywhere empty-handed, and since Gia’s wine fridge was a thing of beauty and always well stocked, Abby figured she’d swing by on her way over and grab some snacks at the grocery store. She was a sucker for the brownie bites the bakery made. And she should probably also pick up a few bags of her favorite salt-and-vinegar chips to munch on during the movie. Who was she to discriminate between salty and sweet snacks?
After tossing th
e chip bags in her cart, she plowed out of the aisle with a single-minded focus, intent on hitting the bakery and seeing what kind of goodies they’d cooked up today. But she stopped short as another cart passed in the main aisle, narrowly avoiding another collision today.
“Sorry!” She glanced up only to meet the amused eyes of none other than Carter, Sofia grinning widely from her perch in the cart.
“If I didn’t know better, I’d think you were dead set on running me over today,” Carter said.
Abby breathed out a laugh and gripped the cart handle, preemptively giving a silent but stern lecture to her body to just calm the hell down. None of the fawning and tingling that had happened at the hardware store would be happening here. None. At. All.
“Maybe I am.” She shrugged, then winked at Sofia to let her know she was teasing. The little girl pressed her hands over her mouth and giggled, tipping her head back as if what Abby had said was the funniest thing she’d ever heard.
“I better watch my back, then.” Carter shot her a smile, then seemed to realize what he was doing and wiped the expression from his face.
Apparently she wasn’t the only one falling back into old habits.
He glanced into her cart before meeting her eyes with a raised brow. “Quite the spread you’ve got there.”
Abby peered down at the copious amounts of junk food stashed in her basket—so she’d gotten more than a few bags of chips…A girl had needs. “Hey, no cart judging.”
Raising his hands in surrender, Carter shook his head. “I would never. Besides, I’m a fine one to judge.” He gestured into his own cart, which consisted of…absolutely nothing.
“You guys just get here?”
After Carter and Sofia had left the hardware store, Abby had spent a fair amount of time discussing with Hank what she needed and picking out the best options for her project. It’d been at least an hour since they’d gone their separate ways.
“You’d think so, wouldn’t you? But nope. We’ve been here for a while.”
“Can we go, Uncle Carter? I’m hungry.”
He snorted and looked down at his niece. “You’ve had four donut holes and every sample they have out today, including a piece of pizza, some cheese, and two mini corn dogs.”
“Uh-huh.”
“And you’re still hungry?”
“Yes.” She nodded vigorously.
“Okay, we’ll hurry. Just tell me what you like to eat for lunches and we can go.”
Sofia shrugged, her attention already back on an image-matching game on Carter’s phone. “I don’t know.”
Carter blew out a defeated breath and ran a hand through his hair. “It’s been like that the whole time. How can a kid who’s eaten lunch every day of her life have no idea what she actually eats? I don’t get it. And Becca’s working, so I’m not going to bother her with something as simple as this. Maybe I’ll just get a bunch of boxes of mac and cheese and call it a day.”
Abby grimaced. “Um…actually, she hates mac and cheese.”
“Excuse me?”
“I know, right?” she said through a laugh. “Only kid I’ve ever met who doesn’t eat the stuff. We always make her something different when we’re having that at day care.”
Carter’s eyes brightened. “Like what kinds of things?”
With a shrug, she said, “I don’t know…quesadillas, munchable lunches like cheese, veggies, crackers, and fruit. Let’s see…pasta salad or turkey roll-ups. And then of course there’s the old standby: PB and J.”
“Right, right.” He nodded, then held out his hand to Sofia. “Peanut, can I use my phone real quick, please?”
“No, thank you,” Sofia said without even glancing up at him.
He chuckled under his breath. “That’s very polite of you, but I need it to type Miss Abby’s suggestions so I don’t forget them.”
“But I need my matching game. See?” She turned the phone around to face Carter before cradling it to her chest as if he might swoop in and steal it at any moment.
Abby’s grin only widened as she watched him interact with his niece. It was a side of him she’d never seen before, and she needed to pretend it didn’t turn her insides to mush or she might not survive the next several weeks while he was home. “Would you like some help?”
“God, yes,” he said, his voice a low rumble. Almost a groan.
She valiantly attempted to ignore the other circumstances in which he’d say those same words, in that same timbre.
She valiantly failed.
Unwanted and unwelcome memories from their past together popped into her head, and Abby was helpless to stop them. That’d been happening more and more this week since her first encounter with Carter, and they showed no signs of stopping now.
What was she supposed to do, though? They had so much history—and not just of the God, yes variety.
His gaze, so focused and intent, reminded her of the way he’d looked at her when she’d come down the steps the night of prom. His muscular arms reminded her of the way he used to hold her. One smile on his full lips and she was reliving their first kiss like it was yesterday, toe-curling tingles and all.
Those lips quirked up now, and Abby jerked her eyes away from the sight, tucking her hair behind her ear as she looked everywhere but at him. “Right. Okay. Lunch food. Off we go!” Her voice was high-pitched, too chipper for the location or the circumstances, but she rolled with it because what else was she going to do? Admit to her ex-boyfriend that she still thought about the two of them and everything they’d shared together? She’d pass, thanks.
Half an hour later, Carter’s cart was full of healthy options—and a couple questionable ones because life was all about balance—for meals for the next several days.
“You do this a couple times a week?” he asked, sounding exhausted at the thought.
She shrugged. “Not usually. I have a menu planner at home and at the Sunshine Corner, so I only do my major shopping once a week. The produce is what gets tricky, so I might swing by and pick up the fresh stuff more than once.”
“A menu planner, huh?” He slid her a look out of the corner of his eye, his full lips tipping up in a smirk. “Why doesn’t that surprise me?”
She cracked a grin. “It’s laminated and everything.”
He held a hand to his chest and bit his lip. “Better watch your mouth, Abby. There are children around.”
The laugh burst out of her, pure and carefree, and she didn’t try to stifle it in the least as she tossed her head back.
“What’s funny, Miss Abby?” Sofia leaned out of the cart, her mouth curved in a smile as she extended her little hand out to pat Abby’s arm. “Why are you laughing?”
She bit her lip to stop from chuckling again. “Your uncle said something funny.”
Sofia nodded. “He’s silly. Last night, he dressed up like a ballerina!”
“You’re not supposed to tell anyone that,” Carter mock-whispered, and his niece fell into a fit of giggles at the stern look on his face.
“Is that so?” Abby asked. “I would’ve liked to see that.”
“I’ll check if Sofia’s dance teacher has any room for me in the recital.”
As the three of them strode toward the checkout lanes, easy conversation passing between them, it felt like Abby’s smile was permanently etched on her face. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d had so much fun with a man—and she’d been grocery shopping. It’d been a lifetime since she’d seen Carter, and in the time he’d been gone, she’d forgotten just how easy things were between them…how well they meshed together.
Why couldn’t she find someone like him in Heart’s Hope Bay?
Chapter Four
If Carter had thought he’d only have to interact with Abby during drop-offs and pickups at the Sunshine Corner, he was sorely mistaken. Since he’d been home, they’d run into each other nearly every time he’d left the house. Post office, bakery, the brand-new—to him, anyway—Indian restaurant that was surprisin
gly good, the hardware store again…and he’d only been back in town for a little more than a week. They’d managed to go more than ten years without seeing each other, and now it seemed like they couldn’t manage ten hours.
It’d be a lot easier to ignore her and all the feelings she stirred up if she wasn’t thrown in his face every day—some days more than once. It would also be a lot easier if his sister would stop with her petty meddling in an attempt to encourage some kind of romance between him and Abby because there was no way that was happening.
Thankfully, he had willpower. And he had willpower when it came to Abby, specifically—as proven when he’d been nothing but a ball of teenage hormones. He hadn’t had a problem waiting to sleep together until she was ready, because it’d been what she’d needed. Well, what he needed now was to keep his distance, so his willpower was just going to have to buck up and take one for the team again.
“Can I get ’ubble gum, Uncle Carter?” Sofia asked as they walked, hand in hand, to Dream Cream, the ice cream parlor on Main Street, situated between the flower shop and the bakery.
“If that’s what you want…” Carter couldn’t think of a less appealing ice cream flavor, but he’d realized his tastes skewed quite a bit from his three-year-old niece’s.
She brought her other hand to their clasped ones and tugged while jumping up and down. “I do, I do!”
With a chuckle, he opened the door and led her into the shop. “Then that’s what you’ll get.”
Three scoops later—one bubble gum for her and two butter pecan for him—they sat down at one of the small tables set up inside since it was too chilly to eat on the patio, despite the heat lamps and strings of lights set up to welcome customers.
“Mommy doesn’t like ice cream in the winter. She says it’s only for hot days.”
Normally, he didn’t like to speak ill of his sister to his niece—he didn’t want any of his inevitable frustrations with his sibling to influence Sofia—but he felt pretty justified in calling Becca out for this. “Yeah, well, your mommy’s wrong. Ice cream is for any time.”
