Chapter 21

Chapter Twenty-One

Jess felt like she blacked out for a moment as she stared at the man in front of her, the commodity in town who felt more like a legend than a chef.

Grampy gestured toward his kitchen and the storefront. "I've had this shop for decades. I'm proud of it, but I'm not banking on my kids wanting to take on the business when I finally decide to throw in the towel."

Jess was still speechless, so she simply nodded, leaving him space to continue.

"My kids are happy with their jobs and their lives and kids of their own. When I started feeling ready to give this place up, I knew I'd need to find the right hands of someone I could trust. Then, I went grocery shopping at Post Road."

Her eyes widened.

"There were discounted boxes of pastries by the front door, so I grabbed one, and I haven't stopped thinking about that— Oh, what was that one with the cinnamon and sugar pearls tied like a knot?"

"Kanelbullar," she choked.

" Yes , it was exquisite. I saw you're selling them at the bakery, too."

"Y-yes."

Grampy smiled. "A month later I caught wind of you leaving Post Road and found out you were opening up your own spot, so I kept a close eye. I wanted to see how you handled things. Not just the long lines and the grueling early hours, but the negative press and the slower days when everything feels doomed."

She coughed. "And…what did you think?"

"I think I found my set of hands."

Jess blew out a shaky breath. "This is insane."

"Quite the contrary, my dear. I think it's perfect."

"You want to hand me your prized bakery and deli, where customers line up down the road every single goddamn day? They're going to be so upset when they find out who's running the place. Everyone in the Port will think I'm ruining this town."

He shook his head. "When we make it clear that I chose to hand it down to you, they'll be fine. Especially if you keep selling the coffee cake out the back door."

She stood up and paced the length of his kitchen. "Okay, so explain this…if you're handing it down to me, then why buy Port Wheels? Those seem like opposing business decisions."

"You can't work in two kitchens, now can you?"

"Obviously…?"

"So you move your baking here, and treat the bakery at Port Wheels as an off-shoot of this business. Make it more of a café, a sit-down spot instead of a counter like this place. You could get rid of the back kitchen and expand seating."

Jess tapped a finger to her lips. "Grampy's Café at Port Wheels?"

He shrugged. "I'm not attached to the name. You can change it, if you'd like."

"I can see the torches and pitchforks now."

"Oh, who cares," he grunted. "All I want is for my name to remain on the blueberry coffee cake. That's my legacy. The rest does not matter."

"It should matter."

He shrugged. "I'll leave that up to you."

She pinched the bridge of her nose. "So you buy Port Wheels and…then what?"

"I'll be the owner of both establishments, but I'll make you my business manager. I'll step down from the day-to-day and eventually I'll transition out, but stay on as a silent partner. We can have weekly meetings to work all of this out when the summer season is over. You and the bike boy."

"He's going to freak," she muttered.

"I'm guessing that's a good thing?"

"A very good thing."

"Is that a yes?"

Jess blew out a breath and scanned the bakery, a place so iconic, she felt like an imposter even being there. Yet the man before her looked at her like she was the solution, like she was a bright hope for his future.

She closed her eyes and sucked in a breath. Be brave, Jess.

So she was.

Jess was buzzing as she turned the corner onto the sandy road and parked her car behind Calvin's truck. She hopped out and tripped over herself as she made her way toward the roaring bonfire on Sandy Cove Beach.

"MOM'S FINALLY HERE!"

The Scoopers cheered at Jay's announcement. Jess rolled her eyes as she approached the circle. She scanned each of them and noticed one familiar face was missing. "Where's Kevin?"

"He took Honey for a walk," Calvin answered. Melanie sat between his legs, her head leaning against his chest, his hands playing with her wavy hair. "How'd it go today?"

She scrunched her face. "It was…fine."

"What was today?" Rory butted in.

Jess was on the verge of telling her to buzz off, but the look on the girl's face made her pause. Rory looked happy , a smile curled on her lips, color in her cheeks. She was wrapped up in Tyler's arms, his fingers tracing her right arm lazily. The look of them together and happy after all the drama this past year made her soften her attack.

Instead, she shrugged and took a seat next to Calvin and Mel. "I went to my sister's baby shower."

No one said anything at that, which made perfect sense to Jess. I wouldn't know how to respond either , she thought. I've never spoken to them about my family.

Melanie coughed. "And it went…fine."

Jess nodded once. "Yep. Fine."

Silence again.

She looked over at Calvin, giving him a Please make this stop look.

He seemed to catch her drift and cleared his throat. "We were just discussing the next summer season."

"It's going to be so different," Blake cried. Zach was beside him, an arm slung around his shoulder.

"Aww, Blakey boy, you gonna miss me?" Jay teased.

Blake frowned. "Do you really have to move to Japan ?"

It'd been a shock to all of the Scoopers when Jay revealed his big plans of studying abroad in Japan, but for the first time in probably ever, Jess noticed how happy Jay truly was. He wasn't pushing so hard for the attention of others anymore. Except for the girl with the velvet cat ears who always left him flustered when she stopped by the ice cream shop.

"And Tyler will barely be around," Blake whined. "He has to go off and be a famous football player."

Rory frowned as well and looked at her boyfriend. Everyone watched as he leaned in and brushed his lips against hers, then whispered something softly that had her smiling again.

Jay shoved Blake playfully. "At least you and Mel won't be the newbies anymore. Army boy will have to hire two people."

"Actually," Jess started. "Make that three."

Blake gawked at her, and Jay's mouth opened in shock.

"Are you…leaving town?" Rory sputtered.

"No," she rushed to explain. "But I think I'll be too busy to help out anymore."

"Too…busy?"

Jess jumped to her feet at the sound of that voice behind her. Kevin clutched the leash in his hand as Honey jumped up and down at the sight of her. She reached down to pet her pup, eyeing Kevin's disheveled hair and the dark circles under his eyes.

She scooped up Honey and stood. "Yes. I need to talk to you and Calvin for a minute."

Melanie shifted so Calvin could stand up.

" No. "

Everyone turned toward Blake. His face was red, his arms crossed. "If this involves Port Wheels then this involves my boyfriend, and I think it's unfair that you keep leaving him in the dark."

"Yeah, you tell 'em, Blakey boy," Rory cheered.

Zach smirked and kissed the back of Blake's head, his hands twisted in his red curls. "You did promise open communication, Jess."

Jess looked between Calvin and Kevin. "It's…kind of big, and I'm still figuring out all of the details—"

"Then figure it out with us," Rory said. "We're a family, remember?"

She sighed and took a seat, eyes roaming over the group before her. Being with her sister and her parents today had felt awkward and foreign, but she knew deep down with time those feelings would change. Yet the group in front of her was familiar and, after years of working by their sides, she knew they were also safe. For as long as she could remember, she'd felt she had to hide what was going on in her life with the rest of them, because it was way too messy to bring to anyone else. Yet this summer, when she finally let her walls down and watched everything in her life change, she found Kevin was actually right after all: there's strength in being soft, even when the rest of the world says you need to be hard.

"Grampy plans on retiring," Jess confessed. "And he told me he wants to pass down his bakery to me."

" Holy shit. "

"ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!"

"But the blueberry coffee cake!"

"Retiring as in…like, retiring retiring? Done for good?"

So many responses from them all at once, Jess wasn't even sure where to start. She glanced at Calvin who looked shocked for the first time ever, his mouth hung open. Melanie tipped his chin with her fingers to close it, giggling when it fell back open.

Zach shook his head, looking exasperated. "I'm so confused. So are you closing Port Wheels?"

Jess finally turned to look at Kevin, his face slowly crumbling with the emotion he clearly couldn't hold in.

She gave him a reassuring smile. "No. We are not closing."

Kevin choked out a sob and ran a hand through his hair, making the waves even more wild.

Jess faced the group and explained everything that happened that night, from the three knocks on the bakery door to practically falling out of her stool when he presented her with his offer. A new offer for her to consider, one that would irrevocably change her life. Again .

"He actually let you see the blueberry coffee cake recipe?" Calvin asked, still in shock.

Melanie covered her mouth with a hand.

"Yes," Jess exhaled. "Then we proceeded to bake dozens of cakes."

Calvin whistled. "Damn."

"Your bakery will close then?" Rory asked.

She shrugged. "Kind of. I'll still be baking, but things will shift at Port Wheels. We'll make it more of a café situation."

"And you'll change the name?"

Jess looked back at the golden boy. He rubbed his neck, not returning her gaze.

"I don't know," Jess replied timidly. "That's something we'll have to discuss as a team."

"A team?" Zach pried.

She dipped her chin. "Yes. A team. I refuse to let you leave us."

Zach let out a contented sigh, as if he was holding his breath this whole time and was finally able to relax. Blake beamed, turning to pepper his boyfriend's cheek with kisses.

"So when will all of this start?" Calvin asked.

Jess glimpsed at Kevin. He eyed her as well.

"He told me we can finish out the summer season, then we'll start having meetings this fall to discuss transitioning. He'll retire in a few years and stay on as a silent partner."

"You said yes?" Kevin asked softly.

She hesitated, then nodded. "Yes," she uttered. "I accepted his offer."

The whoops and cheers from the group had her beaming. Had her feeling satisfied after making the big decision less than an hour earlier.

Except for one of them, who remained silent.

Kevin stood up and wiped the sand from his khakis.

She got to her feet in response and stepped toward him. "Are you leaving?"

He nodded, his eyes on his sandals. "Yeah. I need to clear my head."

"But—"

Kevin smiled and looked into her eyes. His expression was kind, but she knew it well. He was putting on a front, the same face she saw in the car earlier, the one he used when there were thoughts swirling in his head. When there was something he was hiding.

"Tell me," she breathed. "What is it?"

He shook his head. "I'm happy for you, Jess. Really."

Before she could respond, he was walking toward the bike he'd left next to the beachgrass. He hopped on, then rode down the sandy road without another word.

They barely spoke to each other for a week. Nothing more than cordial hellos in the mornings or simple conversations about placing orders for supplies.

It drove Jess mad.

She tried at the beginning of the week, inviting him to take Honey on a walk with her during breaks or making a joke when she delivered his daily kanelbullar. But all she got in response was a shy smile and a shake of his head. It almost felt like he had given up on her.

So…she baked. Lemon blueberry scones and sticky buns and more matcha latte cookies. She enjoyed the predictability of baking the perfect recipe, especially when everything else in her life felt like it was falling apart. Sifting flour and creaming sugar were easy, achievable tasks that she couldn't fail at.

Jess had her headphones on, shuffling through her pop punk playlist on full blast, letting the music drown out her restless thoughts as she filled tart shells with a lemon curd.

The door to the kitchen swung open. Jess bolted upright and tore off her headphones, but her shoulders sagged when she saw it was only Zach.

"All right, everything is clean out there and ready for the morning. I need to refill the straws then I'll be on my way," he said.

She nodded, wordlessly pointing to the box above her.

Zach carefully lifted the box and grabbed a sleeve of straws, then gave her a nod and walked out.

Jess tossed her head back and sighed. This is getting ridiculous . She glanced over at the door and noticed a small blue plate with a kanelbullar on it, and realized she never delivered it to him, too distracted by her new lemon curd recipe to take a moment and walk to his side of the shop.

Almost as if her headphones had a mind of their own, she heard the music shift, the first verses of "You + Me" ringing loud enough to recognize from where they hung around her neck.

Jess removed her headphones and tossed them to the cabinet, then grabbed the plate and shoved open the door. The shop was quiet, which was to be expected—unless someone had a flat tire or some other bike repair need, no one popped into Port Wheels past four o'clock. She banked on that as she made her way around the tables and breezed past a small row of bikes, then turned the corner into Kevin's workshop.

Instead of working on the bike hanging on the stand behind him, Kevin sat hunched over at the computer, eyebrows knitted together as he scrolled through a spreadsheet, completely oblivious to her approach. She silently paced forward, squinting her eyes to get a clearer look at the screen. Rows upon rows of numbers were listed, with color-coded columns and sections. Kevin clicked on a new tab below and another spreadsheet popped up, with a whole new color-coded system.

"What is that?" she blurted.

Kevin minimized the spreadsheet, now hidden below a desktop picture of Honey growling at a crab on the beach. He swiveled his desk chair around and faced her. "Nothing."

She rolled her eyes, then aimed to turn and walk away. "Of course, why would I even ask?"

"You finally remembered to bring my kanelbullar?"

She paused, then shifted toward him and placed the plate on his desk. "Yeah, sorry, I was in the zone back there."

"How'd the lemon curd come out?"

"This is by far my best batch. The extra lemon zest really made a difference." She stopped herself, her eyes on the smile that curled his cheeks. She huffed. "What?"

"I love when you talk pastry to me."

She crossed her arms. "Surprised you even let me given how you've been ignoring me."

He hummed a sigh. "I have a lot on my mind."

"Care to enlighten me?"

Kevin hesitated, then shook his head. "It's nothing."

She rolled her eyes again. "Fine. Whatever."

Jess turned to walk away, ready to finish her tartlets and get them in the fridge before closing for the night. But the sight of Honey curled up in her dog bed made her stop, made her really think about that summer and everything that happened since taking their little puppy home. Camping in Vermont, skinny dipping late at night, opening the bakery, seeing her family again, New York …

It was the best summer of her life, and as she eyed the small sunbeam that turned Honey's fur into shimmering, shiny gold, she realized she wanted to have more summers like this one. And every other season in between.

"You know what, no," she said, spinning back around to face him.

His eyebrows raised in surprise.

She pointed to the screen. "You're clearly keeping something from me, and I don't like it. Why do you keep doing that, Kevin? Why do you keep secrets?"

"Because every time I tell you the truth, you run," he said.

"That's not fair," she rebutted. "You couldn't have expected me to take your hidden deal with my father well. I needed time to process it."

"You're right. You needed time to process it. You also needed time to heal and to fix things with your family. I was too selfish and stole all of your time this summer. And in the end, all I did was cause you pain."

"You know that's not true," she breathed.

"It is true," he countered. "I should have told you right away, from the moment I made you the offer. I should have told you who was behind it all. But then…but then things changed and you let me get close to you and I lost all of my control. So I didn't say anything because I knew as soon as you learned the truth that everything would be over and I—"

He rubbed his face hard, his eyes now red. "I'm so deeply in love with you, and I am terrified of losing you."

Jess took a tentative step toward him and brushed her knuckles against his. "You're not going to lose me," she whispered.

"Then why do I feel like I already have?"

"Because it's me ," she confessed. Feeling bold, Jess climbed onto his lap. He closed his eyes and let out a shaky breath as she combed his wavy hair with her fingers, then angled his face to hers. When he blinked his eyes open, she gave him a smile, her stomach doing somersaults at the longing in his gaze.

She clenched on to that feeling, using it to fuel the words that she needed to finally say.

"You're right, I keep pushing you away. I keep pushing because I am so god damn scared to let someone in. I'm afraid I'll lose myself all over again and go back to sacrificing instead of letting myself focus on me. I'm afraid of falling in love then falling out of love and feeling stuck, to go back to living a life that felt stale and useless. I was in love with Charlie, but then that spark faded. What if it happens again? What if we fade and we hate each other and we feel—"

"Stuck."

She nodded.

Kevin reached up and rubbed her cheeks with the pads of his thumbs. "Can I show you what I've been working on?"

"Yes please," she whispered.

He pointed to the computer screen behind her. She stood up but before she could step away, he clutched her waist and turned her around, then guided her back down onto his lap. Kevin wrapped a tight arm at her waist as he pulled it up on his computer.

It was a massive budget for Port Wheels, sections separating costs for the bakery and the bike shop, areas with sunk costs that weren't getting revenue, and things to double down on that were making money. He listed out every meticulous detail—shipments, rent, utilities, labor. He clicked on the next tab and it was a similar spreadsheet, but with a completely new business plan. One that would get them through the entire offseason leading into next summer.

"Did Calvin make this?" she asked.

"Nope. I did."

She shifted to gape at him. " How ?"

"I figured it was time to stop bothering Calvin with all of this and learn it myself. I took an online course for small businesses."

"But what about Grampy?"

"This was all before you spoke with him," he explained. "I thought I was going to have to sell the business. Fire Zach. Lose you. It felt like the kick in the butt I needed."

"When did you start this?"

"The night we got back from New York."

She shifted uncomfortably. "Oh."

Kevin set his chin on her shoulder, his cheek brushing against her ear.

"Do you not want to work with Grampy?"

"I think that's something you need to decide," he answered. "Do you want to take over his place?"

"Yes," she whispered, without hesitation. She couldn't stop thinking about those blueberry coffee cakes, and all of the things she could do with a new café space here at Port Wheels. Her notebook was so full of ideas, she'd had to buy a new one.

"Then that's what we do," he replied. "If you still want me here, of course."

"Why wouldn't I? We're business partners, remember?"

He hummed. "Yeah. We are."

She scanned the tabs at the bottom of the spreadsheet, noticing one at the end labeled JKH.

"What's this one for?"

Kevin didn't reply as Jess clicked on it, opening up a completely different kind of spreadsheet. It was all personal expenses. Her chest tightened as she read through the rows.

Rent for apartment with two beds

Groceries for yummy food and weekly focaccia

Movie night snacks

Clothes for the ass I can't stop thinking about

Honey's nibbles

Vet bills + insurance

ASL dog training?

Savings because #responsible

The list continued on and on.

"JKH," she breathed. "Jess, Kevin, Honey."

Kevin lifted his chin and tucked her hair around her other shoulder, giving him enough room to kiss her neck. "Our budget."

"Why would we need to share a budget?"

He tightened his hold around her waist. "Don't run, okay?"

She hesitated, then after an exhale, she nodded.

He sighed, his warm breath raising goose bumps on her neck.

"I was going to ask you to move in with me."