Page 6 of Sweet Summertide (Christmas Cove #4)

The ambient morning light made the vacant storefront windows into an ideal mirror.

Holly checked her reflection and straightened her white hair ribbon looped around the base of her ponytail.

Leaning in, she pressed the puffiness from her under-eyes, thinking she looked more drained than she felt.

She had stayed up later than she should have, going over her business plans and concocting reasons to accidentally bump into Teddy again.

Her scheming would have to wait because today, she had no time to be tired. Today, she had a shop to build.

“Holly,” Millie yelled and waved from where she was parked down the street. She jogged, with her brunette, swingy, bob-style haircut bouncing around her jawline, and caught up with Holly. “Didn’t sleep much last night?”

“Is it that obvious?” Holly shook her head and flexed the muscles in her cheeks in an effort to look as sprightly as she felt. “I don’t know why, but I stayed awake thinking about getting my new sign today, and about … Teddy Black.”

Millie put an arm over Holly’s shoulders and hugged her in. “You’ve got it bad.”

“Do you know he was going to kiss me last night.” She slapped a hand against her forehead. “And I can’t believe I almost let him.”

“Maybe he was just teasing you?” Millie guessed.

“Yeah. And whatever he was doing, I liked it.” Holly threw her hands up and stepped up to the edge of the curb.

In her white and blue espadrilles, she teetered like she was falling from a cliff, not a six-inch step down.

“If he kissed me or not. Being with him was … thrilling. But I’ll worry about him later.

I have bigger things to think about right now.

Like that.” She presented her hands towards the large sign being hoisted out of a wooden crate across the street.

A man sitting in the cab of a small crane had hold of the custom placard and was lifting it up towards another man positioned on a cherry picker at the front of her new store.

Holly clapped her hands together and made her way to the middle of the street.

Seeing her shop’s name plastered in pretty letters made her dreams seem real.

In that instant, she went from a girl with an idea to a badass businesswoman.

The man in the cherry picker motioned for Holly to move closer. “Just make sure it looks right before we secure this thing,” he said.

The crane operator lifted the sign up over the sides of the crate and let it rest ever so slightly on the sidewalk. Holly smoothed her fingers along the neon script and said the words out loud. “Cups & Cones Creamery. It’s really happening, isn’t it?”

“I’m so proud of you,” Millie said.

“This has to work. There’s no way I’m moving home with people who want to see me fail.”

“Just your mother,” Millie added, and wasn’t wrong.

Holly nodded to the man in the cherry picker for him to continue the installation.

Behind her, a flurry of activity began across the street where earlier she had checked herself in the window reflection.

Two pickup trucks pulled up alongside the curb and blocked her view, but her curiosity as to what could possibly be interrupting her big moment could wait.

She returned her focus to the installation at hand.

The crane lifted the green and white striped placard with pink neon lettering up to the space between the top of the double doors and the second-floor windows.

The soft shades popped in front of the white-painted bricks and black-framed windows.

The arch over the front door had been the feature that had sold her on leasing this particular building.

The other vacant space, the one across the street, lacked the old-world charm that she was looking for to house her ice cream shop.

“If Francesca Bridgerton had a shop, this is what it would look like,” Millie said. “I’m excited to get to work on the build-out.”

“I’m so glad you went to design school. I have an eye for what looks good, but I’ve never had the knack for putting it all together,” Holly explained.

“That’s why I dress the way I do every day.

It just makes things easier when I have a closet full of pretty dresses and matching bows.

It’s one piece of clothing to put on but it looks like I spend way more time getting ready than I actually do. ”

“I admire that,” Millie said and pointed to her jeans and white linen button down. “Why do you think I have a closet full of outfits just like this. It’s like a uniform in a way.”

“Better than black turtlenecks like Steve Jobs used to wear,”

“You’re far more stylish than Jobs.” Millie giggled.

“Now, if I can be half as successful!”

Millie pointed up to the sign being fastened into place. “This is a start!”

The man on the cherry picker yelled down for Holly to confirm the positioning before attaching the remaining bolts. Millie moved into the street and blocked traffic. She signaled to Holly when it was safe for her to stand in the road and have a good look.

Glad tears began to well in Holly’s eyes before she took it all in.

She stepped backwards over the uneven cobblestones, reassured in her choice of shoes, and held her hand over her brows like a visor.

The sign looked even better from her vantage point in the middle of the roadway, which meant that passing vehicles or pedestrians on the other side of the street would easily be able to see Cups & Cones while coming or going down Main Street.

“A little higher on the right side.” She motioned to the man in the cherry picker. “Other right,” she yelled and waved her hand.

As she waited to approve the adjustment, a nearby truck honked its horn wanting to be let through. Millie held up a finger to the lady in the front seat, while Holly stepped back for a view of the full scene.

“That’s it, boys!” someone behind her yelled out. Another opinion never hurts , she thought, as her rear end collided with something. She spun to see what she had run into and glimpsed a man doing the same turn-around.

“I beg your pardon,” the man said as he caught her gaze. “Are you alright?” he asked, and she knew from his voice who it was.

“Teddy? What are you doing here?” Holly said with a smile that hurt her cheeks.

“Me? What are you doing here?” His smile stretched with the delight at seeing her. “I’m leasing this empty store over here. I’m opening that chocolaterie that I mentioned.”

Holly looked past his body at the vacant space that she had just been using as a makeshift mirror and was now abuzz with activity.

No less than a dozen workers had arrived on site and busied themselves at demolishing whatever character had remained in the building.

She supposed, after having checked out the same place and rejected it, that the best way to renew it was to start from scratch too.

“But I thought you were just here for the summer.”

“I’m staying at the Foundry for the summer, or at least until the second floor of this building is ready for me to move into.”

He’s moving here? This was a development she hadn’t expected.

Was she happy about it? “You’re opening a shop too?

” She wanted to clap from the joy of knowing she would definitely be bumping into him again while suppressing the rising vomit in her gut for realizing she now had a direct competitor for the still-growing customer base in town.

When Christmas Cove was incorporated into Elizabethtown a year earlier, the beleaguered main street screamed for revitalization.

It was the main reason she had selected the Cove for her shop in the first place, which begged the question: What was his reason?

As though he read her mind, he said, “I visited a few months ago, and I’ve been working ever since on getting this project off the ground.”

The woman inside the waiting car honked her horn again. Teddy drew Holly to his side of the street, while Millie darted back the other way.

Millie waved her arms above her head. “I have to get to work. You okay?” she yelled past the few cars that had been waiting for them to move from the street, and Holly nodded.

“The sign looks great! I’m really excited for you.

” Millie ran down the sidewalk towards a pink Victorian house where she was working on a renovation.

“Your sign?” Teddy asked and shielded the sun from his eyes as he read the words hanging above her door. “Cups & Cones Creamery? Is that yours?”

“I told you I was opening an ice cream place.” She could feel the tension grow as the realization dawned on him. “Well, this is it. So, I guess we’re going to be neighbors.”

“Competitors,” he said under his breath, though she heard him just fine. His brows pinched. “I knew someone had leased that place. To be honest, it was my first choice, but someone snagged it before I could secure my funding. But I thought the name on the lease was Blake. Do you know him?”

Holly raised her hand like she was answering a pop quiz question. “That’s me, I’m afraid.” She put her hand out to shake his. “Blake Holly Hollis. Nice to meet you.”

Teddy shook her hand with the speed of a sloth as he processed the information. “Blake?” He paused. “If I had to lose the bid to someone, I suppose I’m glad it’s someone as nice as you are.”

His response was magnanimous, the way a properly raised man should behave. “I guess I’m happy that we’ll be seeing more of each other. When are you planning on opening?”

“As soon as possible. The challenge is finding workers around here,” he said.

“I know, it’s a nightmare with all the construction going on, the labor force hasn’t really caught up to the need.”