Sweet Love
Lolah Lace
SWEET LOVE
By
Lolah Lace
Copyright © 2020
By
Lolah Lace
www.lolahlace.com
Cover Design by LLPro
Edited by Camille Crawford
3rd Edition
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This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
Contents
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Epilogue
About the Author
Novels by Lolah Lace
Prologue
KATRINA
I should’ve known my sister would do this to me. She’d run off with some man and left all her family responsibilities to me. Not just any man, he was her boyfriend. I was seventy percent happy for her and thirty percent jealous.
I hated to admit it was my turn to take the reigns. Long ago I moved away to go to college. I went to Northern Illinois University where I received my English Literature degree. I didn’t have much of a hand in the family business after that. I never returned to this town for more than a mere visit. Or when there was some family emergency. I was far removed from this quiet country living.
I made myself a brand new life three and a half hours away. I didn’t actually run away from this town. A brisk walk would be the best way to describe my hasty departure.
I truly believed I did my part from afar. I made sure a professional accountant did the taxes for the shop. I also did a few other things like purchased a more efficient security system. I bought a new cash register with a scanner. I also bought this huge digital scale to weigh the candy. My sister was still using that old fashioned scale that looked like a wall clock with a bucket underneath it.
I was the uppity daughter that moved to the big city. My younger sister Cherise was the good daughter that ran the family business like a boss. My brother, he was just related to us by blood. Coming back to town for an extended stay was never on my to-do list but I was here and I had to suck it up and make the most of it.
The town of Galena was a beautiful place that hadn’t modernized much over the last few decades. That was precisely what made the place pleasant and charming. The population loomed somewhere around four thousand. When I lived here the population was less than half of what it is now.
Things here in Galena were different from the overpopulated city of Chicago. I always claimed Chicago as my home even though the reality of it was I lived in the nice quaint and culturally diverse suburb of Naperville. Chicago, Naperville, places far enough away from my hometown. Small town Galena was where I was going to have to spend three entire months of my summer. I tried to not think about it.
Things weren’t in complete disarray when I walked into Sweet Treats, my family-owned store. The little sugar shack had been in my family for fifty years. My parents grew up poor so maintaining and acquiring this shop was a dream come true for them. Sweet Treats was one of the first Black-owned businesses in Galena.
I was proud of this place but I preferred to show my admiration from afar. Not an option, not today, someone had to run this place. My sister was off gallivanting and I guess it was my turn to be in charge of Candyland.
My parents were fast approaching eighty. They weren’t up for running the store or dealing with all the new technology that came with overseeing a successful business. My sister Cherise told me flat out, it was my turn to man the fort because she was going to kick it in the streets. I heed and hawed but I had to give her a break. She did a lot in my absence. She ran the store, took care of our elderly parents and watched over our trifling ass little brother. I couldn’t really say no to Cherise. She did an awful lot for everybody. She was giving and selfless. Our parents willed fifty percent of the candy store to me, and the other to Cherise. I had to do my part, no matter how small.
I kissed Cherise good-bye just yesterday. I was the oldest so I gave her a long lecture about overseas viruses, not drinking tap water in foreign countries, wearing sunscreen, watching your bags, not leaving your drinks unattended. Cherise’s boyfriend was from Trinidad so most of their summer would be spent there. She had two Caribbean cruises in the midst of her idyllic summer
