This was right. The quaint shops and clean sidewalks. The people waving to each other as they passed. A few even waved to me as I rolled down the road. How cute was that? Something good would happen here.
It had to.
I couldn’t slip backwards into the black hole of depression that had claimed me after—
“Okay,” I said to my spirit guides. “It’s not that I’m doubting you because you’re the ones in the know and all that, but could you please give me a sign that I’m on the right path? Just a little nudge is all I need. After that, I promise I’ll relax.”
I paused for a response, which was silly. The signs were never as cut and dry as “Hey Amelia! You’re on the right path!” I’d just need to keep my eyes, heart, and mind open, and the sign would present itself.
On a whim, I parked in front of Sweet Stuff, a candy store owned by Evie’s soon to be sister-in-law. I climbed out of my vintage convertible VW Beetle, and lifted my arms, stretching the kinks out of my body as my bracelets clinked down my wrist. A breeze rustled the boho skirt around my ankles and my blonde hair across my back and shoulders. I inhaled the fresh ocean air and tilted my face toward the sun, then straightened my tank top—one I’d designed myself—and headed inside.
Izzy Prescott looked up as the bells over the door jangled. Her brown curls were pulled back off her face and bright red lipstick highlighted her strong bone structure. She would have looked amazing in the fashion popular in the fifties. “Well hey there! Evie said you’d be coming in today, but I didn’t think I’d see you until tonight’s party.”
“I didn’t want to show up empty-handed.” I surveyed the walls of candy bins, the inviting displays of chocolate and foreign sweets, the pastel neon signs and emojis on the wall. “I forgot how much I love this place.”
“Once you see what I just got in, you’re gonna love it even more.” Izzy came around the corner like a proud momma and linked her arm with mine, walking me to a display table of exotic soda in decorative glass bottles. “Some are from Britain, others from France, Italy, Japan. They come in crazy flavors.” She reached into the stack and pulled out a slim bottle with delicate designs etched in the glass. “Something tells me you’d like this one. It’s elderflower and rose and I was skeptical as hell, but it’s tasty.”
I took the soda and studied the label. Elderflower and rose? It could be amazing…or…not so much. Either way, I had to know. I’d try anything once. Hell, maybe even twice or three times. If something kept showing up in my life, there was a reason and I’d go with the flow until I figured out why.
“Sounds intriguing.”
“That’s what I thought you’d say.” Izzy grinned. “If you’re shopping for Evie and Alex though, don’t forget to grab a bag of jellybeans.”
“Perfect.” I pulled a giant bag out of the stack and filled it to the brim with jellybeans, then selected a wide range of soda flavors and lined them along the counter. Izzy rang everything up, then put it all in small cardboard box as the bells over the door twinkled with the arrival of another customer.
A tornado of children blasted into the store, shrieking excitement as a deep voice boomed, “Garrett! Connor! Charlie! Stop running, you knuckleheads!”
Hefting the overflowing box into my arms, I turned just in time for two little blond boys to trip each other and stumble into my path. I side-stepped, the jellybeans and soda bottles wobbling wildly, only to stagger into a little girl spinning in circles. I lost control of the box and the entire thing crashed to the floor at the feet of their father.
The bottles shattered, spraying soda up our legs as jellybeans scattered across the floor. For a brief second, time froze. The kids stopped moving and screaming as they stared at the mess. My gaze crept up a pair of soda-covered khakis, past trim hips and a white button down, to broad shoulders, then finally to the brightest pair of blue eyes I had ever seen. Dark curls accentuated stubble-covered cheeks and full lips. Shock, embarrassment, and the tiniest of smiles tangoed across his face as our eyes met and all the breath left my lungs.
This was it. The sign I’d asked for. Sure, on the outside it looked like a disaster, what with both of us coated in sugar syrup and all. But the moment had this air of importance and the gravity of life-changing experience written all over it.
It was in the way his gaze skated across my face, gentle and questioning, yet oddly familiar. It was in the tired circles under his eyes and the hopeful smile quirking his lips.
This was my sign…and he was flippin’ hot.
The stranger cocked his head as time thawed and the kids started screaming accusations at each other.
“Well hello there…” I lifted a hand to wiggle my fingers.
With the broken glass safely inside the box, no one was in danger of being hurt, but the mess was already big enough without three children trampling through it in an attempt to dodge blame. I reclaimed my attention from the man in front of me and turned to the kids, holding out my hands as if I was taming raptors.
“Hey now,” I said in my gentlest voice. “Let’s be nice to each other. You only get one family.” My heart cracked at the thought, but I glued that right up with a heavy dose of staying in the moment—the sticky, sweet smelling moment.
All three children stopped moving, stopped
