“When is inventory coming?” Sabrina asked, feeling suddenly out of the loop and hating it, even though it was likely her own fault.
“Bryce gave us some ideas for a few new ice cream flavors,” Tilda said. “We’re still working on a couple, but the test kitchen sent an email yesterday saying…” She squinted at her screen. “Ah, yes. Honey Bear and Island Dream are good to go. We should have some available a week or two after opening, so have them put on the menu. Good work, Bryce.”
Sabrina blinked as the meeting came to a close and her mother signed off, and the screen went black. She could hardly believe what she’d just heard, those new flavors soundingwaytoo familiar. She turned to Bryce.
“You barely even changed the names.”
Bryce looked confused. “I beg your pardon?”
“The flavors you stole from Get the Scoop. Honey Bear? Really? Lemme guess. Honey ice cream with doughnut pieces, right? Could Island Dream possibly be mango-pineapple with coconut?”
Only the red spots on Bryce’s cheeks gave him away. His expression stayed calm. Steely. “I didn’tstealanything. Nobody owns flavors, Sabrina. Taste combinations don’t belong to anybody.” And with that, he gathered his things and left the room behind Matt. Maggie and Grayson watched him go, then turned their gazes toward Sabrina in tandem, like they were one person. It would’ve been funny if Sabrina wasn’t so angry.
“Son of a bitch,” she muttered, gathering up her own things as Grayson and Maggie talked about what was being delivered that day.
“Um, Sabrina,” Maggie said, “Gray and I are headed back to the shop. Do you need a lift?”
She took a moment and pulled herself together, then smiled at Maggie. “I actually need to run back to my place for a few. I left something there I need to take care of. But thank you.” She didn’t add that the something she needed to take care of was her puppy. She hadn’t told anybody at Sweet Heaven about him, and she actually wasn’t quite sure why. Sprinkles was just something she’d decided to keep to herself for the time being, and in the next fifteen minutes, she was in her rental car and headed back to the house.
As soon as she slid her key into the lock, Sprinkles began to bark his high-pitched, adorable—and super piercing—puppy bark. Had anybody ever been as happy to see her as her dog? Like, ever? It was almost impossible to be sad when that little nugget of love was bouncing around in his crate, waiting to lick her face off.
“Well, hi there,” she said as she let him out of his crate and he jumped at her leg like it was his job. “Hi. Hi. Hi. How are you? Ready to go potty?” She slipped his harness over his little body, clipped his leash on, and out they went. The backyard of the house was actually fenced in, but she was in the mood for a walk. Between the disaster of running into Adley last night and Bryce’s stolen flavors—she didn’t care what he said, he had stolen them—her emotions were all over the place. It shouldn’t matter that Adley had been angry with her last night—she wasn’t doing anything wrong by showing up to a networking function. She shouldn’t care that Bryce had suggested new flavors to corporate—that’s how business was done.
But itdidmatter. And shedidcare, goddamn it.
The day was stupid hot already, and her suit jacket didn’t help. She took it off and draped it over her arm as she walked Sprinkles. Well, an acceptable facsimile of walking. It was more a series of stutter starts and stops, as he was still learning the leash. He’d pull out way ahead of her, and then she’d have to tug him. But they’d get it. She was actually surprised by the amount of patience she had with him. She’d never had a dog before, so she was getting as much of an education as Sprinkles was.
Her phone rang in the pocket of her dress pants, and she consideredletting it go to voice mail. It was likely Bryce. Or her mother. Or somebody at the shop calling with a problem. She didn’t have to respond right this second. But responsibility won out as she heard her mother’s voice in her head saying, “Yes, you actually do need to answerright this secondbecause that’s your job.” And the voice wasn’t wrong.
With a sigh, she slid the phone out, surprised to see Teagan’s face on the screen.
“Hey, bitch. What are you doing calling instead of texting? Everything okay?” She was stopped at a tree that Sprinkles found especially interesting.
“I don’t know. Woke up with an odd feeling, so decided I needed to hear your voice. Everything okay with you?” Teagan got what they called theirpokes, feelings that woke them up or interrupted their day and made them feel like they needed to touch base with a certain loved one for whatever reason. On occasion, their pokes had been alarmingly accurate. Once, their dad had just been in a car accident and suffered a broken arm. Another time, their sister had an allergic reaction to a bee sting. And they always seemed to know when Sabrina was struggling in some way.
“Yeah.” Then she made the mistake of letting a quiet sigh slip out, and Teagan was on it like a cat on a plate of tuna.
“I knew it. I knew something didn’t feel right. What’s going on?”
“I honestly don’t even know how to explain it, T.” And she didn’t. How did she put into words what she’d been feeling lately? How strangely her mindset had shifted? “I’m feeling really unbalanced. If that makes sense.”
“How so? Can you pinpoint it for me?”
Talking to Teagan had always made Sabrina feel better. Nobody got her like Teagan did. Even after they’d broken up. Even after Teagan had met and married Kyra. Sabrina would be lying if she didn’t say that there’d been some jealousy—or maybe envy was the better word. Teagan had found someone, settled down, and was now about to become a parent, while Sabrina did the same thing she’d always done. Alone. But still, they had a connection that would never be severed. When Teagan was hurting, Sabrina always knew it. And when Sabrina was floundering, Teagan could feel it.
She spent the next twenty minutes strolling with Sprinkles, lettinghim sniff and pee and pee and sniff to his little heart’s content while she tried to explain to Teagan everything that had happened and everything she’d felt about it over the past couple of weeks. Concluding with, “I feel like I’ve lost my passion for so much,” she felt her eyes well up, and she made a frustrated sound. “And I’m on the verge of fucking tears half the time.”
“Holy shit, this is serious.” Teagan was only half joking, and Sabrina knew it. “You are so not a crier.”
“Apparently, I am now.” She told Teagan about the night before at the networking meeting, when Adley had almost made her cry. “What is happening to me? Why am I struggling so much here? And honestly, T, why has it been so easy for me to just machete through all the competition for Sweet Heaven up until now? What kind of person is okay doing that?” She practically wailed the question, then nodded at the woman walking by who looked at her questioningly and put a couple extra steps between them. “Sorry,” she muttered to her. “I’m fine.”
“Babe, you are clearly not fine, and you need to figure this out.”
“That’s your sage advice? I need to figure this out? Listen, don’t bother sending me a bill for this session. I’m not paying it.”
Teagan’s laugh was husky. “Sorry about that. You know what I mean, though. None of this is like you. None of it. The Universe is talking to you. That’s what I think.” Never one for religion, Teagan preferred to think of their hunches and feelings and pokes as signs from the Universe. They didn’t believe in God per se, but they believed there wassomethingguiding them.
“Yeah? Well, I’d like to request that it speak a little more clearly because I have no idea what the fuck is going on with me, and I don’t like it. Not one bit.”