Page 39 of His Pickle Her Jam

What was the point of a brand if no one could read it?

The design was simple, done in black and white. The words looked handwritten, but neat, and at the bottom were outlined drawings of vegetables.

Not too detailed, but you could identify what they were. A carrot, a cucumber, okra, a tomato and garlic, onions, and some berries.

Simple. Easy to identify. And classy.

I exhaled, rubbing the top of my head.

There was just something about the store that just felt so right. Yeah, I’d be bummed if I lost. But I would be happy for Jan.

How could I not be?

She was everything.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN-JAN

Day 9 of Block Party Prepping (1 to go)

After a busy afternoon with Delani and a few of her staff taste testing for me, I whittled it down to three of my recipes.

One savory and two sweet.

“Okay, so we got the Garden Tomato Jam with Basil, the Cherry Cabernet Preserves, and the Strawberry Rhubarb Jam.”

“Yes, I love that one,” Delani said with her mouth full of Blueberry Cinnamon Chili Jam.

“Excellent,” I said, grinning like a lunatic.

Yes, I was happy I was finished, and I felt damn good about my creations. But that wasn’t why I was smiling.

Not really. And it wasn’t because I was excited about the competition, even though I was.

The oven timer went off, and I ran to get the thumbprint cookies I’d made for Buck. He’d been running an errand all day and didn’t come in the store after dropping me off earlier that morning, and I wanted to surprise him with something sweet.

“Mm, what are those?”

“Those are not yours!”

I laughed at the pathetic face Del made and dished out two cookies onto a napkin just for her.

“Thank you. Best friends come before boyfriends,” she teased.

“Uh huh,” I said. “You know, at my age, I feel weird calling David my boyfriend.”

“Oh my God! I can’t believe you call him David,” she squealed.

“Why? It’s his name.”

“Yeah, but he’s Buck,” Del replied like I was an idiot.

I rolled my eyes at her.

“He’s Buck to you guys, but to me, he’s David,” I said, still grinning as I boxed the cookies and hustled Delani outside.

“Oh my God! You two are so cute. I am so happy for you, Jan,” she squealed as I locked the front door.

I took a moment to look over the storefront and bit my lip. It wasn’t every day a girl like me got everything she ever wanted, but I wondered if winning this thing would be worth losing Buck.

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