Page 57 of Cherry on Top

“No,” she said firmly. “We have this. I promise. Take the night off. You deserve it, and I can tell it bothered you.”

“We’ll see how busy it is when I finish up swapping out this ice cream,” Will said. Sure that it would get busy and the three of them wouldn’t be able to handle themselves.

But when he finished lugging the last of the new buckets in and piling the older ice cream on top, he realized when he looked up that it had gotten busier, but his employees were handling it alright. Not to the point where he’d feel okay leaving for weeks and going to Tybee, but enough that he could take this bad mood out of here.

“See?” Kate asked under her breath, as he surveyed the line, moving fairly quickly, and the happy families and couples, gathering around various tables.

“But I had yesterday off,” Will said.

Kate threw her arms up. “Oh my God, two evenings off in a row! What will happen!”

It was impossible not to laugh at Kate’s dramatics. “I guess I’ll see you in the morning,” he finally said, because one of the things he had learned from his family was the technique of letting go.

“We’ll call you if we need you, but don’t expect a call. Enjoy Enzo,” Kate said, shooting him a knowing grin.

Will laughed. “Noted.”

But he had no intention of finding Enzo and poisoning him with his bad mood.

Instead, Will stopped by his room at the Inn, and for the first time since he’d taken it, began to think that maybe it was time to look around for a more permanent kind of home. If he was really building a life here, why was he continuing to live in Joy’s bed and breakfast?

Maybe he couldn’t really blame his parents for thinking he wasn’t staying permanently in Indigo Bay once Cherry’s was established, if he was literally still living in a hotel?

He grabbed a few things and then headed out, to the place he always visited when he felt like he needed to just get out and have a few minutes to himself.

The walk was short, and he knew it like the back of his hand now, even in the dusk with all its lengthening shadows.

He climbed the dunes, between the reeds, and took his first deep breath of sea air.

This time Enzo decided it would be his responsibility to make sure Will took a break and had dinner.

He popped down to the deli, ordered two sandwiches of his favorite cold cuts, full of cool, crisp shredded iceberg, juicy ripe tomatoes, and sharp thin slices of red onion, all doused in the Morettis’ famous homemade dressing. But when he pushed open the door of Cherry’s, he was surprised to not see Will behind the counter.

Kate looked over at him, a startled expression on her face. “Enzo! I thought Will was with you.”

“Uh . . .no?” Enzo’s fingers itched to reach for his phone and check it, because maybe Will had sent him a text to meet him somewhere else for dinner? But he knew his inbox was empty because he’d been staring at it while he’d been down at the deli, waiting for them to put the sandwiches together. “I thought we were eating together.”

Kate’s smile was sad. “Ah, well, that makes sense. He was in a rotten mood so I sent him away. To be with you, I assumed, but he probably didn’t want to talk about it.”

“Did something happen?”

Kate shrugged. “His parents are difficult.” She shot him a frank look. “You wouldn’t know anything about that.”

“Not a thing,” Enzo said. “Where did he go, do you think?”

“You’re going after him,” she said with an approving nod.

He didn’t tell her that it wasn’t because, like the whole town assumed, he was falling wildly in love, but the truth was, with what they’d already shared, he’d have done it anyway.

He understood enough to know it was worse to be alone, even when you thought it was what you needed.

“Yeah, of course I am,” Enzo said.

“You’re not what I remember.”

“You’re not what I remember either. You were a punk and a brat in high school. Lots of dyed black hair and thick eye makeup,” Enzo said with a grin.

Kate laughed. “You know the big dune?” Then she paused, still chuckling. “Of course you do. You grew up here. He’ll be over that way.”

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