Page 53 of Sweet Surrender

“Thank you,” she told him, suddenly looking almost as excited as the kids. “They’ll be talking about this forever.”

“I’ll just let Charlotte know what’s going on,” he told her.

Cal held the door open for him and he headed in.

“Hey, Cal,” Charlotte said happily. “Hi, Zane. How’s it going?”

“I uh, invited their class to come in for free samples,” he admitted right away. “I hope that’s okay.”

“It’s your shop,” Charlotte laughed. “And it’s more than okay. That’s awesome. They’ll be talking about it forever.”

“That’s what Miss Hawthorne said,” Cal told her with a big smile.

Zane headed over with the barrel as Cal darted back out to join his class. When he reached the counter, he could see Becca still talking to the children outside.

“Oh, she’s good,” Charlotte told him. “She’s making sure they behave.”

“I’m sure they will,” Zane said, immediately doubting himself. But Becca did seem to have things under control.

“Okay, children,” she said as Cal opened the door for her. “Let’s all do just what we planned and stay in a nice line, two-by-two.”

Sure enough, the children filed in after her in pairs, practically filling in the whole shop by the time they were all inside.

“Mr. Lawrence is Cal and Nick’s father,” Becca told the children. “And this is their Aunt Charlotte.”

The children all saidhelloorhipolitely.

“Now, there’s one thing I’d like to ask before we get started,” Becca said to Zane. “Do you have any flavors that don’t have allergens?”

Food allergies,he thought to himself in a panic.How didn’t I think of that?

Obviously the barrel of moose tracks he’d just brought in had every allergen there was—dairy, chocolate, peanuts…

“We have Sor-Baby Houseman,” Charlotte said quickly. “That’s a dairy-free vanilla sorbet.”

She looked up at Zane worriedly. Naturally, that sorbet was the one item that wasn’t made in-house, for obvious reasons. But it was important to have an option for folks with food allergies. It was pretty expensive, so much so that they sold each cup at a loss. But it was worth it to see the smiles on children’s faces when they learned there was a treat they could enjoy, even if they had an allergy.

“That’s exactly what we were planning to give out as free samples from nine until nine fifteen this morning,” Zane said right away. “We want to know if it’s tasty enough to be sold in our shop, since it isn’t made at our farm.”

Becca looked relieved enough to fall over.

“Would you guys like some free samples?” Zane asked, suddenly feeling super cheerful and not nervous at all.

The children all cheered, Cal and Nick most of all, and Zane and Charlotte got right to work, scooping out small servings of sorbet.

“Why is it called Sor-Baby Houseman?” one child wanted to know.

“Oh, it’s named for one of the cows on the farm,” Charlotte said. “And the cow is named for a movie calledDirty Dancing. Maybe you’ll watch it when you’re older.”

“I know that one,” a little girl near the back said wisely. “It’s anoldie movie.”

Zane tried not to laugh as he scooped another cup and handed it off. His mother wouldnotbe pleased to hear one of her favorite movies referred to as anoldie. She was the one who had named the beloved bottle-fed calf after the main character. And Baby was just the right cow to name the sorbet for, since she never was able to give milk. However, Baby contributed to the herd with her sweet nature, providing a calming influence on some of the more nervous animals.

After a few minutes, the children were all seated or standing quietly, enjoying their sweet treat.

“Thank you so much for this,” Becca said, approaching the counter. “It was really thoughtful of you to give them samples of a different ice cream.”

“Well, you don’t want to rely on kids this age to tell you whether or not they’re allergic to something,” Zane said. “Besides, this way no one has to feel bad for getting something different than everyone else.”

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