Cape Cod Kisses by Bella Andre, Melissa Foster Read Free Book Online Page B

was definitely a lot of frustration leading up to that point. She’d spent her youth trying to tame it, to make it straight and shiny, even going so far as to iron it to fit in with the other girls in her parents’ social circles. But when she was a teenager she’d given up and decided she was going to own her differences. At first it had been a way to rebel against her supremely prim parents, but it had quickly turned into something more. Shelley had come to appreciate all the ways she was different, from her taste in clothing to her spunky personality and inability to sit quietly and not give her opinion about things she didn’t agree with. By the time she was eighteen, she’d given up completely on the impossible task of pleasing her parents and had never looked back.
    “I’m Abby Rockwell, by the way.”
    Shelley smiled and held out her hand. “Shelley Walters.”
    Abby studied her more closely. “You know what—the more we talk, the more I feel like I’ve met you before.”
    Shelley would have remembered this vibrant woman if they’d ever met. “This is my first time to Rockwell Island.”
    “Welcome to the island.”
    “Thank you. I love it here already. Although if you happen to know where I can find a coffee shop, I’ll be in absolute heaven. I’m dying for a toffee latte.”
    “We have a diner on the corner of West and Wells. Just down the street to the right one block, then two blocks to the left and you’ll find it. They won’t have specialty coffees, although they do offer flavored creamers.” Abby sighed. “I love living in a small town, but the truth is we could really use a nice specialty coffee shop.”
    “With homemade pastries and cookies, too,” Annabelle added.
    Abby nodded. “I know the island book clubbers would love to have another place to meet, and the Tuesday-morning ladies’ group could meet there, too. Heck, we’re all so desperate for a great café that I’m sure it would be mobbed from the moment it opened its doors.”
    “Actually,” Shelley said with a smile, “I own a coffee shop in Maryland, where we offer more than twenty different types of specialty organic coffees, and baked goods, too.” Maybe it was the fact that she was having one of the best mornings ever, but she suddenly found herself saying, “I hadn’t really given much thought to expanding before, but do you really think a café would do that well here?”
    “Absolutely!” Abby said, while Annabelle nodded as well. “In fact, if that’s really something you would consider, you should meet my daughter, Sierra. She owns the Hideaway over on Main. She’s a chef, and she’s always talking about expanding the offerings on the island. And she’s a coffeeaholic. I bet you two would really hit it off.”
    “Watch out, though,” Annabelle said. “Sierra’s a total island girl. She’ll convince you to pick up and move here in about seven seconds.”
    “I’m going over there in about an hour,” Abby told Shelley. “Why don’t you stop by if you have time and I’ll introduce you?”
    “I’d love that. Thank you.” Shelley could hardly believe how friendly the people here were and how vested they were in the island.
    Between the idea of a sexy fling on a romantic island with the hottest guy she'd ever met—why not think positive?— and the new out-of-the-blue, but very exciting, possibility of bringing her coffee shop to the island, she was smiling like a fool as she headed out the door to see what else this magical island had in store for her.
     
    QUINN SAT AT a table in the Hideaway with the rest of his family, discussing their grandfather’s latest mandate. They’d been at it for an hour already, and between the work he had to prepare for the RBE merger and this nightmare with the resort, his frustration was mounting by the second.
    “Trent, honey, stop watching the door. Reese isn’t back on the island yet.” Their mother, Abigail Rockwell, smiled gently at her eldest son.