Page 134 of Bonfire and Bliss Bookstore

I frown. “I wasn’t aware you needed saving.”

“You left me alone with Rayna McGovern for ten minutes.”

“It was five tops,” Tally interjects.

He grunts. “I was trying to help you.”

Walker finally appears and pushes Rosie closer to me so he can sit next to Tally.

“The girls are only out for themselves,” he mumbles to Monty. “The sooner you realize that, the better you’ll be.” Then he wraps an arm around my sister and presses a kiss to her forehead.

Rosie arches a brow in my direction. “If you two start canoodling during the town meeting, I’m leaving.”

I tap my cup against hers in solidarity. “Where’s Billie?”

“Quinn had a school project,” Walker explains before looking pointedly at my sister. “I offered to help him but someone said I needed to be here.”

“Oh, shush, you know you love town meetings. Besides, we’re voting on Eli’s store name and you’re his best friend.”

“So he keeps reminding me,” Walker grumbles.

***

Two hours later Walker’s best friend looks downright miserable.

“But I don’t even serve frosties!” Eli moans from the stage. It’s after nine and we’ve been debating the name of his Ice Cream Barn for hours. It seems everyone has settled on using Fireflies as part of the title—since it’s Hope Harbor’s town mascot—but all the F words that have been suggested aren’t flying.

“Well, it’s better than frozen,” Rayna says with a huff. “Besides, I love a frosty, so maybe you should serve them.”

“What about fantastic?” someone else shouts.

“What does that have to do with ice cream?” Babs counters.

“Nothing.” Eli groans. “Why can’t we just leave it as the Ice Cream Barn? People get it. We serve ice cream. In a barn.”

“I still think Ice Cream with the Ice Man is the best option,” Stew pipes up.

Eli rolls his eyes. “No.”

“Okay, we’re not getting anywhere on this.” Fletcher stands up. “Why don’t we table this until the next meeting? Everyone can send in suggestions to the town chat in the meantime, and we’ll take a vote there.”

“Before we let everyone go…” Rayna interrupts, much to Fletcher’s dismay, “I wanted to update everyone on the amount that we have raised so far through the Maple Festival!”

“Is it enough for the hot tub?” Babs hollers.

Rayna glances in my direction and I swear she winks at me.

“More. In fact, we’ve done such a good job raising money over these past few months that we were able to fund a whirlpool for the senior center. But, not only that, we also had enough to cover a gift to thank Penelope Darling for all her hard work.”

I frown and glance at Monty, though he’s smiling at me as if he’s not surprised by Rayna’s speech at all.

“What’s going on?” I murmur out of the corner of my mouth as she heads toward me and hands me an oversized box wrapped in gold paper.

Monty’s smile only grows. “Open the town’s gift, Penelope.”

My brows furrow with suspicion as I rip the paper off to reveal the packaging for a brand-new laptop.

“There’s no way,” I whisper, shaking my head.