Stay Sweet(19)

Amelia watches Grady slip into the black Mercedes. “He’s a relative of Molly Meade. Her brother’s grandson.”

“What? No way!” Cate cranes her neck to see him better.

“Yes way.” Amelia rubs her temples. “They were the ones up at her house that night. And by the way, he totally knows we broke in.”

“Eek.”

“He wants me to show up at the stand tomorrow and give him my key.”

“Why are you bummed? He’s cute!”

Amelia slumps in her seat. The idea that anyone would think badly of her is one thing. The reality that a descendant of Molly Meade thinks she would do something as disrespectful as stealing ice cream from a dead woman’s stand is almost too much to bear.

“Do you think that’s all he wants? For me to return the key?”

Cate shrugs. “I mean, I guess there’s a chance he could ask you out. But it’s not like he lives around here, does he? So what would be the point?” She checks her mirrors and drives off. “Is that what you were thinking?”

It wasn’t. But the truth—that Amelia was hoping there might still be a chance for the ice cream stand—feels too embarrassing to admit.





CHAPTER TEN


AMELIA BARELY SLEEPS. BY MORNING, she’s trying to focus on the one silver lining in this terrible misunderstanding—that Molly Meade has family who will take care of her estate now that she’s gone. That she wasn’t as alone as everyone in Sand Lake assumed. Amelia is still mortified by what Grady must think of her and the girls for doing what they did, stealing ice cream from his great-aunt. Though, thankfully, he was cool about it, she feels their actions have tarnished the entire stand girl legacy, made them appear childish, immature. In this way, handing over her key to Grady almost feels like appropriate penance.

She pours herself a bowl of Cap’n Crunch, and though she should be looking over the materials from the bank before tomorrow’s interview, she instead turns on the small flat-screen on the kitchen counter. She loves watching game shows. Her secret talent is guessing the prices of supermarket items, and breakfast cereal is her specialty. It’s always more expensive than contestants assume it’ll be. She’s leaning against the counter, watching as a man celebrates winning his-and-hers Jet Skis, when her phone buzzes with a text from her dad.

Did you see the big news in today’s paper?

Dad starts every day by reading the Sand Lake Ledger even though it’s barely a real newspaper and doesn’t offer much beyond high school sports scores, garage sale listings, and the local police blotter. Amelia spots it on the kitchen table, exactly where he left the copy with Molly’s obituary for her a couple of days ago.

She carries her cereal bowl over. The newspaper is unfolded to a huge color photograph taking up the front page. It’s of Grady Meade, smiling broadly in front of the Meade Creamery stand, hands clasped behind his back, feet spread shoulder width apart. He’s wearing the same deep blue suit he had on at the funeral yesterday, but his tie has been loosened, his pants rolled up just above his ankles, and he’s changed out of his wing tips and into a pair of black Adidas soccer flats. His sunglasses are off. His eyes are as blue as the sky.

The headline reads YOUNG ENTREPRENEUR TO TAKE OVER LOCAL FAMILY BUSINESS.

The spoon slips from Amelia’s hand and plunks into her bowl. Splatters of milk pucker the page.

Grady Meade, 19, is a currently a sophomore business major at Truman University. His original plan for the summer had been to backpack across Europe with his fraternity brothers on an unlimited rail pass. When he discovered that Molly Meade had left him the Meade Creamery ice cream stand in her will, he decided the chance to put his education to use in Sand Lake was too valuable an experience to pass up.

Amelia lowers herself into her seat, blinking in disbelief. Molly Meade left her ice cream stand, her all-girl ice cream stand, to . . . a boy?

“It’s an incredible learning opportunity. Better than a traditional internship, where you’re just watching from the sidelines. I’ll put the skills I’ve been learning at Truman into practice.”

While the last few days have been something of a whirlwind for this Chicago native, one thing that didn’t surprise Grady Meade was to learn that the Meade Creamery ice cream stand is a fixture in the lakes region, and he is keen to continue the legacy his great-aunt saw fit to entrust him with.

“Both my father and his father before him have been extraordinarily successful businessmen. Seeing what my great-aunt Molly has built only reinforces that the Meades are born entrepreneurs.”

Mr. Meade is currently thinking of ways to bring the legendary ice cream stand into the twenty-first century. “Obviously social media is huge right now, and so I’d like to create an online identity where consumers can connect with the stand.” One modern problem he claims to have solved already? “For the first time, Meade Creamery will be a gender-diverse workplace.”

And of course, there’s the question that will be front and center in the minds of his customers—will the ice cream taste as good? To this query, Mr. Meade simply grins. “I’m well aware that my great-aunt’s recipes are the most valuable thing I’ve inherited.”

Meade Creamery will reopen this Tuesday.

Amelia reads the last line twice more before it sinks in.