Stay Sweet(88)

Before Amelia leaves the farmhouse, she takes something else.

Grady’s business school textbooks from the trash. She’s due for some new reading material anyway.





CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE


AMELIA CRAMS LIKE IT’S SENIOR year finals all over again, only for classes she didn’t know she was enrolled in. The textbooks are more conceptual than practical, but she still does her best, trying to soak up relevant information as fast as she possibly can. The math is a little over her head too. There are, obviously, a million things she’ll need to learn.

She’ll get there.

She is at the library when it opens, pulling business books off the shelf. Making photocopies of pages, highlighting more paragraphs than not.

Hours pass and she’s not even aware.

Whenever Amelia watched Grady study, his posture was hunched; he’d groan like reading was physical labor. But every sentence she absorbs gives Amelia energy, motivation.

She does her best to put together a business plan. What she might need to get set up and running. How much things are worth—from the equipment to the recipes.

So Meade Creamery can’t survive in its current form.

That doesn’t mean it needs to fail.

Instead of being rigid, holding on so tightly to the way things have always been, Amelia now focuses on the fresh. The possible.

The ice cream will never change. But why couldn’t everything else?

There’s only one thing standing in her way.

Money.

*

Over dinner that night, she shares her plans with her parents.

“I have some news. Grady Meade has decided to sell the Meade family farm. But I’m trying to find a way to keep the ice cream stand going.”

Her mom and dad share a look.

“I want to buy the business. Molly’s recipes, her equipment, and an old food truck that Grady bought at the beginning of the summer. I thought he was nuts, but now I think that could be Meade Creamery’s new home. All I would need is a space to produce—”

“I’m sorry,” Mom says. “I’m confused. You want to buy the ice cream stand?”

“What about college?” Dad says, baffled. “Are you dropping out of college?”

Amelia laughs. “Of course not! This isn’t going to derail anything. I can do it just like Molly did. In the summers. And actually, I might even try to take some business courses at Gibbons.” From her bag she pulls out Grady’s dog-eared textbooks. “I’ve been working on a business plan. Mom, I’d love you to take a look at it. It’s probably not formatted correctly, but maybe you can help me with that.”

Amelia pushes the papers across the table. Her mother glances down briefly, hesitant to really look.

“This is a thing that I love and I’m good at,” Amelia says. “I thought you’d be happy for me.” In fact, she’s stunned that they clearly aren’t.

“But there’s a whole wide world out there, Amelia. Why stay tied to this place? What if you find a great internship?”

Amelia knows it’s true that she’ll be giving up something to do this. Some of the freedom of a “typical” college experience, because she’ll be dealing with the real issues of running a business. But that doesn’t scare her. “This is what I like. This is what I’ve always liked. And I have the chance to make it mine.” She’s pleading, and they are giving her nothing. “Come on, Mom. I know you do this for a living. You help people who need money. I need you to help me.”

Instead of leaning closer, her mom sits back in her chair. “Sweetie . . . I’m sorry, but this is a little half-baked, don’t you think?”

Amelia’s dad stands next to her mother. “Do you know how hard it is to run a business?”

At this, Amelia actually smiles. “Believe me, I do. I truly do.”

But they turn from her, begin passing plates and side dishes, passing salad dressing and the pepper mill, saying nothing more. Amelia sits back, dumbfounded. Her parents have supported her through everything.

Years, months, even weeks ago, this absolutely would have stopped her. Or at least, given her pause.

But not now. She’s that sure of herself.

*

After dinner, Amelia goes upstairs with Grady’s textbooks. There are other ways of getting money. It doesn’t have to be through a bank. She draws her fingers down the index, stopping on the word Fund-raising.





CHAPTER FORTY-SIX


AT THE FARMHOUSE THE NEXT day, Amelia finds the hallway lined with overstuffed trash bags.

“Grady?”

“Uh, in here.”

She follows his voice into the kitchen, where he is wrapping Molly’s dishes in newspaper.

“Hi.”

He looks nervously at her, like he’s been caught doing something he shouldn’t. “I’m sorry. But I’m going to have to deal with this stuff eventually.” He swallows. “If you want anything of Molly’s, let me know.”

“Actually . . . that’s why I’m here.”

“Okay.”

“I have a proposition. I want to take over Meade Creamery.”

“I’m sorry, Amelia. I’m already getting bids on the land.”

“Sell the farmhouse, sell the land. But I want the ice cream machinery, the rights to the recipes, the truck. I’m going to fix it up, relocate production, and relaunch Meade Creamery as a mobile business next summer.”