The Devine Doughnut Shop(63)

“Of course not.” Grace raised her voice. “We’re old, remember?”

The girls’ giggles faded, and soon they were just dots with a crescent moon and stars above them. Grace lay back in the sand and stared up at the sky. Sarah and Macy followed her lead.

“Remember when we used to lay on the grass and see what kind of animals or shapes the clouds were?” Grace asked.

“One of the first memories I have is of all three of us laying in the yard, just like we are now. Grace, then Sarah, and me,” Macy said. “Y’all told me that the clouds looked like a teddy bear. I couldn’t see it, but I believed you. I must’ve been about three years old. The next time I remember laying in the yard was when my mama died. We went to the backyard and laid down in the grass and looked up at the clouds that day, too.” She wiped her eyes on the sleeve of her shirt. “These are tears of joy that remind me that we’ve always had each other’s backs.”

“Yes, we have. I remember us doing that when our mama passed away,” Sarah said. “Grace was pregnant, I was home from my first year of college, and you had finished your sophomore year in high school. That’s when we took over the business. We saw a big fluffy cloud in the shape of a heart that day.”

Grace sat up, pulled her feet out of the water, and laced her arms around her knees. “We fell into a schedule that summer, and I felt so bad that you had to give up so much, Macy, to help us. Maybe this time away will help make up for that.”

Macy stared up at the stars a little longer, then sat up. “I agree with what Raelene said. If tonight is all I ever got, seeing this and feeling the peace I’ve got in my heart right at this moment just sitting here and listening to the surf . . .” She paused and took a breath before she went on. “It would be worth every day I’ve worked at the shop. And FYI—as the girls say—I don’t feel like I gave up anything at all. I’ve had the support and love of family all my life.”

“We all have,” Sarah said. “I don’t know which is more impressive: the surf or the sky. We’ve got the same moon and the same stars at home, but somehow, they seem brighter here. If we ever decide to move from Devine, this is where I want to live. Think they’d sell us this hotel? We could pool our money and run a place like this rather than spend the rest of our lives making doughnuts. Or we might buy that vacant building across the street and make pastries.”

“I’d rather just retire—” Grace was just about to finish that thought when her phone pinged.

She dug it out of her hip pocket to find a text from Travis: I hope I didn’t wake you, but Claud called me. Are you really out of town? We have a date on Wednesday.

“Dammit!” she swore. “I forgot to call Travis and cancel our date.”

She quickly typed out a message to send back that said the family had taken an impromptu two-week trip to Florida. “‘So sorry,’” she said out loud as she tapped out the words.

In a few seconds, her phone rang. When she saw that it was from Travis, she stood up and walked away from her sister and cousin a bit for privacy. “Hello. You’re up late.”

“I had to go over an acquisition, but it’s not unusual for me to work this late,” he said. “Is everything all right with you? Claud called to see how the bakery business was coming along and told me that you had closed up shop for two weeks.”

“It’s a long story,” Grace said.

“I’m not a stalker, I promise, and I respect your decision not to sell your business . . . but if I fly to Florida, is our date still on?” he asked.

“That . . .” Grace hesitated, not at all sure what to say.

“What?” Travis asked. “That it’s too far? That you think I’m a stalker? That the answer is no?”

“Why would you fly all the way down here for one evening? For one date?” she asked.

“Calvin and Delores have been fussing at me for ten years to take a little time off for me, so I would be staying more than just one day,” he said. “The company owns a beach house near Panama City Beach, and there’s an airport not far from there. If you’re anywhere close—”

“I am,” she butted in, “but why do you own a house here if you haven’t taken a vacation in ten years?” The thought of Travis flying that far just to take her to dinner and spending his first vacation in years with her was mind boggling.

“The company owns the house, and it’s for all of our employees to use when they need a place to stay for a family vacation,” Travis answered. “What do you say? Would it be okay for me to come down there?”

Travis Butler, owner of Butler Enterprises, was asking her, Grace Dalton, if it was all right for him to plan his vacation around her and her family? That blew her mind even more than him just being there for an evening. But it didn’t mean that she was trusting him not to have an angle for the trip—such as sweet-talking her out of her business.

“Are you sure about this? I believe you were originally going to pick me up at seven on Wednesday.”

“Why not make it Tuesday?” Travis asked.

Did she even have the right to subject all the women in her family to another person on their vacation?

“Unless you need it to be earlier or later,” Travis answered.