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Zach let out a contented sigh, as if he was holding his breath this whole time and was finally able to relax. Blake beamed, turning to pepper his boyfriend’s cheek with kisses.

“So when will all of this start?” Calvin asked.

Jess glimpsed at Kevin. He eyed her as well.

“He told me we can finish out the summer season, then we’ll start having meetings this fall to discuss transitioning. He’ll retire in a few years and stay on as a silent partner.”

“You said yes?” Kevin asked softly.

She hesitated, then nodded. “Yes,” she uttered. “I accepted his offer.”

The whoops and cheers from the group had her beaming. Had her feeling satisfied after making the big decision less than an hour earlier.

Except for one of them, who remained silent.

Kevin stood up and wiped the sand from his khakis.

She got to her feet in response and stepped toward him. “Are you leaving?”

He nodded, his eyes on his sandals. “Yeah. I need to clear my head.”

“But—”

Kevin smiled and looked into her eyes. His expression was kind, but she knew it well. He was putting on a front, the same face she saw in the car earlier, the one he used when there were thoughts swirling in his head. When there was something he was hiding.

“Tell me,” she breathed. “What is it?”

He shook his head. “I’m happy for you, Jess. Really.”

Before she could respond, he was walking toward the bike he’d left next to the beachgrass. He hopped on, then rode down the sandy road without another word.

They barely spoke to each other for a week. Nothing more than cordial hellos in the mornings or simple conversations about placing orders for supplies.

It drove Jess mad.

She tried at the beginning of the week, inviting him to take Honey on a walk with her during breaks or making a joke when she delivered his daily kanelbullar. But all she got in response was a shy smile and a shake of his head. It almost felt like he had given up on her.

So…she baked. Lemon blueberry scones and sticky buns and more matcha latte cookies. She enjoyed the predictability of baking the perfect recipe, especially when everything else in her life felt like it was falling apart. Sifting flour and creaming sugar were easy, achievable tasks that she couldn’t fail at.

Jess had her headphones on, shuffling through her pop punk playlist on full blast, letting the music drown out her restless thoughts as she filled tart shells with a lemon curd.

The door to the kitchen swung open. Jess bolted upright and tore off her headphones, but her shoulders sagged when she saw it was only Zach.

“All right, everything is clean out there and ready for the morning. I need to refill the straws then I’ll be on my way,” he said.

She nodded, wordlessly pointing to the box above her.

Zach carefully lifted the box and grabbed a sleeve of straws, then gave her a nod and walked out.

Jess tossed her head back and sighed. This is getting ridiculous. She glanced over at the door and noticed a small blue plate with a kanelbullar on it, and realized she never delivered it to him, too distracted by her new lemon curd recipe to take a moment and walk to his side of the shop.

Almost as if her headphones had a mind of their own, she heard the music shift, the first verses of “You + Me” ringing loud enough to recognize from where they hung around her neck.

Jess removed her headphones and tossed them to the cabinet, then grabbed the plate and shoved open the door. The shop was quiet, which was to be expected—unless someone had a flat tire or some other bike repair need, no one popped into Port Wheels past four o’clock. She banked on that as she made her way around the tables and breezed past a small row of bikes, then turned the corner into Kevin’s workshop.

Instead of working on the bike hanging on the stand behind him, Kevin sat hunched over at the computer, eyebrows knitted together as he scrolled through a spreadsheet, completely oblivious to her approach. She silently paced forward, squinting her eyes to get a clearer look at the screen. Rows upon rows of numbers were listed, with color-coded columns and sections. Kevin clicked on a new tab below and another spreadsheet popped up, with a whole new color-coded system.

“What is that?” she blurted.