Summer Love by Piper Rayne
Chapter One
“She’s… beautiful.” Zoey Hutcherson pressed a hand to her chest and shook her head, unable to contain her delight.
In fairness, containing any kind of emotion wasn’t Zoey’s strong suit. Her brother called her the World’s Worst Poker Player for a reason—whatever entered her mind may as well be scribbled across her face in red ink. Tells? She had a hundred of them.
“I don’t know if beautiful is the word I’d use.” Gwen Marsh, Zoey’s best friend and soon-to-be business partner, cocked her head.
The vintage Volkswagen Westfalia camper, Zoey’s latest purchase, sat in front of them. It had seen better days. Aside from being painted a hideous shade of pond scum green, it had a cracked side window and a nasty-looking dent in the back, where apparently it had “nudged” a bollard of some kind. Oh, and the engine wasn’t working. The owner had paid to have it towed over and now it was sitting in the driveway like an oversized paperweight.
“You can’t base your opinion on what you see now,” Zoey said, slinging her arm around Gwen’s shoulders and gesturing with her other hand. “You have to base it on the potential.”
“What if all I see is potential for this to become a financial disaster?” Gwen frowned. “I know you wanted to go the DIY route and all, but…”
“But what?”
“Would you want to eat something that came out of that?”
Zoey sighed. Okay, so Gwen had a point. But what her friend saw as an ugly hunk of metal, Zoey saw as a good bit of earth waiting for some seeds to be planted. She saw their food truck business blossoming and growing. With Zoey’s expert coffee-making skills and Gwen’s talent for making addictive sweet treats, Sweet on You would be a success.
Patterson’s Bluff might be a small Aussie town where things changed at a snail’s pace, but if there was one thing people could agree on, it was that food was life. They had bakeries, pubs, restaurants and cafes galore—and with the growing tourism each summer, Zoey knew they could make their business a success. Besides, the best thing about a food truck was how portable it was! They could seek opportunities all up and down the coast.
“All it needs is a bit of TLC,” she said, squeezing Gwen’s shoulders. “A fresh coat of paint, a new window, and some elbow grease for the interior and we’ll be ready to go. Dad came with me to have a look at it and he’s certain he can fix whatever is wrong with the engine. He won’t charge us, either. Perks of having a dad who’s a mechanic.”
“You’ve thought of everything,” Gwen said, with a laugh. “I guess I’m still feeling shell-shocked by this. I mean, I only came back home a month ago and we had one tipsy conversation about going into business together, and now…”
Zoey nodded. She did have a tendency to jump into things with both feet and Gwen was the kind of person who put in hours of research before she’d even buy a lipstick. They were opposites, even on the outside. Gwen was all shiny blond hair and minimal makeup, and Zoey’s hair could best be described as “inspired by My Little Pony.” But in her mind, that was the precise thing that made them such good friends—they balanced each other out.
“Are you having second thoughts?” Zoey asked. “I thought you didn’t want to go back to working in an office.”
“I don’t.” Gwen shook her head. “I’m done with chasing the corporate dream, at least for now. I want to be here, and I want to be doing this, too. But it’s a big change in how I saw my life turning out, that’s all.”
Zoey had never harboured big dreams like her best friend. Growing up, school wasn’t a concern, because her mind was stuck on more immediate problems like whether or not there would be food in the house or if her mother was going to be passed out drunk on the living room floor. It was hard to have dreams when survival wasn’t certain. But it had taught Zoey that she needed to seize every moment and never be too afraid to make a leap, because what if tomorrow didn’t come?
Life was for living, not for fearing.
“I’m glad you’re home,” she said quietly. “I missed you a lot.”
Gwen’s face bloomed into a smile. “I missed you a lot, too. The worst thing about Perth was the fact that I didn’t get to see you every day.”
Differences aside, their friendship was one of the highlights of Zoey’s life.
“What’s the next step?” Gwen asked.
“We need to get a roadworthy certificate, and Dad said he can help with that after all the repairs are completed. We also need to have a general safety inspection.” Zoey pulled the door open and showed off the inside. “The guy who owned it before put in a decent size fridge and chest freezer, because he used to set up on the beach and sell drinks. That means we have heaps of room to chill things like milk for the coffee and any of your desserts that need to be kept cold.”
“I was thinking we could do ice cream sandwiches, but gourmet ones where the biscuits are dipped in chocolate and decorated with nuts or edible glitter or fancy sprinkles. Or we could use ANZAC biscuits instead.” Gwen’s eyes lit up. “Oh, and we could try deconstructed pavlova! Think of how refreshing it would be to have a cup with some fresh whipped cream and chewy bits of meringue and pieces of fruit.”
“See, this is why I know it will work. You’re an amazing baker and I make awesome coffee. People will want what we’re selling.” A feeling of excitement bubbled up in Zoey’s chest. Her gut was telling her that Sweet on You was a great idea—a dessert food truck with Aussie-inspired sweet treats and delicious coffee made by two locals was bound to be a hit. “But can you please stop, because I haven’t had lunch and I’m salivating at the thought of all that.”
“Good thing I brought those cupcakes you requested.” Gwen went to her car and retrieved a plastic container with a high lid. “Two coconut lime, two banana nut, and two dark chocolate mint.”
“It would be a crime for you to be stuck working in an office when you can make things like this.” Zoey took the box from her friend, ignoring how Gwen rolled her eyes at the comment. They didn’t see eye-to-eye on Gwen losing her big fancy HR job—she saw it as a massive failure, but Zoey saw it as an opportunity. “But they aren’t for me.”
“No?” Gwen raised an eyebrow. “Who are they for?”
“Mack.”
Since Gwen’s eyebrow was already raised, it couldn’t go any higher without flying off the top of her head. “Brian MacDermot?”
“The one and only.”
Nobody called Brian by his real name. He’d been Mack as long as Zoey had known him, which must have been coming up on seventeen years now. She’d met him in the second week of grade four when her big brother, Sean, had brought a friend home from school. To say she’d been instantly smitten was an understatement.
To say she was still harbouring the world’s most epic long-time crush was also an understatement.
“Dare I ask?” Gwen replied with an amused smile.
“I don’t want to go into the safety inspection blind and since that’s Mack’s field of expertise, I thought he could help.” Mack was a construction site safety manager, which was a little different to what the insurance company would require… but safety was safety, right? It couldn’t be that different. “I thought he’d be able to catch things that might trip us up.”
Gwen still had an amused expression on her face, which said she thought Zoey’s reasoning was ninety-nine percent bullshit and one percent bending the truth.
“Shut up,” Zoey grumbled, holding the container close to her chest.
Gwen held both hands up. “I didn’t say a word.”
Was this an excuse to see Mack? Maybe. But did it serve her business purposes to do some extra due diligence? Absolutely. Therefore, as far as she was concerned, that absolved her of any ridicule. Besides, she did value his opinion and she’d welcome any opportunity to have his practical, level-headed input at a crucial stage of setting up her business. It had nothing to do with Mack’s broad chest and warm brown eyes, or the delicious intensity he’d had ever since he was a lanky teenage boy playing footy in her backyard.
Absolutely nothing at all.
