He reached for one of the pies himself. “Anticipation. It helps set the mood for the holiday. We’ll sell them through Sunday, then pull them from the menu until two weeks before Christmas.”

“Retail is weird.”

“Retail is about managing inventory and fulfilling wants.”

Shaye, his newest hire and a recent resident of the town, grinned. “Are they going to be covering that in my marketing class next semester?”

“They are, but they’ll call it something different.”

He split the pie and handed her half. As she took it, her engagement ring caught the light. Shaye hadn’t just moved to town—she’d also found love with Lawson Easley, a returning soldier.

Shaye nibbled on the hand pie. “It’s really good, but I still don’t get why people want to eat turkey and stuffing a week before Thanksgiving.”

“And yet they do.”

“Based on your anticipation logic, then why not a hot dog hand pie right before Memorial Day?”

He chuckled. “We’ve tried, but we can’t get the flavors right.”

“You’re probably using the wrong relish.”

“Maybe.”

The door to the store opened and Harrison burst in, his great-grandmother at his heels. Harrison rushed over, dropped his backpack and hugged Toby.

“Hi, Dad. School was great. I got an A on my math test and Ms. Somerville said the parent sign-up sheet for our charity project was already full. She’s getting lots of calls from people in town who want to come help.”

Toby smiled at his son, then smoothed his floppy blond bangs out of his face. “You need a haircut.”

Harrison groaned. “Not a haircut. It’s too soon.”

He released his father and greeted Shaye before circling around behind the counter. “May I have a hand pie, please?”

“Sure,” Toby told him. “Let Shaye get it.”

“He’s so polite,” Grandma Judy said with a laugh. “You were never that polite.”

“I was too busy getting into trouble.”

He spoke easily, even as he studied his grandmother. He’d never planned to return to Wishing Tree, but after his father’s death, Judy had aged seemingly overnight. He’d worried about her living alone and knew asking her to leave her hometown would be too hard on her, so he’d joined her here. It had taken six months to relocate the corporate headquarters from Austin to Seattle.

He’d bought a big house out by String of Lights Park, choosing one on a quiet cul-de-sac. Harrison had a yard and knew a couple of the kids in the neighborhood. The center of town was a short ten-minute drive, and Harrison’s school was five minutes south of that.