She walked him to the door and thanked him for helping with her students. He nodded and left, his mind suddenly captured by the hint of a melody and the faint whisper of I thought I’d be by myself again. Words that made no sense, but might, someday, become a part of something.

Toby studied the data his sales manager had sent him. Nate Martz was determined to expand Judy’s Hand Pies into grocery stores around the country—a huge step that required a drastic change in their business model. The pies would have to be shipped frozen and then cooked by the consumer.

Toby had resisted the idea for nearly two years, but Nate had started to wear him down. To that end, he sent monthly reports with sales projections. The numbers were impressive, but Toby wasn’t convinced. Not only was the grocery store frozen market tough to break into, but he also wasn’t willing to compromise on quality.

Currently the pies were made in several processing plants across the western half of the US. They were shipped to local stores and baked on-site. The food trucks also baked their pies in specially designed ovens, which meant the inventory was always fresh and hot. Ceding control to a consumer who might or might not bake the pie correctly didn’t sit well with him, although he’d agreed to an experiment. Currently there were several hundred pies sitting in a freezer in Seattle. Every few weeks, a couple of dozen were baked and eaten by volunteers to determine if they still tasted as fresh.

His cell phone buzzed. He glanced at the screen and saw he had a message from Shaye.

Mrs. Somerville is here and would like to speak with you.

Toby grinned. Mrs. Somerville? Shaye was mistaken. The only one of the Somerville women who would stop by to see him was Reggie.

He’d enjoyed running into her yesterday, even if they hadn’t had much of a chance to catch up. Her bolting had been his fault—he couldn’t help but tease her about the rumors he’d heard of them dating.

He didn’t know how the talk had started, but Wishing Tree was the kind of place where people loved to share gossip. No doubt much like every other small town. Sunday, while he was in the park playing catch with Harrison, two older women had asked him about his relationship with Reggie. They’d explained that they’d judged him too harshly when he’d been a teenager and were happy to give him a second chance now. The taller of the two had winked at him and said Reggie looked like the kind of girl who would have pretty babies.

Earlier that morning, Shaye had asked about when he’d been in high school and dating Reggie, leading him to believe that the rumor mills were working overtime. Now Reggie was here.