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do.”
    “Tell me something I don’t know,” Kelly muttered, having been Tess’s primary caregiver for longer than she could remember.
    “I heard that.”
    Kelly grinned. Tess really had come a long way, thanks to Ethan Barron. Kelly shuddered to think of what might have happened if she hadn’t taken drastic steps.
    Both Tess and Kelly’s mother, Leah Moss, had been a weak woman, too dependent on men and incapable of raising Tess. She’d been different when Kelly was young, or maybe that’s how she wanted to remember her. Or maybe it had been Kelly’s father’s influence that had made Leah different.
    Kelly would never know because her father had died of a heart attack when she was twelve. And Leah had immediately gone in search of another man to take his place. Her choice was a poor one. Leah struck up an affair with her married boss, Mark Barron. Yet despite how wrong it was, for Kelly, her mother’s years as his mistress had been stable ones, including the period after Tess was born. But with Mark Barron’s passing ten years ago, Leah had spiraled downward, and both Kelly and Tess suffered as a result.
    She’d immediately packed up and moved them to a seedy part of New York City, far from their home in Tomlin’s Cove, the neighboring town to Serendipity. Leah said she wanted them to start over. In reality, their mother had wanted an easy place to search for another lover to take care of her. But Leah never found her next white knight, turning to alcohol and a never-ending rotation of disgusting men instead.
    Since Tess had only been four years old at the time, a sixteen-year-old Kelly had become the adult, juggling high school, then part-time college with jobs and raising Tess. Fortunately, her mother had moved them into a boarding house with a kindly older woman who’d helped Kelly too.
    But last year, their mother had run off with some guy, abandoning her youngest daughter, and something in Tess had broken. Angry and hurt, she’d turned into a belligerent, rebellious teenager, hanging out with the wrong crowd, smoking, drinking, and ultimately getting arrested. Desperate, Kelly had turned to the only person she remembered from their years in Tomlin’s Cove, Richard Kane, a lawyer in Serendipity who’d put her in touch with Ethan Barron.
    Kelly’s heart shattered as she basically deposited her baby sister on a stranger’s doorstep and ordered him to step up as her brother. But it was that, Kelly sensed, or heaven knew where Tess would end up. So here she was months later, starting her life over but still rushing Tess out for school, she thought, grateful things were finally looking up.
    She and Tess ate a quick breakfast, after which Kelly dropped off Tess and headed to work. Another thing for which she owed Richard Kane, her job, working for him as a paralegal, in downtown Serendipity.
    She stopped, as she did daily, at Cuppa Café, the town’s version of Starbucks. Kelly had worked hard all her life and she’d learned early on to save, but her entire day hinged on that first cup of caffeine. It had to be strong and good.
    Kelly stepped into the coffee shop and the delicious aroma surrounded her, instantly perking her up as if she were inhaling caffeine by osmosis.
    She was pouring a touch of milk into her large cup of regular coffee when a familiar woman with long, curly blond hair joined her at the far counter.
    “You’re as regular as my grandma Emma wanted to be,” Annie Kane joked.
    Kelly glanced at her and grinned. “I could say the same for you.”
    “Good point.” Annie laughed and raised her cup in a mock toast.
    Small-town living offered both perks and drawbacks. Running into a familiar face could fall into either category. Kelly and Annie frequented Cuppa Café at the same time each morning and they’d often linger and chat. If pressed, Kelly would say Annie was the closest she had to a real friend here, if she didn’t count Faith Harrington, Ethan’s wife.
    Annie was Richard