Salami Murder: Book 8 in The Darling Deli Series (12 page)

Gesturing them to follow, she disappeared inside the building. Moira moved to follow, but stopped when she felt David’s hand on hers. She looked up at him questioningly. Instead of saying something, he surprised her by tilting her head and kissing her gently on the lips.

Pleased at the rare display of affection from him, she cocked her head to the side. “What was that for?” she asked

“I’ve never met a woman quite like you,” he said. “And I don’t think I tell you how important you are to me quite often enough.”

Moved beyond words, she simply slipped her hand into his and let him lead her into Candice’s shop.

“Welcome to Candice’s Candies,” Candice said as her very first customer walked in the door at twelve o’clock sharp. Moira, standing by a shelf stacked high with canisters of jelly beans, followed her daughter’s gaze as she looked out the window at the long line of people that had formed to enter the shop. Though she had never doubted that her daughter had what it took to run her own business, she felt a surge of relief at the crowd of happy people—children and adults alike—who had turned up on this special day. She knew that her daughter’s journey would be tough, and full of pitfalls and setbacks, but right now, with the sun shining outside and people beginning to mill around the air-conditioned shop, she knew that things would turn out just fine in the end.