Sneak Peek!

We’re so excited to share the first chapter of Where We Belong!

Chapter One

Chloe

Hiding in the storeroom of her café, Chloe Beckett read the email for the third time. Her hands trembled with excitement because she still couldn’t believe what it said.

Dear Ms. Beckett,

We’re thrilled to invite you to the final round of interviews for The Next Great American Entrepreneur. You are scheduled for Friday, March 6 at 10:00 a.m. at 308 W. 38th Street, New York, NY 10018.

From there, we’ll schedule hometown visits for the remaining finalists and select our cast by the end of March. Filming will take place during the months of April and May.

Please contact Trina Richards at 212-555-5282 to book your trip to New York, and complete the attached questionnaire before your arrival to ensure we have the information we need should you be chosen to proceed.

We look forward to seeing you then!

Sincerely,

Penny Shelton

Assistant to Executive Producer Mark Landis

It was all she could do not to scream out loud, but she didn’t want to draw attention to herself. She was one step closer to getting her business featured on a national television show. Even if she didn’t win the $750,000 grand prize, she’d basically get free national advertising for her café, Island Coffee. It was a win-win.

Now all she had to do was make it through the final round of interviews. How many people had they invited to New York? She knew the plan was to cast ten entrepreneurs, with one getting voted out each week until they were down to four, then a winner would be crowned at a live finale. It was a brand-new show, so other details were sparse. Would they be voting each other out like on Big Brother? Or would there be judges? Maybe even an audience vote like Dancing with the Stars?

Since the focus of the show was on small businesses—where the owner was still actively involved in the day-to-day—small film crews would be sent to follow each contestant through the weekly challenges in their hometowns before the final four would convene in New York for the live finale.

Her friend Madison over in the tourism department was going to die when she found out. A television show filming on the ground on Big Dune Island would be amazing for the whole town.

Chloe took a deep breath. She was getting ahead of herself. She still had to make it through the final interview.

“What are you doing back here?”

Iris Fisher’s voice startled Chloe, and her phone clattered to the tile floor. Iris was her right-hand at the café. She’d been the first employee Chloe hired, but she was so much more than that. Iris filled a grandmother-shaped hole left in Chloe’s life by her own Grandma Sophie, the inspiration for the café who sadly hadn’t lived long enough to see Chloe open it.

Chloe bent to retrieve her phone, smoothing the apron tied at her waist as she straightened. She wasn’t ready to share her big news with anyone yet. “I was just checking my email to see if we had any new orders. The Millers need a cake for Theo’s birthday party next week.”

“Let me guess,” Iris said, putting a finger to her chin like she was thinking hard. “Baseball-themed?”

Chloe nodded, laughing. “We’re gonna hit this one out of the park. It’ll be a homerun. A grand slam, even.” With a former Major League Baseball player as a brother, Chloe had a slew of baseball-isms she could throw out, pun intended.

“Sam can’t wait for the party. He bought Theo new batting gloves with his chore money,” Iris said, referring to her grandson, who played Little League baseball with Theo on the team Chloe’s brother coached.

“That’s so sweet. What a thoughtful little man you have.”

“I’m biased, of course, but I agree,” Iris said, smiling as she grabbed a stack of freshly laundered napkins to roll silverware before the end of her shift.

Chloe followed Iris back out into the café and spotted her brother, Austin, talking to a group of older women who were regulars several afternoons a week. She grabbed a pot of coffee and walked over to say hi to everyone.

“Stop flirting with the ladies,” Chloe kidded as she gave her brother a side hug with her free arm. “After all, you’re an engaged man now.”

“It’s going to be the wedding of the century,” Tammy Perkins, a retired schoolteacher who’d taught both Austin and Chloe, said. She lifted a teacup adorned with tiny purple pansies to her mouth for a sip.

All the cups, plates, and bowls in the café were donated from families around town, usually after elderly parents had passed and the children decided they didn’t need or want their formal china. It had been Chloe’s idea, as a way to honor their memories and give the coffee shop a personal touch. In addition to using the pieces to serve the guests, shelves all around the café held additional cherished porcelain. Combined with the rattan chairs and tranquil blue, aqua, and white décor, it had been important to her to create a space that felt warm and homey.

The table buzzed over the impending nuptials, everyone offering their ideas, from the flowers to the song for their first dance. Austin was recently engaged to his childhood friend Gigi Franklin, who ran a law practice less than two blocks away.

“It’s going to be great, as long as my beautiful fiancée and her mother don’t kill each other first,” Austin joked.

The two women had very strong personalities, and they rarely seemed to agree. Ms. Myrtle, as Gigi’s mother was known to the younger generation, ran multiple boards and organizations on the island and was known for both her impeccable taste and impossibly high standards for everything, including her daughter.

“I bet Myrtle is thrilled to finally have a wedding to plan,” Lottie Jefferson said, who was married to the town doctor. “And who would have guessed Gigi’s perfect match was right here under her nose the entire time?”

It was no secret that Ms. Myrtle had spent years wishing Gigi had started a family instead of a law practice. Now, Gigi was getting a ready-made family, joining Austin and Luke, the boy she’d helped him adopt a year earlier.

Alice Barker, president of the garden club, was sitting closest to where Austin stood and reached over to touch his arm. “It’s just so lovely that you both came back home after you went off and had your adventures. Gigi to open her law practice and you to help open this café. I don’t know what the town would do without you two.”

Chloe hoped no one had seen her wince at the reference to her brother’s involvement with the café. But of course they hadn’t, because she was invisible when he was around.

“Oh, I can’t take any credit,” Austin said. “This place is all Chloe.”

She appreciated her brother’s efforts, but she saw the looks on all their faces. They knew he was just being modest and that Chloe could never have opened this place without him.

And it was true. She had needed Austin to provide the capital to open the café because she didn’t have any collateral to offer a bank for the business loan she’d applied for first. Then he’d gone one step further and helped her buy the building that housed the café to ensure she wouldn’t get priced out of the place. She’d forever be grateful to him for his investments in her dream, but it was her café in every other way. Everything in it, from the heirloom china to the unique baked goods, which she made herself, had been her idea. Making that known was exactly why she needed to get on The Next Great American Entrepreneur.

Winning would mean she could buy him out and stand on her own. Austin was the last person who would try to steal the spotlight from her, and she was racked with guilt when she thought about wanting to buy him out. He wasn’t just her brother; he was one of her very best friends. She just wanted to be known for something of her own. To stop living in Austin’s shadow.

The ladies continued peppering Austin with questions about the wedding, and Chloe excused herself. As she went back to the register to ring up a young couple’s purchases, Chloe wondered if she should talk to Piper about the final interview for the show.

Piper Presley was local country music star Callie Jackson’s publicist. Although she was based in Nashville, she spent almost as much time on Big Dune Island these days thanks to her work with Callie and a younger local musician, Sienna Leighton, who Callie had helped land her first record deal. The president of their label had even moved to the island and married Callie’s uncle, essentially establishing a satellite office on the tiny island they all called home.

Piper could probably coach her on what to say. The interview wouldn’t involve the media, but it seemed like the same skill set. Chloe had a tendency to get overly excited and gush when she was nervous.

Chloe really wanted to do this all on her own, though, which was why she hadn’t told anyone on the island she’d even applied for the show. Now she had to think of an excuse to be out of town and make sure Iris could cover her at the café. She hadn’t taken a single vacation since opening her business seven years ago, so she knew there would be questions from Iris, Austin, her parents—everyone.

“Can I have those last two slices of strawberry cake?” Austin asked as he approached the glass case by the register that showcased the café’s baked goods. “Luke aced his spelling test yesterday, so I promised something special for dessert tonight.”

Chloe raised an eyebrow. “Don’t you need three?” Although Austin and Luke weren’t moving in with Gigi until after the wedding, she knew they all ate dinner together most nights.

Austin rolled his eyes. “Gigi says she’s not eating anything with sugar until after the wedding. Apparently, Ms. Myrtle implied at the last fitting that Gigi’s wedding dress was too tight.”

“Yikes. Could you imagine our mother ever saying something like that?” Chloe shook her head.

“No, but don’t you remember Dad making me drink those terrible banana protein shakes all the time in high school to put on weight because I was ‘too scrawny’?”

She scrunched up her nose in disgust. Chloe might have been overlooked, but Austin had experienced the opposite: intense scrutiny. Their dad had been really tough on Austin growing up, all but forcing him to become a Major League Baseball player to realize his own unfulfilled dreams. Austin’s relationship with their dad had been improving since Austin became a dad himself, but there were some things Austin would never forget, even if he did forgive.

“Take Gigi these,” Chloe said, using tongs to grab two peanut butter cookies from the case and sliding them inside the bakery box with the two slices of strawberry cake. “I started making these for the ladies on the keto diet who come over after yoga. They’re sweetened with dates, so she can indulge without the processed sugar.”

Austin grinned as he took the pink box from her. “You’re the best. I really don’t know what this town would do without you. I’m really proud of you, sis.”

It wasn’t pride she felt at his statement, though. It was guilt. How could she explain to him that she wanted to buy him out of the café?

She could worry about that later. No sense in stressing over something that was so unlikely. She’d have to get herself on the show and then actually win against nine other entrepreneurs. If she managed to do that, then she could think about how to tell him.

“Tell Luke congratulations on acing his spelling test,” she said, waving at Austin as he backed away to make room for another tourist couple to approach the cash register.

After she cashed them out, Chloe opened the email on her phone again. She only had ten days before she had to be in New York. As she racked her brain for excuses for leaving town on such short notice, her favorite New Yorker, Michael Russo, walked through the door.

He was on his phone, but he smiled and nodded in her direction as he headed toward his usual table along the wall near the back of the café. His short black hair was swept mostly to one side with just the right amount of product to hold it in place. The most formal person there, he wore a black suit jacket and a white button-down shirt with jeans and highly polished black dress shoes.

Michael was an investor in a local construction company, Thomas Construction, owned by Austin’s best friend, and Callie’s husband, Jesse. When Michael had first become involved with Jesse’s company years earlier, he’d only dropped into town a few times a year to check in on things. Jesse didn’t have a formal office, so he always met Michael at the coffee shop. Chloe had been immediately smitten with him, even if he was ten years older than her. He was smart and confident, and everyone paid attention when he entered a room. No one questioned his business acumen.

Every time Chloe saw him in action—meeting with Jesse or taking other business calls—she wondered what it would be like to command that sort of respect. In the beginning, it seemed like Jesse had been a little afraid of him, but now they were more like buddies when they sat at the table together. Because of his close involvement with Thomas Construction, Michael had been spending an increasing amount of time on the island over the past couple of years, so much so that he’d stopped staying at one of the hotels and bought a condo in a newer development on the south end of the island.

Chloe considered confiding in Michael about the show. He was the closest thing she had to an outside opinion since he was the only person in her circle, outside of Piper, who wasn’t born and raised on Big Dune Island. Plus, he was a successful businessman.

She thought about it as she made his usual, a soy latte with an extra shot of espresso. He came into the café frequently when he was on the island, and they’d run into each other around town and chat, but she hesitated to call him a friend. He didn’t seem to let anyone get that close.

Chloe was pretty sure he wouldn’t tell anyone if she asked him to keep it confidential, but she also felt a little silly. He didn’t strike her as the reality television type. Would he think she was ridiculous for wanting to participate in something like that?

He’d told her several times that she reminded him of his kid sisters, which was why she’d resigned herself to the fact that he’d never see her as a grown woman or someone he might want to date. He still made her heart flutter whenever he walked through the door, though, immediately placing a goofy smile on her face, but she knew it was one-sided. Being on what would probably amount to a stereotypical cheesy reality show certainly wasn’t going to help things.

Nope, this was her secret to keep. Maybe the first big secret she’d ever kept in her life. Of course, if she got picked, the whole town would know. But that was a problem for future Chloe.

Here-and-now Chloe had coffee to serve and travel plans to make. And maybe just a second or two of ogling the most attractive man in town. It didn’t hurt to look, right?