Stay Sweet by Siobhan Vivian

Author:Siobhan Vivian
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers

CHAPTER TWENTY

GRADY AND AMELIA SPEND THE rest of the day digging through Molly’s office. The fan he’s bought doesn’t provide relief so much as a disappointingly warm wind, but she is grateful that Grady locks it so it blows primarily in her direction.

At the end of first shift, Cate texts Amelia and lets her know that she and a few of the other girls are heading to the lake, and does Amelia want to come with?

Ugh. I should stay and keep looking. But hopefully I can meet you guys there in a bit! Amelia knows it’s a stretch. It’s not as if they seem any closer to finding anything. But she is trying to remain hopeful.

She readies herself for a bit of pushback from Cate. Maybe a guilt trip that Cate had to work the whole shift without her, or a bit of teasing.

But Cate doesn’t even respond.

Amelia has been attacking the oldest files, Grady the newest.

Grady moves with assembly-line speed, setting aside anything he thinks might be helpful for his business plan, sending everything else through his brand-new shredder, which he picked up with the fan at Walmart.

Amelia winces every time the shredder’s blades whirl. This takes care of any lingering remorse she might feel about slipping Molly’s diary inside her tote bag.

But Grady is making better time with the job, that’s for sure. Amelia’s pace is far slower, in part because her boxes contain more mementos and ephemera, especially the ones from the late 1940s and early 1950s, when Molly was just starting out. She’s tempted to read everything. And Amelia can’t determine what, if anything, she should shred. An ad in the Sand Lake Ledger from 1947? A certificate of recognition from the Sand Lake Chamber of Commerce?

And what about all the photos? Of summer picnics at the farmhouse, of the girls at the county fair, and what seems like an annual tradition of the stand girls posing in front of Meade Creamery, their scooping arms flexed, exactly like they had the first year in business. Why did that end? she wonders, and examines the faces in each one, looking to spot town residents, noticing how hairstyles changed, in curls one summer, up another, then cut into bobs. Eventually, she sets them aside in a separate, neat pile. Grady might throw them away eventually, or shred them, but she’s not going to be the one to do that.

While she tries to lose herself in the work, her thoughts drift back to Molly’s first diary entry. Her goodbye kiss with Wayne. Even though Amelia doesn’t think she ever actually heard Molly’s voice, she can imagine it now, somewhere faintly inside her, urging him to promise to come back to her, with no idea that it would be the last time she ever laid eyes on him.

Amelia’s eyes begin to tear, her throat tighten. A tear rolls down her cheek.

It is so tragically romantic.

“Whoa,” Grady says, his blue eyes intent on her. “You okay?”

“Ugh. It’s so dusty in here,”

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