I smiled. Some things she could never change, either. Like worrying. “An emergency call. He promised he’ll be there tonight.”
She took a cookie from the plate. “Good. I don’t want Bree to think we don’t care.”
Her gaze drifted around the room, so different in appearance from when Mama had lived here but still very much the same. Old memories lingered like ghosts, reminding us of the many things Mama had missed out on. We weren’t going to make the same mistakes.
Inside the larger box was a smaller one, wrapped in sleek black and white ribbon dotted with white orbs. I pulled the ribbon free and lifted the lid to find two teacups nestled in a sea of tissue paper. My heart fluttered. I’d seen cups like these before, at a small cottage in Wetumpka, hanging from hooks near an old-fashioned oven. One cup said MR., the other MRS., but these were both in perfect condition.
“Oh, it’s an engagement present! These look vintage. Who sent them?” Leala asked, digging through the box, looking for a card.
She wouldn’t find one in there, but it didn’t matter. I knew exactly where these had come from. “They’re from a couple of old lovebirds, delivered by way of a little lake magic.”
Excerpt from Hey Y’all: A Southern Hankerin’ Collection of Food Memories
Coffee
He took his story to the grave. Some walks down memory lane, he’d told me once, are too painful to talk about. He was my great-uncle Camp, my daddy’s uncle, who came to live with my family to help fulfill a dream and ended up staying, teaching us all the true meaning of unconditional love.
He’s also the one who taught me that every recipe has a story. That every person has a story. That every person is a story. He has a story, too. A good one. One we learned only after he died.
I was twelve years old when he showed me how to make coffee the way my great-granny had taught him, which included a whole lot of chicory and very little coffee. She drank it from a saucer and sweetened it with sorghum syrup to cut the chicory’s bitterness. It was a sweet habit Uncle Camp adopted as a young boy and continued long after I tweaked the recipe to include a whole lot of coffee and very little chicory.
Life hasn’t been quite the same without him here. I’ll tell his story for him one day, because he also once told me that some walks down memory lane can be beautiful. Since he’s been gone, I’ve taken to drinking my coffee with sorghum syrup. It makes me feel like he’s still here with me. And I swear, sometimes, in the heart of the quiet mornings, I can hear him reminding me that it’s okay to grieve, that it’s okay to miss him, that it’s only because of the bitter that you fully appreciate the sweet.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Every once in a while I turn to social media for help with naming people or places in my books. For The Lights of Sugarberry Cove, I asked for suggestions in naming Sugarberry’s town center. Thanks go to Christa Y., whose suggestion of promenade combined with Jan L.’s offering of landing turned into Sugarberry Landing, which has an upper and lower promenade. And also to Sandy G., whose suggestion of Peddlar’s Lane spurred the creation of Hawker Street. Although I didn’t use my father’s suggestion of Crow’s Nest for a street name, I did use it for a shop—thanks, Dad.
I am thankful to Fred W. for humbly sharing the details of his own “cardiac situation,” which helped me with the finer details of Susannah’s issues, though she was much, much more dramatic in her retelling. May your big heart continue to heal and strengthen.
Thank you to Jessica Faust and BookEnds, who work tirelessly to get my books into the hands of readers across the world. I’m so grateful for Kristin Sevick, who knows just when to rein me in or let me run free—thank you for your encouragement and wise edits. Thank you to everyone at Forge for working so hard behind the scenes to make my books the best they can possibly be. And thank you to the team at Macmillan Audio for an amazing job on the production of the audio book—and for finding the talented narrators who bring my characters to life.
And, as always, I’m extremely thankful to my family, who inspire me daily. Much love to you.
Forge Books by Heather Webber
Midnight at the Blackbird Café
South of the Buttonwood Tree
The Lights of Sugarberry Cove
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
HEATHER WEBBER is the USA Today bestselling author of more than thirty novels and has been twice nominated for an Agatha Award. She loves to spend time with her family, read, drink too much coffee and tea, bird-watch, crochet, bake, and watch cooking-competition and home-improvement shows. Webber lives in southwestern Ohio and is hard at work on her next book.
Visit her online at heatherwebber.com, or sign up for email updates here.
facebook.com/HeatherWebberBooks
Instagram: booksbyheather
Twitter: @BooksbyHeather
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Contents
Title Page
Copyright Notice
Dedication
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Acknowledgments
Forge Books by Heather Webber
About the Author
Copyright
This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
THE LIGHTS OF SUGARBERRY COVE
Copyright © 2021 by Heather Webber
All rights reserved.
Cover art by Travis Commeau
Cover photographs by Getty Images, Stocksy.com, and Shutterstock.com
Cover design by Esther S. Kim
A Forge Book
Published by Tom Doherty Associates
120 Broadway
New York, NY 10271
www.tor-forge.com
Forge® is a registered trademark of Macmillan Publishing Group, LLC.
The Library of Congress has cataloged the print edition as follows:
Names: Webber, Heather S., author.
Title: The lights of Sugarberry Cove / Heather Webber.
Description: First edition.|New York: Forge, a Tom Doherty Associates Book, 2021.|Identifiers: LCCN 2021009112 (print)|LCCN 2021009113 (ebook)|ISBN 9781250774620 (hardcover)|ISBN 9781250774637 (ebook)
Classification: LCC PS3623.E393 L54 2021 (print)|LCC PS3623.E393 (ebook)|DDC 813/.6—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021009112
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021009113
eISBN 9781250774637
Our ebooks may be purchased in bulk for promotional, educational, or business use. Please contact the Macmillan Corporate and Premium Sales Department at 1-800-221-7945, extension 5442, or by email at [email protected].
First Edition: July 2021
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