A Memory So Sweet (Sunrise Sisters Book 1)

A MEMORY SO SWEET SUNRISE SISTERS TRILOGY OLIVIA MILES CONTENTS Also by Olivia Miles 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 Epilogue Continue Reading About the Author ALSO BY OLIVIA MILES Blue Harbor Series A Place for Us Second Chance Summer Because of You Small Town Christmas Return to Me Then Comes Love Finding Christmas A New Beginning Summer of Us A Chance on Me Evening Island Meet Me at Sunset Summer’s End The Lake House Oyster Bay Series Feels Like Home Along Came You Maybe This Time This Thing Called Love Those Summer Nights Christmas at the Cottage Still the One One Fine Day Had to Be You Misty Point One Week to the Wedding The Winter Wedding Plan Briar Creek Series Mistletoe on Main Street A Match Made on Main Street Hope Springs on Main Street Love Blooms on Main Street Christmas Comes to Main Street Sweeter in the City Series Sweeter in the Summer Sweeter Than Sunshine No Sweeter Love One Sweet Christmas Harlequin Special Edition ‘Twas the Week Before Christmas Recipe for Romance Copyright © 2023 by Megan Leavell All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review. CHAPTER ONE The way Carly Parker saw it, there were two sorts of people in life: the ones who held out hope and the ones who’d long ago given up on it. Carly fell into the first category, earning her various nicknames in her childhood that she’d rather forget (Sunny, Sunshine, Little Ray, to state the obvious). There was the school talent show that she signed up for every year even though she couldn’t dance, sing, or even do a cartwheel. (Okay, she couldn’t do a somersault either, despite her older sisters’ efforts.) Still, people clapped, as people in a small town with a population of under one thousand are wise to do, because you never knew who you might run into in the produce section or at the post office the next day. Bouts of optimism prevailed in other forms too: the library’s thrice annual coloring contest, which she never once won. Never. Once. There was the garden she’d planted each spring with her grandmother’s help: one with vegetables that she planned to eat and flowers that she intended to clip. By July, the rabbits had eaten the tulip heads and the always surprisingly small tomatoes that never did have a chance to turn red. The hydrangeas always failed to bloom, and she seemed to forget each winter that worms made her scream. By August, she was deflated, sure, but by March, she was looking forward again. Telling herself that this time it would be different. This time she’d have a harvest—wicker baskets overflowing with tomatoes as big as her hands and oh, maybe an herb garden to go with them. And vases full of roses, which never did seem to like her in the past, but this time it would be different. She told herself that again now, as she gripped the steering wheel, slowing only slightly as the sign to Hope Hollow approached. This time would be different. This time, things would work out. After all, she wasn’t ten anymore, losing the only parent she ever knew. Or a broken-hearted teenager, relying on the years ahead to give her a fresh start. She was a cool, twenty-eight-year-old woman of the world, one with experiences under her belt. One with perspective. One who knew that all the love and best of intentions didn’t guarantee a happy ending. But still…there was hope. And a chance—to finally earn a regular column at the lifestyle magazine where she’d worked since graduating from college in Philadelphia. For years she’d proofread other columnists’ work, sometimes being granted a feature piece, but never on a regular basis. And now it was within reach; even if it did require a trip back to her hometown. Main Street seemed quiet for a Thursday afternoon, but then, maybe that was unfair of Carly. It couldn’t compete with city traffic, which had been a little unsettling at first but now felt comfortable, reassuring even. If so many people could decide to be in one spot at any given moment of any day of the week, then surely she’d made the right decision in joining them? Surely. Absolutely. Or so she kept telling herself. Carly’s eyes roved over the storefronts of the quiet Connecticut town, which hadn’t changed much with time: coffeehouse, pizza parlor, a few pubs, the ice cream shop, bookstore, hardware shop (that was, ironically, still missing two of the letters in its sign), clothing shops, home boutiques, and of course, the bakery. Most people would probably call Sunrise Bakery the best place in all of Hope Hollow and Carly would be one of them. Generations of Parkers had treated their neighbors to sweets, been a central part of every celebration, and helped the local dentist build a thriving practice. Nana Parker had trained Carly and her sisters from a young age, instructing them on everything from crimping a perfect crust to whipping cream into soft peaks. Carly’s stomach tightened with anticipation as she pulled into the closest parking spot to the bakery that she could find, which was only three storefronts down and across the street, and grabbed her handbag from the passenger seat, where it had kept her company for the last four hours. Yes, some people had spouses to fill the spot next to them. Others, children. Some, a pet. She had a handbag that had cost five months of savings and a promise to herself to make it last a full ten years. A proper, adult handbag. An investment.