After lunch, Riggs sat beside Sage in the truck once again.

This time she was strangely quiet. The relaxed smile she wore this morning had been replaced with a look of concern.

It occurred to him that she must be worrying about the vandal.

“Do not worry about the sign,” he told her. “I put it in the back of the truck when no one was watching. I hope we can purchase paint in town and fix it before we go back to the farm.”

This made her smile. She flashed him a grateful look that filled his chest with warmth.

“Tansy will never see it,” he told her solemnly. “Also, I had a thought about who might have done this.”

“Really?” Sage asked. “I had an idea too, but I was wrong.”

“I do not like to make an accusation without proof, but Otis was trying to harm your operations just a few days ago. Now he is at the farm early each morning,” Riggs said carefully. “Do you think he would do this?”

“I thought the same thing,” Sage nodded thoughtfully. “But he has a pretty good alibi.”

“What was he doing?” Riggs asked. “I thought everyone else was working while we were gone.”

“They were, but so was he,” Sage said. “He made a two-layer red velvet cake while we were out. He didn’t have time to vandalize the sign. I’ve seen enough Great British Baking Show to know what’s possible. There’s no way he could have done both in the time we were gone. Besides, if he really wanted to harm our business, he could have just kept his mouth shut about the bees.”

Riggs was not familiar with the show she referred to, but Sage sounded convinced.

He was both disappointed and relieved. Of course he would not want to think that anyone they trusted would betray them.

But it rattled his senses to think that someone who intended harm to Sage and her family had slipped past him somehow. Every fiber of his being demanded that he keep her safe.

“Here we are,” Sage said.

They pulled into a parking space close to Cosmic Copies and went inside, sending the bells on the door jingling.

“Hey there,” Howard said. “Your flyers are right here.”

“Great,” Sage replied, hurrying to the counter.

Riggs looked around, wondering if the store had painting supplies.

The bright interior of the little store was so cheerful he felt like he was inside one of Tansy and Sage’s old children’s books that were still kept on a shelf by the fireplace.

A riot of colorful sheaves of paper lined one wall of the shop. Carousels of books and cards lined another. And in between were bins of writing implements and dozens of shelves of items he couldn’t even identify.

“What are you looking for?” Sage asked when she was finished with their purchase.

“I was wondering if they had painting things here,” Riggs told her.

“Good thinking,” Sage said, rewarding him with a gentle smile. “The hardware store would probably have better paint for an outdoor sign. We’ll go there last so we won’t have to carry the paint supplies on our walk.”

Riggs smiled back at her and nodded.

She walked toward the door and he scrambled to reach it first so he could open it for her.

“Thank you, Riggs,” she said, brushing past him and leaving a trail of her intoxicating scent in her wake.

The jingle of the bells echoed the song in Riggs’s heart and it was all he could do not to wrap his arms around her and kiss her.

Soon, he told himself. Soon.