Read Love Finds You in Hershey, Pennsylvania for Free Online

car, so I hardly ever drive.”
    “That’s…comforting.”
    She thought he was probably lying but was beyond caring at that point.
    At long last, Kylie came bouncing over and tugged on her shirt hem. Thank goodness for five-year-olds and their constant interruptions.
    “Mommy! Kylie found the cake she wants! It’s gots yellow icinining”—Kylie had yet to learn the correct pronunciation of “icing” —“with blue curly edges and guess who’s in the middle of it! Guess, Mommy, guess!”
    “I can’t possibly, sweetheart.”
    “BELLE!”
    Sadie frowned in confusion. “There’s a bell on the cake? You want a yellow cake with a bell?”
    She looked at Jasper as he approached, begging for some sort of assistance. He made a face at her as though she were a bit simple.
    Well, of course she was. She had Forrest Gump–syndrome and a tendency to break out in grocery stores after running over “innocent” Russian immigrants.
    “ No , Mommy.” Clearly, Kylie had inherited the brains in this gene pool. “Belle from Beauty and the Beast .”
    “ O–Oh! Belle! ” She glared at Jasper. Like it would have killed him to throw her a bone on that one. “Well…that sounds wonderful.”
    She made a mental note to return to aisle 12 and procure two more packs of yellow food dye. She didn’t even want to begin to consider the effects of that much artificial product on a five-year-old’s internal system.
    Jasper read her mind and said, “It’ll wash right out with the fruit punch, so don’t worry about it.”
    As Sadie considered this, the group fell silent. After a moment, she took notice of the quiet. Glancing up from her grocery list, she saw that Jasper and Kylie were staring at Dmitri and vice versa.
    “Oh! Sorry! Uh, guys, this is Dmitri Velichko.” She turned her back on Dmitri and made a face at Jasper, gesturing stiffly with her hand and mouthing, “He’s the one!”
    She turned back around. “And Dmitri, this is Kylie and Jasper.”
    Jasper and Dmitri shook hands, and the Russian smiled warmly at Kylie. “Pleased to make your acquaintance, Kylie.”
    “You talk funny,” she bluntly announced.
    “Kylie!” Why me, Lord?
    Dmitri was not in the least offended. “That’s because my family is from Russia,” he explained.
    “Oh.” Kylie chewed her lip for a moment. “Is that where Sesame Street is?”
    Dmitri faltered. “Excuse me?”
    “You know. Where Elmo lives?”
    “No, Kylie,” Jasper jumped in, “Sesame Street is in New York.”
    “Then where’s Russia?”
    “It’s across the ocean,” said Dmitri.
    Kylie’s eyes lit up. “Like Belle?”
    “Mmm, sort of. Belle lives in France, yes? And Russia is several countries over. Closer than America, though,” Dmitri explained.
    Sadie was impressed that Dmitri was familiar with the Disney story. Kylie, on the other hand, was eyeing Dmitri Velichko with a whole new form of awe.
    “Can you take Kylie there?” she asked.
    Her use of third person confused him. “Take who?”
    “Kylie.”
    “You?”
    “Yes.”
    “Oh, well, it’s a very long way away.”
    “That’s all right,” Kylie assured him. “Kylie doesn’t mind.”
    “Yes, but Mommy does,” Sadie at last intervened.
    Kylie looked at Sadie with her “not-now; stay-out-of-this” expression. “Kylie wants to go.”
    Jasper sniffed and affected a look of pure distress. “But if you leave, Kylie…who will play with me?”
    Kylie grew alarmed. She hadn’t thought of that. “ Oh ,” was the only response she could utter.
    “Poor Malibu Ken,” sighed Jasper. “First his leg and now this.”
    It was too much. Kylie grabbed Jasper’s hand. “It’s all right, Jasper. Kylie will stay.”
    He looked down at her. “Are you sure? I wouldn’t want you to regret it later.”
    Kylie released his hand to wrap her arms around his legs. He grabbed onto the Keebler elf cutout for balance.
    “Can’t leave Jasper! Won’t!”
    Jasper glanced up and mouthed, “She’s going to break