Total pages in book: 72
Estimated words: 70180 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 351(@200wpm)___ 281(@250wpm)___ 234(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 70180 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 351(@200wpm)___ 281(@250wpm)___ 234(@300wpm)
“Where does this need to go?”
My jaw nearly hit the floor. “Dad?”
“Hey, sweetheart.”
“What are you doing here?”
He set the chair down with a huff. “I took the day off work. I wanted to help. Kathy came with me too.”
I blinked. “You took time off work?”
My dad didn’t take off work. He had one vacation a year, and that was it. He’d done it that way forever. When we went to Charleston, Dad would always come the first week, and the rest of the summer, it was just us kids with Mom. He used to even go in when he was sick. Not anymore, but once upon a time.
“Yeah. I thought it’d be nice. Kathy was excited.”
“Hey, honey!” Kathy said, rushing in and hugging me. She held a lamp away from her body. “Glad we’re here.”
“I’m glad you’re here too.”
“This goes in the back, right?” she asked, pointing at the chair my dad had carried in.
“Yeah.”
“Come on, Doug,” Kathy said. She gestured for Dad to follow her to the back.
My mom smiled at me as I stared after them.
“Happy?”
“I can’t believe he’s here.”
“He called me and asked when we were doing it.”
“Dad called? Not Kathy?”
She nodded. “That’s right. It’s almost like you reaching out fixed something that had long been broken.”
“I guess so,” I whispered.
Ash came over then after setting the table down. He kissed my cheek. “This is going to go so fast with so much help.”
“It is. I can’t believe it.”
“Believe it. We all love you.”
I laughed as he smacked my ass as he walked by. I spent the rest of the afternoon directing people. Until it was just me and Ash, crashed down on the velvet green couch I’d reupholstered for the room. He slipped an arm around my shoulders and kissed my cheek.
“Stay here. I have a surprise.”
“A surprise?”
“A welcome gift.”
“What?” I asked as he dashed off. “I don’t need a welcome gift.”
“I disagree,” he called.
Then, he returned with a large package in his hands and offered it to me. I gave him a curious look and then tore into it. I gasped as I held a record … the record we’d listened to that night back in New York. Frank Sinatra.
“Oh, Ash, I love it.”
“Good,” he said as he took my hands and pulled me to my feet. He walked me to the table where the register would sit. “Because I have something else.”
And sitting on its own table that I hadn’t even seen in all the madness was an antique record player.
“Oh,” I gasped.
I pulled out the record and set it on the player. I pushed down the needle, and suddenly, “The Way You Look Tonight” began to filter into my empty store. He took my hand again and guided me out onto our open dance floor.
The waltz came to us as easy as breathing. We’d been doing it all our lives. And here, in this moment, I couldn’t imagine being with anyone else. He pulled me in tighter and stroked my back as the world drifted away.
We might have taken a long way to get here.
But the road had absolutely been worth taking because I ended up here with him.
Like I’d always wanted.
29
Charleston
Present
There was no ribbon cutting. The mayor didn’t show up. The fanfare was minimum. But none of that mattered on the opening of my second boutique. All that mattered was the line forming around the block to get inside.
“Ready?” Sasha asked me excitedly.
I nodded, biting my lip and trying to keep my hands from shaking. I flipped the sign to Open and turned the lock for the first official day of Ballentine in Charleston.
“Welcome to opening day!”
Everyone in line cheered.
The first customers burst into the room, and suddenly, it was like any other day. We had new cashiers ready to go. Sasha was in charge of everyone while I was just there to help. Especially since so many people were waiting to get in. We actually had to stop the store from being rushed and only let in as many people as the fire marshal allowed. But at least the fall weather was more conducive for waiting outside than the summer heat.
“This is insane,” Marina said when she finally got into the building later that day.
Her office was only two blocks over. Anytime I was in town, I’d only be around the corner from her. I liked that a lot.
“Isn’t it?”
She hugged me and then picked up a maroon dress. “Is this my color?”
“Girl, every color is your color.”
“Flattery will get you everywhere,” she said. “But yellow and orange are not flattering on me.”
I laughed. “Noted. I bet you rock all the fall colors though.”
“I do,” she said with no shame.
She tried on half of the stuff in the store already, but still, she made a purchase and walked out with a skip in her step. Anything to help opening numbers. Which were already looking to be record-breaking. The only day bigger was St. Patrick’s Day, and really, would anything compare to that level of insanity? Maybe a college football Saturday when I got up the nerve to continue my empire.