“Did he take you on a walk this morning?” Elly laughed. “He has a tendency to drag, as you know.” She popped the manicotti in the microwave. “Are your knees bruised?”
Keith rubbed his head. He did that when he was nervous, Elly knew. Why was he nervous? “Uh, no, it was fine. A good walk.”
An alarm went off in Elly’s brain as she stared at him. He was lying. She had never seen him lie to her before, maybe because he was so obviously awful at it. He stared at the ceiling, fidgeting nervously. Why would he ever have to lie about walking the dog? Unless he wasn’t alone, her brain whispered. She shook the thought loose from her head. Stop it. Stop it. You’re being crazy. He’s not Aaron, he’s not your ex-husband. This is Keith. He’s crazy about you.
As if he could hear her thoughts, Keith pulled Elly close to his chest and wrapped his arms around her, burying his face in her curls. “I’m sorry for butting in where I don’t belong. I know Dennis might be your brother, and that you want to treat him like family. I want to help you do that in any way I can. I guess I just don’t want anyone taking advantage of you.” His manly hands ran up her neck, until he cupped her face gently. “You are the only thing that matters.” He kissed her lightly. “You are my bathroom rug.”
Elly let herself fall into his kiss, slowly at first and then with a passion that scared her. His warm mouth made everything fade away, even that nagging feeling that had crept up so rapidly. The microwave gave a shrill beep, and Elly pulled away. “No more!” she whispered with a smile. “Dennis is here! We will have to go your place for kissing now.”
Keith gave a dejected nod. “There’s always your studio.”
“That’s comfortable,” sighed Elly. “Why haven’t I seen your apartment yet? Is it really that bad?”
“You would be surprised,” muttered Keith.
Elly walked down the hall to Dennis’s room. She almost opened the door but stopped herself short and gave a gentle rap. “Dennis, may I come in?” Elly heard an approving grunt.
Dennis was still in the exact spot she had left him—staring at her computer monitor, eyes rapt on the screen, which was now a whirlwind of color and loud explosions.
“Oh, that looks interesting!” She set the manicotti down next to him. “Is that your magic coat?”
Dennis looked over at her with a frown of annoyance. “No.”
Elly stood up. “If you wouldn’t mind, could you bring out your plate when you are done?”
“Sure thing,” muttered Dennis. He looked down at the warm manicotti and then back up at Elly, with something vaguely resembling gratefulness. “Thanks.”
“No problem.” Elly shut the door quietly behind her. She headed into the living room and sank onto the couch with Keith, curling herself against his side.
“How’d it go?” he asked.
Elly gave a shrug. “I think he really likes that game.”
“He seems pretty passionate about it.” Keith wrapped his hand around hers, bringing it to his mouth for a kiss. “I’m sure that this is going to be great, him staying here.” He looked at the ceiling. He was lying. Again. Elly pushed down the surge of crazy circling up from below. It’s fine. Everything is fine. Keith gave her hand a soft squeeze and reached for his wine glass. “So … tell me all about Lola Plumb.”
Elly thought for a second. “Actually, she’s kind of nice. Nice and very sad.”
Keith raised his eyebrows, making a scandalized face. I love him, thought Elly, suddenly, impulsively. Oh Lord, I love him. She watched as he took a bite of manicotti, making happy faces and sounds. “Oh, so good,” he sighed. Please don’t hurt me, Keith. I’m not sure I could survive it.
She hated even the thought of it.
Chapter Thirteen
Dennis was talking to someone in his room. She wasn’t sure who or what he was talking about, but Dennis was definitely talking to someone. In her house. Elly hovered outside the door in her pajamas, unsure of what to do. Should I just go in there? Is he on the phone? (There was no phone in that room.) When did he bring someone home? What if he’s … gulp … in bed with someone? The thought made her nauseated. Just knock. DO IT! Elly knocked lightly on the door. “Dennis?”
“Yeah?”
“May I come in? Are you alone?”
There was a long silence. “Uh … yeah?”
Elly opened the door. Her first thought was that Dennis looked like hell. Huge, dark bags hung under bloodshot eyes. His hair was streaked with dark grease spots and was plastered across his sweaty forehead. He was wearing the same clothes he had been wearing the night before. Elly glanced over at the guest bed. It was still hastily made—the exact same way Elly had hastily made it the night before. She couldn’t contain her curiosity. “Did you even sleep?”
Dennis gave a shrug. “No, but I had so much to catch up on. Since I left Ohio, I haven’t been leveling up my character. I can’t be left behind on the quests, just because I haven’t had time to play. Besides, my friends,”—Elly noticed the pride in his voice when he said “friends”— “they were waiting for me.”
Elly leaned against the door, trying to appear at ease. Just me and my brother, hanging out in the morning. Totally normal. Totally normal that he didn’t sleep because he was killing goblins and minotaurs and going on quests with his “friends,” who could be pedophiles. “So you stayed up all night?”
Dennis nodded, a blond lock of hair falling in front of his face. “Yeah, it was sweet.”
“Fantastic!” said Elly, not really understanding why she had said so. She motioned to the kitchen. “So, um, I am heading into the Store B this morning with some of my staff—we’re setting up some of the structural stuff inside. My friend Kim will be there with her son, Hadley, my godson, and I was wondering….”
“No thanks,” Dennis interjected quickly. “I need to grab my breakfast and get back to it. Ahora is going to be on soon, and I haven’t played with her for a while, I bet she’s freaking out.”
“Oh. Okay.” Elly bit back her disappointment. “Maybe we can have them over for dinner sometime soon. Hadley is so cute.”
Dennis spun his chair back to the computer. “Sounds good.”
Elly turned to leave, but hesitated at the door. “There’s cereal and milk in the kitchen, along with some Pop-Tarts.”
“Cool, cool, cool,” he replied.
She took a deep breath. “Who were you talking to?” Elly saw Dennis’s posture slouch at the computer. “Do you have a cell phone?” she pushed.
Dennis shook his head. “No, I wish. I was just, you know, talking to myself.”
“Oh,” said Elly. She gave him her widest smile. “No big deal, I do that all the time. It must be genetic.”
Dennis stared off into the imaginary world past his screen. “When I would get home from school every day, my mom would be working and my dad was usually at the bar or screaming at me from his place on the couch with a bottle in his hand, so I would just go into my room and talk about my day. It just felt good to get it out, you know? Everything I learned, the kids that teased me, the science award I won….” He looked up at her, and the vivid blue eyes that mirrored her own ripped at Elly’s heart. “Total loser, right?” He gave a sad smile.
Elly patted the door frame. “Nope.”
Dennis gave a smirk. “Uh, thanks. Coming from you, it means a lot. Hey!” The computer screen in front of him gave a short beep. “She’s on! She’s on. Ahora … what’s up?” And just like that, he was gone.
Elly shut the door behind her. “Are you going to shower today?” she shouted through the door, impressed at her last-minute bravery.
There was a pause. “Sure, whatever!” he yelled back.
Elly could hear the heavy rhythm of his meaty hands pounding the keys and his hushed voice. “Think you can take that from me, assassin? Well, how about you try and take this blade flurry, you half-witted troll….” Elly gave a sigh as she headed to the shower herself. Dennis wasn’t the only one who didn’t smell like roses.
/> Two hours later, Elly was staring at what couldn’t be a real invoice. It couldn’t be. She looked up at Snarky Teenager with total disbelief. “You ordered koi fish?”
Snarky Teenager gave a dismissive flick of her hair. “Yeah, and it’s going to be amazing.”
Elly pointed at the order. “We have a limited budget, and you bought koi fish?”
Snarky Teenager gazed down from the ladder, dangling two cream three-tiered Yoko lanterns from her outstretched arms. “They’re for the fountain.”
“What fountain?”
Snarky Teenager shook her head as she continued to climb up the ladder. “Trust me, it’s going to be beautiful. We need to create an atmosphere of beauty and Zen.”
“Well, I am not feeling very Zen right now as I look at an invoice for five-hundred-dollar koi fish,” growled Elly.
Kim scampered past Elly, swooping Hadley up in the air near her face. “Look at the lights!” she cooed. “Don’t freak out, Elly,” she warned, looking backwards. “You promised a fun day of pizza and Japanese-style decorating.”
“We’re having pizza?” replied Snarky Teenager. “So many calories.”
Elly walked over to the new desk that Keith had brought in for them this morning and picked up her clipboard, letting out a moan as she gazed at her to-do list. It was still about eighteen items long. Glancing around the store, Elly couldn’t believe the transformation that had already taken place. Under Snarky Teenager’s talented direction, the store was radically different than the starkly barren space it had been before. The sterile white walls had been painted over with a vibrant lime-green paint, accented by one plum and gray accent wall. Light bamboo shelves lined one entire wall, and in the corner, a huge kentia palm stretched its leafy arms toward the ceiling. A round mahogany desk sat in the very center of the room, which made the entire store center around its clean lines and impressive shape. Elly admired the desk from a distance. It was lovely—rich and cherry colored, with tiny striations in the wood. She had had her eye on this desk for months for Posies, but once she had decided to open this store, she knew it was a much better fit here than it was in her cute little antique-y shop. She was still admiring it when Snarky Teenager placed a giant gold Buddha on it.
Elly paused. “Um, what the heck is that?”
Snarky Teenager looked at it. “It’s a Buddha.”
“I know what, or who, it is. Why is it in this store? Or better yet, why is it on my new desk?”
“Because it looks great there, that’s why. This adds to the atmosphere.”
Elly looked over at Kim, who curled her lip and quickly shook her head before placing a wet raspberry on Hadley’s soft cheek. He screamed in delight. Elly turned back to her upstart employee. “That’s ostentatious. No. It’s not going there. Besides, no one in this room is Buddhist.”
“I’m pan-religious,” declared Snarky Teenager.
“Well I’m mono-Baptist,” replied Elly, “and I’m pretty sure that it’s insulting to real Buddhists that we are using their deity for decor.”
Snarky Teenager’s eyes clouded over with anger. “Well, I like it. It goes with the feeling of the store, and the koi fish and the bamboo. We want this store to feel like a spa, not like a tent revival.”
“Not having a Buddha hardly makes this store feel like a revival.”
Snarky Teenager stomped her foot angrily.
Pick your battles, Elly silently reminded herself. “Fine. You can keep it, but put it in the corner.”
“Nobody puts Buddha in the corner,” mumbled Kim before she and Elly burst into giggles.
Snarky Teenager rolled her eyes at them. “I don’t get your old-people jokes.” They laughed at her all through lunch.
As the afternoon light crept through the office windows, the hours flew by and the shop was really taking shape. Kim, still looking fresh in her pink paisley summer dress and gladiator sandals, cradled Hadley lovingly in her arms. She handed him to Elly. “I’m going to get a coffee. Want a hot chocolate?”
“You know me so well,” Elly replied. “If Hadley and I are gone when you get back, no worries, I just stole your baby.”
Kim gave a tired grin. “I might let you keep him.”
“Liar.”
Kim planted a kiss on his head and walked out. Elly, ever so careful, carried him over to the desk on her hip, sinking down into an old computer chair. “Hi, munchkin,” she mouthed, running her fingers over his face. Hadley grabbed at her hand, making cooing sounds. His impossibly bright sea-glass eyes stared back at her, and his chubby cheeks flushed pink when she blew on them. “This is the most gorgeous baby ever,” she announced.
“Agreed,” said Snarky Teenager, hanging the last of the lanterns. “My turn next.”
Never, thought Elly. Before she could stop herself, her mind was racing to the future. I wonder if Keith and I had a son, would he have bright-blue eyes like mine, or a deep stormy blue like Keith’s? Would he be chubby from the get-go? Have a natural knack for making sandwiches? Would he able to carry a tune? Hadley pushed out the world’s most-violent sneeze, making his eyes cross. Elly’s heart leapt with happiness. It was all too adorable. She looked around the store. With the lanterns hung, it really started to look how Elly had pictured it. It had that deep, aesthetic spiritual connection, that lulling coolness, that “it” feeling, whatever it was. It was a certain hipness that she didn’t have. Hadley was trying to eat her sleeve. “Okay, your turn.”
Snarky Teenager held out her arms. “Babies are, like, so in right now. They are the ultimate accessory.”
“Try not to drop your new accessory.”
“I’m not an idiot,” she snapped. Hadley dangled precariously from her arm.
“You’re a natural.” Elly reached out to catch him as he almost squirmed out of the girl’s tiny bird arms.
“Yes, hello?”
Both Elly and Snarky Teenager jumped. Standing in the gigantic open glass doors was a stunning Japanese woman. “You do flowers here, yes?” she asked.
Elly looked over at Snarky Teenager with confusion. She gave a shrug. “I’ll take Hadley.”
Hadley stared at the woman, totally confused. Elly pushed the wheeled chair back from the desk with her foot. What was intended to be a smooth, professional movement quickly escalated out of control. The floor had recently been waxed, and the chair flew backward. Behind Elly was a pile of bamboo shelving that hadn’t been mounted yet. The chair hit the wood, spinning, and launched Elly sideways into the air. She landed on her stomach, smacking her knees down behind her. The chair tipped and landed on top of her shins. Before she even realized what was happening, Elly’s face was against the cool floor. Oh, she thought with surprise, this mountain maple color looks really good up close. Then, why am I on the floor? She heard Snarky Teenager’s shrieking laughter coming from somewhere beyond the desk. Hadley was clapping.
Suddenly, the woman was upon her. “Are you okay?”
Elly pushed herself up with her elbows. Oh Lord, her abdomen ached.
The woman reached out and took Elly’s arm, speaking in a thick Japanese accent. “Here, let me help you up.”
Elly sat up, her hair flopping in her face. “What can I help you with?” she asked, trying to laugh it off. Her face burned with embarrassment. Snarky Teenager was now sitting on the floor, tears of laughter dripping down her perfect cheeks as Hadley bounced on her lap.
The woman looked down at the owner, sprawled out on the floor. “You guys are the florist, right?”
Elly gave a nod, brushing off her pants. “We are, but we aren’t open for business yet, as you can probably tell.”
The woman gave a pert nod. Her chin-length bob bounced, and perfectly jet-black hair came untucked from behind her ear. From her years of selling flowers, Elly could tell from the way this woman carried herself that she was probably very important. “Huh. Interesting. Good location. I was strolling through. Well, let me know when you are open. I would maybe be interested in using your services.”
Elly stuck out her hand. “I’m Elly Jordan. I’m the owner of this shop. I also own Posies, down on Wydown, by Keith’s deli?”
The woman clasped her hands together. “Oh! I love that deli! And I love your window displays! The one you have up most recently—the display with the black and white? Very good color blocking.”
Elly saw Snarky Teenager make Hadley give her a high five in the corner. “Well, thanks,” said Elly, knowing it would annoy her young employee.
“I’m Karen,” said the woman, stretching out her hand.
Elly shook it, marveling at how her own large hand seemed to completely swallow the woman’s. “It’s nice to meet you.” Elly gestured around the shop. “Today we are just setting up things, so we don’t have any flowers yet. But, if you want to contact me over at Posies, I’m sure we could help you.”
“Oh, I’m not into traditional flowers. But let me know when you are open. Are you the manager?” Elly saw a look of concern cross Snarky Teenager’s face. What was that about?
“Yes. And once we open, I would love to design you something special, on us. I’ll have it delivered to you.”
Karen raised herself up on her toes and gave a single clap. “That sounds perfect. I’ll have my people email your people.”
“Wonderful,” said Elly, trying to regain face from her disastrous chair dive and thinking how “her people” consisted of Cadbury. They exchanged cards, and with a small smile, the woman walked silently out of the store. Elly leaned back, her hands on her hips. “Well, that was kind of serendipitous.”
Snarky Teenager approached her, still holding Hadley, a scowl marring her normally perfect face. “Thanks for not introducing me,” she snapped.
Elly was taken aback. “Why do you care? You were on the floor with Hadley and that woman was important.”
Snarky Teenager rolled her eyes. “How could you possibly know that?”
Elly flipped her card over. “Karen Chow. CEO, Marketplace Industries. She’s a big deal. How did I know? How did you not? If you are going to run this store, you should learn to read people. From the way they stand to how they speak, you should be able to tell who is a big deal.”
Elly in Love (The Elly Series) Page 17
