by Taryn Quinn
“I just burn, then maybe keep a freckle or two.” I took a sip from the bubbly wine and hummed out my pleasure then took another sip. “I need about three more of these.” Not that I would be having them, but a little was okay during practice time, according to the doctor.
“Handily, they’re from that cute little wine bar a few buildings down.”
I turned the can around. Sure enough, it said Ashes and Wine with a mix of scripty and heavy masculine fonts. “Guess I’ll have to text my order into my friends who were coming in for a photo shoot tonight.”
Luna spun around. “Photo shoot?”
I leaned back on the big pink hassock. “Yeah, for those jeans you guys went wild for. Do you guys want to stay and help? The more models the better.”
Ryan dropped into a bean bag chair in front of me. “That sounds like fun. However, what sounds like much more fun is if you tell us about that tall drink of handyman-slash-carpenter-slash-booty call, August.”
I flushed and stood up. “Nothing to tell.”
“Right. That’s why your aura is a neon pinkish-red right now.” Luna lifted her can and took a long drink.
Ryan nudged me. “So how much after-hours treatment are you getting?”
“It’s not like that.”
“Oh? Then how is it like?” Ryan batted her eyelashes at me.
“We’re friends.”
Luna snorted and popped the top on another spritzer. “Naked friends.”
“Shh.” I looked around to make sure no one had come into the shop.
Ryan tipped her head and studied me. “Hmm.”
“We’re keeping things quiet.” I sighed. For the first time, I had the option of actually talking about August with someone. “He’s my best friend’s brother.”
“Ohhh.” Luna dropped down on the mat again. “Well, that makes a little more sense. But he sure didn’t seem like he was hiding anything when he was snuggling up to you at the desk. Is there anything more romantic than a guy who can’t stay out of your dance space?”
“At all,” April chimed in.
I flushed. “It can’t be like that.”
“Why not?”
“Because. It just can’t.” I drained my can of wine and stood up to gather their discarded clothes. I couldn’t look too closely at that far too appealing fantasy. The one where I could wake up next to August without guilt or panic. Where I could not worry about who saw us together.
It was just smarter to make sure I didn’t ruin the one bit of family I could count on for something that was at best a bad idea and at worst, a breakup begging to happen. And I couldn’t put Ivy through that. Nor could I ever make her choose sides. It wasn’t fair and I knew which side I’d land on. Just like always.
A lifetime of lessons had taught me that.
“I have flipped the closed sign and locked the door, it is time to party!” Came a voice from the front of the store.
“I brought the wine.” Gina’s sweeter voice followed her sister Gabby’s.
“Thank goddess, more wine,” I muttered and rushed to meet them.
A little more wouldn’t hurt. I hoped. Besides, I wasn’t pregnant yet.
Probably not, anyway.
“This conversation isn’t over,” Ryan called after me.
“There’s nothing to converse about.”
“What are we not conversing about?” Gina rushed toward me, her long hair still tied into her work ponytail. She smelled like syrup and fresh bread with a little extra diner grease.
“Nothing.” I hugged her back. “I’m so glad you could come.”
“Let me get out of this freaking uniform and drink half a bottle of wine and I will try on all the jeans.” She shoved two bottles of wine and a handled brown paper bag at me.
I peeked in and groaned. “Gravy fries?”
“Of course.” Gina headed toward the back of the store where the bathrooms were. “I’ll be right out.”
Gabby linked her arm with mine. “She had a very long day at the diner. The ducks made another appearance and she had to convince Mitch not to make duck stew.”
I winced. “He wouldn’t.”
“Probably not.” Gabby grinned as she tucked a lock of her chin-length dark hair behind her ear. “Pretty sure.”
“No, don’t tell me these things.”
“They blocked a delivery van to the diner before they waddled their way over to the park. Then they wouldn’t cross the road and I was late with a delivery.”
“Not sure why they are so fascinated by the roads in this town.”
“Girlfriend, I do not know. But there are a pack of them.”
I juggled the wine bottles and followed her to the dressing room area. “Do you call ducks a pack?”
“Flock?” Gabby set her two bottles of wine down where one of my Alexa Echo units resided. “Alexa, what do you call a grouping of ducks?”
“A group of ducks is called a herd, a flock, a raft, a paddling, or a plump.”
“Plump like my butt,” Gabby quipped. “Because my bestie keeps making glorious food and I keep sampling it.”
Considering I’d used Hannah Jacobs’s food delivery service myself, I could see how it could happen.
“Girls, this is my friend Gabriela Ramos.”
“Gabby,” she corrected with a little wave.
“Fresh blood.” Luna dragged Gabby over to the hassock. “Hello. You have a very feisty aura. Tell me all about you.”
Gabby gave me a should-I-be-worried glance.
I shook my head. “Luna is very excitable. She’s going to be working here.”
Luna squealed. “I am? Really?”
I laughed. “Well, you said you wanted to.”
“I do.” Luna detangled herself from the stack of clothes hemming her in. She hugged me, hopping around until I was laughing and hopping too. “You won’t regret it.”
“More like you’re the one who might regret it. This place is insane and only getting busier. And you will have a trial by fire with the Spring Walk tomorrow. Sure you want the job?”
“Definitely. I’m so excited.”
“There’s no real time for training.”
“I don’t care.” She squeezed my upper arms. “I’m an apt pupil, just ask Ry.”
Ryan crossed her long, shapely legs and kicked up her red-heeled foot. “It’s true. I’ve never known anyone who matched intuition with book learning like Luna.”
“See?”
“Oh, what do you do?” Gabby asked.
“I’m a cardslinger.” Luna bounced back over to Gabby. “And I’m about do yours.” She reached into her huge pink bucket bag and pulled out a rainbow and glitter drawstring pouch.
Gabby’s eyes went wide. “Cards? Are we playing poker?” She rubbed her hands.
Luna grinned. “That could be fun later, but now?” She dipped her glitter-tipped fingers into the bag and pulled out a colorful deck I recognized very well. “I’m going to do your tarot cards. And maybe a few oracles because you look like you could use it.”
“I could?”
“Definitely.”
Ryan rolled her eyes. “She doesn’t ease anyone into tarot. Just shoves you off the edge.”
“Not this girl,” April said and shut herself into one of the dressing rooms.
Ryan waggled her brows. “We get everyone eventually.”
“True statement.” I took the bottle of Moscato the Ramos sisters had brought with them and opened it. It seemed like today was going to be a mason jar kind of wine night.
There was much flailing as everyone ran around getting ready. I sipped slowly from my jar and set up my cameras and lights.
Ryan ended up tag-teaming poor Gabby, and they both had her laughing and drinking her way through telling them her life story.
Gina nudged me. “I like your friends.”
“Yeah?” I glanced over at Luna and Ryan, who were poring over the spread of cards.
“Definitely. I’m so glad you got someone to help out. Yo
u really needed it.”
I sighed. “I know. I just…”
“No one will do it like you do.” Gina hooked her arm around my waist. “It’s okay to ask for help. You don’t have to do everything alone.”
I lifted my wine again. “I’m just used to it.”
She took the wine away from me and set it down, her big dark eyes direct and still somehow kind. “You are amazing. Look at what you did with this place. I’m so jealous of what you’ve created.”
“Why?” I couldn’t be more shocked than if she’d slapped me.
“Because you’ve gone for exactly what you wanted.”
“More like I had to.”
“Who cares? Plenty of us work multiple jobs instead of going for something as precarious as opening your own business.”
“I guess.” I’d started repurposing and upselling to pay the rent on my shoebox apartment in the shittiest neighborhood in Syracuse. That and avoiding the super because I was underage and he let it be known—without saying it specifically—that he’d take the rent on a barter basis.
I’d never had to stoop to that level, but it had been close a few times. Thankfully, my hustle mentality managed to win out in the end. And that was the reason I barely spent a dime on myself.
“Well, let’s see if we can sell some jeans.” I turned to face the girls. “You all get a free pair as payment for modeling.”
“That’s what I’m talking about. Now you girls have to help me find the one that makes my ass look spectacular.” Gina pulled two pairs off the pile.
“Try these too.” I unearthed a pair with a mix of fabric patches and embroidery that was perfect for her curved hips.
“Thanks.” She escaped into the middle dressing room.
I nibbled on the corner of my thumb as I waited for her to come out. Then busied myself with the rack of plants I wanted to use as a backdrop for the photos, along with the exposed brick wall.
“Kin, these are awesome.” Gina swung the door open and twirled her way to the beveled standing mirror. “I’ve never had jeans actually fit me so well.”
“Vintage Levis weren’t made for stick models.”
“Thank God for it.” Gina turned to look at her own butt. “Incredible. And I love those little embroidered rosebuds.”
I hid a smile and picked up my camera to snap a few behind the scene shots. I took pictures from angles that didn’t show exactly what wine we were drinking. But I did include the local winery, figuring the Andreas family wouldn’t mind a little free advertising.
My phone buzzed in my pocket and I pulled it out.
Are you having a lot of fun without me?
I quickly answered Ivy, knowing my duty as bestie.
Of course not. We are bored without you.
You lie, but I don’t care. I’m woe. I would just bundle up Rhiannon and bring her, but she’s been fussing all night.
Is she okay?
Yes, just teething. I wish she wasn’t because now she bites and it hurts.
I winced and really didn’t want to think about where she was biting. Because goddess, that wasn’t good. I supposed I should read about that in one of the four baby books I got from Amazon the other day.
We miss you. Next time we’ll do a Mommy and Me photo sesh.
Oh, I would love that.
Okay, I gotta go take pix.
:crying emoji:
I sent her back a dozen hearts and stuffed my phone back into my pocket. I drained my wine tumbler and picked up my camera again. “Okay, girls. Ready to show off that denim?”
Luna hopped to her feet, ringed toes flashing as she flipped off her shirt, swapping it for one of my vintage T-shirts.
At my shocked face, she laughed. “What, they’re just boobs. You have them.”
“That I do.” I laughed. “Alexa, play Julia Michaels.”
Shuffling songs by Julia Michaels.
Luna pulled Ryan up off the hassock. “Yes, I love this song.”
The next twenty minutes was a flurry of denim from three different decades along with a detour into the crochet dresses that April had rocked earlier. The wine was flowing and laughter was hitting an all-time high when the music dimmed and a voice floated into the room.
“Hello?”
I was crouched with my camera up. “Ivy?”
“Oh my God, the drop in feature does work.”
Gina paused the can just before her lips. “Can someone listen in anytime?”
I shrugged. “I’m not sure. Never used it.”
“If they have access and I doooo.” Ivy’s laugh filled the space. “I was jealous. You haven’t replied to my texts, and I just know you’re having so much fun without me.”
“Bring the kid,” Gabby said from the floor. She was trying on a pair of velvet boots that had about three thousand laces.
“She’s finally just fallen asleep. And I’m up to my elbows in ice cream.”
“Then have that hot Irish husband of yours watch him,” Gabby replied.
“I wish. Rory isn’t home until tomorrow. I’m so lonely.” Ivy spread out the word with an extra bonus whine.
“Aww. I’m sorry.” Gina tucked her feet under her legs. “Don’t look at my toes. I didn’t have time to get a pedicure.”
“You don’t have time for anything.” Gabby lifted her leg, showing off the boot. “That took forever, but look at them!”
I quickly lifted my camera and snapped the candid shot. My Facebook page was going to be full of super fun shots. And the rest would go up on my Take a Peek Into the Trunk website.
“Being a responsible mom is a pain in the butt sometimes.”
“So much better than the alternative,” I said and checked my viewfinder to see what kind of photos I had.
“Right?” Luna dug into her trail mix. “My mom was too busy being a socialite. Parties here, charities there—she was never home.”
Ryan leaned back on her elbows. “Mine was living up to her name.”
Luna giggled. “Rainbow Moon.”
Ryan rolled her eyes. “She even made us travel around in an Airstream. She sold beaded jewelry and hemp macramé.”
I walked around the large pink velvet hassock and took pictures as they all lounged. The fairy lights around the doors of the changing rooms gave an extra soft glow to the intimate photos.
“Well, we know my mom is living for the babysitting, but she likes her evenings free. So of course I wouldn’t ask. Even if I was a teensy bit tempted tonight.”
I could hear the longing in Ivy’s voice, but there was an underlying happiness too. She loved being a mom. Exactly what I’d wished for as a kid.
“Our mom is now dispatch Bonnie at the station. She’s incorrigible.” Gina put her head in her hands. “Not only do I have to hear about the goings-on in this insane town at the diner, but now I get extra gossip at Sunday dinner.”
Gabby groaned. “Then she tries to say she’s not judging.”
“Better than my mom. I haven’t seen her in twelve years.”
Dammit. I couldn’t believe that had come out of my mouth.
“Who said that?” Ivy’s voice piped up.
Shit.
Shit.
How could I be so stupid?
Everyone was sharing and it just..tumbled out.
I cleared my throat. “It’s not a big deal.”
“Wait, Kin? Was that you?”
I winced. “Yeah. I swear it’s not a big deal.”
“You don’t talk about your mom, but I just thought…” She sniffed through the speaker. “I should have thought about it more. You just love coming to my house, I just—God, Kin. How could you not tell me about that?”
I heard the hurt in her voice. “It’s not like that. I wasn’t keeping it from you. I just don’t talk about it—ever.”
Now silence reigned and a heaviness sat over the room.
Lovely.
“And that’s exactly why I don’t say anything,” I said defensively, wishing I’d glued my m
outh shut.
“But I’m not just anyone.” Ivy sniffed again then the sound of a baby’s cries dented the uncomfortable silence. “I gotta go.”
I dropped onto my butt and set my camera down next to me. “Dammit.”
“It’s okay, Kinleigh.” Ryan’s voice was gentle. “You don’t have to talk about it.”
“Good, because I don’t want to.” I stood and escaped to the front of the store. My eyes were dry and my chest ached.
The music resumed, but the happy chatter was gone and it was all my fault.
Seventeen
I tried to wait out the girl brigade upstairs, but if I didn’t get some of the supplies for the front window set up for the Spring Walk the next day, then I would be screwed.
It wasn’t that late. And I was used to being Kin’s dirty little after hours secret, but it had been a long day of getting stuff ready. Her place was always populated by new items, so it was just a bonus bit of foot traffic for Kinleigh’s shop.
For me? I was trying like hell to make the front of my store more inviting. When I’d first opened, I didn’t care what it looked like. I’d put a new piece in the window and busy myself with online orders and customs from return clients.
Now?
Well, now everything was about the long game when it came to my store. And if I had a kid to be responsible for, I couldn’t be so loose and free with my business plan. Hell, the baby line of furniture might actually be a thing if I got off my ass about it.
“One thing at a time,” I muttered to myself as I took the stairs.
The music was playing, but the female laughter was missing. The door was locked, but I’d been the one to change her locks all those months ago. I knew where the hide-a-key was.
I reached above the doorway to the antique key photo in a frame and flipped it over. She was adorable with all her quirky shop features. No detail was overlooked.
I unlocked the door and replaced the key.
“Hey, Aug.” Gina was coming out of the dressing room area. “What are you doing here?”
Her sister Gabby brought up the rear. “If it isn’t my favorite carpenter.”
I tapped the brim of my hat. “Ladies. Kinleigh offered to let me use some of her stuff as props for the Spring Walk.”
