He took a bite of his dinner and chewed as he realized this was the perfect opening to talk to her about what he needed.
“I was wondering what you thought of maybe staying an extra day or two this time? Maybe we can take a trip to the coast and be beach bums for a couple of days. What do you think?” When he didn’t answer right away, she put her slice down and studied him. “Spencer?”
He let out a sigh. “Okay, here’s the thing…” And then he went on to explain to her all about his current project at work and all of the things that were going to happen from this point on and why he needed to be back in Atlanta more. Not sure what her reaction was going to be, Spencer tried to talk about all of the great things they could do if she came to see him and how he would make the time to show her around.
“Wow,” she said when he was done. “I…I guess I’ve been a little selfish, huh?”
His eyes went wide. “What? Why would you even say that?”
Penny gave him a mild look. “Seriously? You’ve been doing all the traveling, all the compromising so that I’m not inconvenienced. That’s not how it should be in a relationship, Spencer. We should be splitting the travel time fifty-fifty. If this is going to work…”
“It is working,” he quickly corrected.
“But if it’s going to continue to work…the travel has to be on each of us. I’m sorry that you’ve been doing it all. I guess…I guess I just figured you didn’t mind it and that it gave you the opportunity to come home and see your family too. Two birds, one stone and all that.”
And while she did have a point, the only thing he’d been getting out of his visits with his family was how much better they thought his life would be if he just moved home and took over his father’s firm. He hadn’t shared any of that with Penny because…well…
Shit.
He hadn’t shared it because he didn’t want her pressuring him too.
That didn’t say much for how he was viewing this relationship if he was keeping something as important as this from her, did it?
“Okay, I have a confession to make,” he said after a minute, and when she just looked at him with a curious expression, he went on. “I enjoy coming to Raleigh to see you and my family…”
“But…”
“But…seeing my family has kind of not been a good thing.”
Penny immediately reached for his hand and squeezed it. “What’s going on?”
“Remember when I told you about my father wanting me to take over his firm?”
She nodded.
“Well, the more time I spend here…”
“The more he’s pushing for it,” she finished for him.
“Exactly.”
She sighed and reached for her drink and took a long sip. “So what have you been telling him?”
“Basically, I’ve been stalling – talking about the projects I’m already committed to and how I can’t just quit my job.”
“And how has he responded?”
Spencer shrugged. “He understands but then he talks about six months down the road or a year down the road…like if I just let my bosses know what’s coming, they’ll start to phase me out so I’ll be able to leave when my work is done.”
“And you still don’t want that.” It wasn’t a question. And he heard the sadness in her voice.
There was no way he could lie to her. “I…I don’t,” he finally said, his voice thick with emotion. It was the first time he admitted it out loud when he didn’t feel good about it.
Placing her cup down on the coffee table, Penny leaned back against the sofa cushions. It took a minute before she would look at him. “I think we’ve hit that point where we need to re-address where we’re going.”
Dammit.
Not like this. He didn’t want it to be like this or like anything. In his mind, they always found a way to make it work! Of course, in his mind it always involved Penny moving to Atlanta to be with him, but…
She sat up straight and took a steadying breath. “I think I should come to Atlanta and check it out.”
Um…say what?
“Really?”
She nodded. “I think the timing is perfect. Obviously I’m not staring my own business – that’s not going to happen – so there’s nothing keeping me here.”
“What about your family?”
She waved him off. “I told you how not everyone lives here anymore and my parents are plenty busy with their grandkids; they’ll barely miss me.”
He was beginning to notice a pattern here, and he didn’t like it.
“What about your job? You love working for Enchanted,” he argued lightly. “You talk about it all the time and it seems like you’re really an integral part of the team.”
Another wave. “Please, things are a little crazy right now because Ella just had her baby – a little boy, by the way – and I’m taking on more responsibility and all, but…”
Unable to help himself, Spencer reached for both of her hands and held them tightly. “Penny, it’s okay to love your job. I get it. I respect that. I’m not asking you to give all that up.”
Her eyes shone with tears just waiting to fall. “Look, I do love my job with Enchanted, but…it’s just a job. I’ve done all that I can there. It’s never going to be any more than what it is. And do I really want to be a salesgirl for the rest of my life?” She shrugged. “I don’t know. But I can do that anywhere. I don’t have to be here in Raleigh. I’m sure there are bridal shops in Atlanta too.”
But there was no excitement in her words. No joy. And if there’s one thing he always loved about listening to Penny talk, it was how she found joy in everything.
“Let’s not worry about that now,” he said because his mind was spinning in a million different directions and he needed to let all of this new information settle for a bit. “Tell me about tomorrow night’s show and what I can do to help so that I’m not in the way.”
And then she did smile.
And he knew he was in trouble.
“Penny? Can you fix Lisa’s hair? We just switched out her veil…”
“Penny? When you’re done with that can you help Tori with her makeup?”
“Penny? Do you happen to have any pink nail polish? Jenny has on black polish and…”
On and on it went as Penny ran around in that final hour before the show. She loved it. She loved the pace, the energy and then stepping back and seeing how great everyone looked. The only problem was that with all of her running around making everyone else beautiful, she wasn’t ready.
Becca ran toward her and handed her a bottle of water and a giant cookie and smiled. “It may not be a great dinner, but you earned it tonight. I swear, it was like everyone had a problem with the simplest things!”
Penny readily agreed, took a large bite of the cookie and moaned with pleasure. “Damn, that’s good.”
Becca’s smile grew. “Thanks. You looked like you needed a little something. I just gave one to Spencer too. He’s been helping with the setup. It seems like we’re a little short-handed everywhere tonight. We almost asked him to put on a tux and help out as one of the models.”
Penny choked on the cookie. Becca patted her back until she caught her breath. “Um…what?”
“It turns out we didn’t need to, but for a few minutes, we were down a groomsman. Turns out that Derek Mitchell was running late and forgot to call.” Then she looked around. “We need to get you into your gown next.”
Nodding, she took another bite of the chocolate chip cookie and a swig of water before heading toward her dressing room. Together, she and Becca worked to get her into the gown and secure her headpiece. “We really should think about eliminating the headpieces for the show,” she said.
“How come?”
“For ease of getting the girls changed faster. It’s easier to do a hairstyle that will go with everything than to have to fix and adjust after every dress change. It might make for less confusion. Plus, I think sometimes the veil can distract from t
he dress and someone might count out a gown because of how it looks with the headpiece.”
Becca considered her for a moment. “I think that makes total sense. We’ll bring that up Monday at the meeting.”
Once she was dressed, she studied her reflection in the mirror and smiled.
This is my dress, she thought and gasped.
“What? What’s the matter? Are you okay?” Becca asked nervously.
“No…no. It’s…it’s nothing. This gown is just…”
“It’s perfect for you,” Becca finished. “You wore a similar one about a month ago that we all talked about because of the silvery blue hue to it. This one has it too and it just…it compliments you in every way.”
She sighed longingly. “If only…”
“Oh, come on. Someday you’ll be wearing it as your own. Things seem like they’re going really well with Spencer.”
“They are,” she agreed, “but…I’m never going to have a big wedding.”
“What?” Becca cried. “Why not?”
“I’m the youngest of nine kids. My parents helped pay for everyone else’s weddings but…they’ve already kind of let me know that the well is dry where that’s concerned. There’s so many grandkids now and they want to retire and…” She shrugged. “I’d be on my own to pay for it.”
“Not completely alone…”
“You know what I mean,” Penny said wearily. “I need to get out of debt and that’s not going to happen if I have to pay for a big wedding.”
“You don’t necessarily need a big wedding to have a fabulous gown,” Becca countered. “Ella and Dylan had a very small and intimate wedding and she wore a fantastic gown – similar to this one – and it was great.”
Another shrug. “Maybe. But…I just don’t see that in my future.”
“Not even for Spencer?”
Ugh…she didn’t want to think about that right now. Things were already heading in a direction that she didn’t love but…she loved him so…
“Penny!” Hailey called out. “We’re almost ready for you! You ready?”
As I’ll ever be…
Two hours later, Penny was walking around the banquet room talking to potential clients and wearing the gown she had worn on her first round of the show.
Her gown.
“There you are,” Spencer said from behind her and her heart actually kicked hard in her chest.
There was no way he would know how she felt about this dress, and him, and all the scenarios in her mind for how she wished he was seeing her in it. Turning, she smiled. “Here I am!”
He was standing with a couple she assumed to be his friend Keith and his fiancée – which Spencer immediately confirmed as he introduced them. They chatted for a few minutes and Penny almost melted when Spencer came to stand beside her and wrapped his arm around her waist. Then he nuzzled her ear as he whispered, “You look beautiful.”
Um, yeah…it was a good thing he had an arm around her because she was pretty sure her knees were ready to buckle.
“Thank you,” she said softly. “I heard you were quite the hero here tonight.”
He looked at her in confusion.
“Becca mentioned how you helped out just about everywhere.”
“Well,” he said with a hint of bashfulness. “I was just standing around and it seemed like they could use a hand.”
“She also mentioned how they almost asked you to be a groomsman in the show tonight.” She said it lightly and enjoyed the look of mild panic on his face.
“Um…say what now? No one said anything about…” Then he stopped. “Wait, why didn’t they ask me? Because – if you think about it – I’ve tried on enough of those tuxedos that I could totally get up on stage and model one.”
She couldn’t help but laugh. “You did mention how you were practically a pro at it now,” she said with a sassy wink. Before she could say anything more, Hailey was waving her over to show her gown to a prospective client. “I’m sorry but…I need to go. It was nice meeting you both.”
Before she could walk away, Spencer held her hand and faced her. “I know you still have some time to put in here, but do you want to get something to eat when you’re done?”
“I do.”
Oh God…had she just said “I do” while wearing a wedding gown and facing Spencer? Again?’
His knowing smirk told her he caught her Freudian slip. Then he leaned forward and kissed her forehead. “Go and show off your gown…”
“My gown?” she squeaked. “It’s not…I mean…it’s not my gown…per se…I mean…”
Spencer chuckled. “You know what I mean,” he said as he gently turned her in Hailey’s direction. “Go and do your thing and I’ll be waiting for you when you’re done.”
Penny looked at him over her shoulder as she walked away and all she could think of was how much she wanted to be with him – near him. This long-distance thing wasn’t working for her anymore. She knew what she wanted and knew she was going to do whatever it took to have it.
“Hey, Spencer,” Angie said as she walked over. “Thanks for helping out earlier with the setup.”
“My pleasure.”
“So um…would you mind giving me a hand moving some of these chairs back? We’re still a little short-handed and I hate the thought of leaving all of this out.”
“No problem.” There were a hundred chairs lined up on either side of the runway and he and Angie worked on one side, while the few members of their usual breakdown crew managed the other. “Can I ask you a question?”
“Sure.”
“Why don’t you just leave all of this set up? You do enough of these shows so I would imagine it would save a lot of time to just leave the chairs out.”
She didn’t even blink as she picked up a couple of chairs and went to stack them. “Each show is a little bit different. We like to try new things and it’s easier to come in here and figure out what we want to do if the room is clear.”
He nodded in understanding and went about stacking his own section of chairs.
“How long are you in town for?” she asked.
“Just until Tuesday.” Then he gave a brief rundown of the work waiting for him back in Atlanta. “This will probably be the last show I see for a while.”
“Damn. I know Penny’s going to be disappointed. She was really excited about you being here tonight.”
He was maneuvering a stack of chairs when Becca came over to help. After a quick hello to him, she started talking to Angie. “Have you seen Penny?”
“She’s in the back getting changed. How come?” Angie replied.
“Hailey’s talking with a large bridal party right now that wants to hire Penny to do her whole glam squad treatment on them. I thought she’d want to know.”
“Wow! That’s awesome!” Angie said excitedly. “Now would be the perfect time for her to have a studio. I hate how that didn’t work out. Damn bank.”
“I know,” Becca said. “Oh, and check this out - we were talking earlier, and she had some great ideas on how to make show prep a little easier on everyone and I told her we’d talk about it on Monday but I figured I’d share it with you in case I forget.”
“I swear, I think we’ve all been doing this for so long that we don’t ever think about changing anything. It’s great how Penny sees ways to make improvements that we don’t.”
Spencer didn’t want to chime in, but he was kind of curious about a few things…
Putting the chairs down, he stepped over to the women. “Can I ask you both something?”
“Sure,” they replied.
“Um…if what Penny wants to do is going to be such an asset to this place – to Enchanted,” he specified, “why not pay for it yourselves, set it up and let Penny rent it and run it? You know she has the talent to carry it. Why does she have to own it outright?”
Becca looked a little uncomfortable and Angie looked mildly annoyed.
“I mean no disrespect,” he said quickly. “It just se
ems that for all that Penny contributes to the business…”
“Penny has been a lifesaver,” Becca said. “Honestly, I don’t know how we could have handled some of the more difficult things without her. She lends a hand wherever she’s needed and honestly, she’s wonderful with the customers. She has great insights and she’s basically like a jack-of-all-trades in the wedding world.”
“I know that,” Spencer replied, happy that others appreciated all of the hard work Penny did. “I just don’t understand why there isn’t anything being done to let her do what she’s most passionate about. Just because the bank turned her down doesn’t mean there aren’t other alternatives.”
Angie was still glaring at him a little and Spencer almost excused himself when she finally spoke. “We offered to lend her the money,” Angie began calmly, “and she turned us down.”
“She knows how you’ve already got expansion plans in the works…”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” Angie interrupted. “That’s what she said to us too and we respect that. Most of our plans aren’t going to go into effect for at least a year or two down the road. All of this?” She motioned to the space around them. “This is all brand-freaking-new. Believe me, we’re not looking to lay out any more money right now, but we would have to help Penny. We can’t force her to take the money.”
He knew that, he really did, but he also knew how much he hated to see her disappointed and upset. Yesterday, she had talked about being okay with walking away from this job and these people, but watching her in action tonight told a completely different story.
“And I don’t see why you’re not over the moon at this whole thing,” Angie said, snapping him out of his thoughts.
“How so?”
“With the business off the table, no doubt she’d be more open to going with you to Atlanta,” she said with just a hint of malice. “If anything, I would think you’d be sending a basket of muffins to the bank as a thank you.”
“Angie…” Becca warned.
“It’s true! He’s got everything to gain here! No more flying back and forth. No more crazy schedules for him to keep up with, and Penny can move and play house with him so he can keep his job and stop being inconvenienced.”
Glam Squad & Groomsmen Page 11
