She blinked at me. “I did.”
“Ballsy. A lot of people don’t have the stones to go for it like this. And if they do, they don’t commit to the same level you have. I mean, this is very clearly you. The shop appearance and your designs. You’re selling a specific brand, and people want that.”
She gave me a suspicious look.
I chuckled. “I’m not trying to sweet talk you. I’m just commending you. In my line of work, it’s rare for me to come across businesses run like yours and Senna’s.”
“Do you think Senna’s business is good, too?”
I nodded. “Without a doubt. She’s applied her own flair to her products and how she displays them, and she’s proactive about the impact her shop has on her environment and her community. Her awareness and kindness are part of her brand. I think she could make that part of it a bit more accessible to her clientele, but her business is young, and there’s still time for that.”
Edith nodded absently. “Right.”
“What made you decide to open the shop in the first place?” I asked.
“Why?”
“Just curious.”
She was still suspicious of me. I couldn't really blame her. She had every reason to be guarded around me. But finally, she said, “I got into it because of Senna.”
“Oh?”
She pressed her lips together and smiled. “Yeah.”
She was goading me. Tempting me to show her my hand. If I asked more about Senna, I was sure Edith would go running to her to report that the Suit was poking his nose in her business once more. I had to play this smart.
In other words, I had to be indirect.
I slipped my hands into my pockets and looked around her shop one more time. “I can see how a woman like Senna would inspire a person to pursue their dream.” I afforded a glance back at Edith to see if my line had worked.
Her lips were no longer pressed in that firm line. Instead, she looked a little curious, a little intrigued.
Excellent.
“She is a special person. You’re right. I spent a lot of time, money, and energy trying to find a career that would offer me stability. After working as a dental assistant for a while, I realized it didn’t make me happy, but I was content to resign myself to my fate. And then Senna told me I had everything I needed to be happy. I just had to take the necessary steps.”
“Which were?” I pushed.
She shrugged and came out from behind the counter. She leaned against it and crossed her arms. “Taking a part-time business class. Ordering jewelry and finishing my own designs that I’d put on the back burner for years. Investing. Applying for a business loan. You know. The usual stuff a person needs to do if they’re serious about starting a business.”
“I suppose she was a good mentor to have since she’d already done it all.”
Edith nodded. “Exactly. She held my hand through the whole thing. I never would have been able to do it without her. Even now, she helps me with things. It can all get a little overwhelming sometimes.” Edith looked at the floor. “She’s the strongest woman I know.”
I didn’t say anything. It was a statement I could easily follow up with something stupid, and I wanted to end things on a good note with Edith. She was part of closing this deal too, after all, and words stuck with people.
Edith shook her head, remembering I was there. Then she let out a nervous laugh. “Anyway.”
I nodded at the door. “I’d better be going. I just wanted to get a look at your place. See you around?”
She nodded. “Sure.”
Senna’s shop was a sharp contrast to Something New. Where the jewelry store was all earth tones and dramatic flair, Lily Living was bright, airy, and smelled like lavender.
And lilies.
The white flowers were set in vases all over the store. I chuckled to myself and counted nearly fifteen vases before Lily peeked her head around the sales counter.
“Hey, kiddo,” I said.
“Hi, Zach!”
“Seriously?” Senna’s deadpan toned filled the room.
I spun toward her, grinning. “Ah. Just the lady I was hoping to see. I have a proposition for you.”
Chapter 16
Senna
Suit was standing about fifteen feet away from me. Between us was a low table display I’d set up this morning to show off the sandals and handbags that I would have to donate if nobody bought them before summer ended.
He was nicely dressed, although more plainly than usual, in a pair of medium-wash jeans and a white button up. It was wrinkle free, as all his clothes always seemed to be, but he had the first and second button popped open.
“A proposition?” I put a hand on my hip and shifted my weight. The old floorboards underfoot creaked, and I cursed them for it. “I didn’t think I’d see you again. Let alone be propositioned.”
“I don’t mean it like that,” he amended.
“Then what is it?”
Lily looked back and forth between us.
“Well,” he said, clasping his hands together. He took a few slow steps forward, looking like he was hiding something. A smile, perhaps. “I’m all the way out here in Austin, right? Since you and I aren’t talking business, it’s like I’m getting a free vacation from my company.”
“Go on.”
“And I don’t know anything about this city. So, I was hoping you and Lily would show me around tomorrow. Play hosts?” He spread his hands innocently.
Player. I felt the corners of my mouth pulling down and tried to right my frown. Then I decided it didn’t matter. “I have to work.”
“You always work,” he said.
Lily nodded enthusiastically. “That’s true, Momma.”
I licked my lips. “Yes, because I don’t have any employees. Because business is not as lucrative as it has been, so I had to let them go. Toward bigger and better things.” I chose my words carefully.
I used to have two employees working for me who Lily adored. They were two women in their early twenties who were both studying at the university. They doubled as retail staff and babysitters, and they had worked for me for almost three years. Then the mall showed up, and business plummeted, so I couldn’t afford to pay them anymore.
So I let them go and consequently had worked every day since.
Zach hooked a thumb toward the wall I shared with Something New. “Do you think your friend Edith has an employee to spare?”
“That’s not how it works. We don’t get to trade staff members so one of us can spend a day showing a tourist around.” A tourist who was only here to take our businesses, anyway. I resisted the urge to tell him off right then and there. Lily was still standing behind the counter, looking back and forth between us, her big blue eyes wide as she waited to see how the exchange would end. “Lily?”
My daughter whipped her head toward me. “Yes, Momma?”
“Could you go wait in the back room for me? Zach and I need a moment in private.”
Lily shuffled to the back room. Her sandals whispered across the hard wood, and I waited until I heard her close the door behind her. Then I fixed Zach with my stare and didn’t bother to disguise my annoyance. “You can’t keep coming in here expecting me to drop everything to accommodate you.”
“I didn’t intend for it to come off that way.”
“Well, it did.”
Zach stared at me, and I stared back. I hoped he could read the challenge in my eyes. I was not going to speak first. He’d gotten all he was going to get from me.
Zach rubbed his hands together. “Let’s talk theoretically for a moment.”
I looked imploringly at the ceiling, wishing there was something up there that could save me from this suit.
Either he didn’t notice my exasperation, or he ignored it. “Theoretically, if someone could run your shop for the day, would you want to take a day off?”
“Theoretically doesn’t matter.”
“Sure, it does. It’s a simple question. Yes o
r no?”
“Fine. Yes, I’d like a day off.” But I don’t think I’d want to spend it with you.
“Then what’s the harm in asking? Edith would want to help out, I’m sure. And she doesn’t strike me as the sort who would have selfish people working for her. You deserve a day off.”
“Forgive me, Zach, but my definition of an ideal day off does not entail showing you around the city.”
“Even if I’m the one who gets you the day off?”
I licked my lips.
He shot me a cocky grin. “Come on. There’s no harm in asking. If she says no, then she says no, and you don’t have to worry about it. But if she says yes, then perhaps you and Lily can take me to the capitol building and show me around.”
“The capitol building?” I asked, switching my weight to my other foot.
Zach nodded. “Yeah. It’s on the list of things I’d like to see before I head back to Orlando. And I can’t think of a better way to see it than with a local. Has Lily been before?”
“No,” I said shortly. Why would I have brought my six-year-old daughter to the capitol building? She’d be bored stiff. Did the man know nothing about children?
“Well, take a minute, and think about it. I’m going to pop back next door and have a word with Edith.”
“What? Why? No—”
“Relax.” He chuckled, holding up both hands as I made to move forward. “I can handle this. She can tell me no if she wants. Hell, she’d probably have an easier time saying no to me than she would if you asked her.”
That wasn’t necessarily true. If I had gone and asked Edith, I would have told her not to give me the employee so I could avoid spending the whole day with Zach. Not only did I want to avoid him like the plague due to his business ethics, but now I was questioning my own morals.
Ever since that dream, he’d been wandering around my mind like an unwelcome spirit. And naturally, in my thoughts, he was naked. Just like in the dream. And if I drifted off and thought on it for too long, I’d come back to myself all hot and bothered, and full of shame for thinking naughty things about the man who was trying to steal my business out from under me. I had to keep my guard up.
Wasn’t that what I’d warned Edith about? That he would suck her in without her even realizing it had happened?
And yet, I was the one getting all wrapped up in his good looks.
Zach ducked out the door and left me standing alone in the middle of my shop. My mind reeled. Would it really be such a bad thing to spend the day with him?
Perhaps, but perhaps not. It might be a good experience for Lily to see some of our city’s history. On the other hand, she might find it an absolute bore fest, which would work nicely for me because I’d have a day off, and she and I could bail on Zach and leave him to explore the city on his own while we went to the pool or spent the afternoon at home making cookies.
That was a much more appealing option.
When Zach returned a short five minutes later, I was hopeful that Edith had someone to cover my shift. His eager grin suggested he’d been victorious, and I tried to stop my own smile from stretching my cheeks.
“Edith says she’ll ask one of her girls to cover for you. So long as you can come in and open the shop in the morning and leave the keys with Edith, it should be fine.”
“Which girl?”
“Her name is Ali. Do you know which one that is?”
I nodded. Ali was responsible, trustworthy, and hungry for more hours to help her save up for nursing school. So, in a way, I would be doing her a favor.
I bit down on my tongue. No. Don’t think about it like that. You’re trying to give yourself permission to do this.
“I don’t think it’s a good idea,” I said.
“Well, why don’t you think about it? I have to head back to the hotel and check in on a friend. I think he might be drowning in room service. Just give me a shout sometime tonight, and let me know if I’m picking you up here tomorrow morning at nine-thirty. Sound good?”
I swallowed. It sounded perfectly reasonable. “Yes.”
Zach rewarded me with another charming smile. “Excellent. Talk soon, Senna.”
I nodded, and he left, leaving me standing in the middle of my shop wondering how on earth I’d just gotten talked into spending more time with him outside of work.
“Momma?”
I turned to find Lily peering out from the back room. Her black hair was curly from the braids she’d slept in last night, and it tumbled over her shoulders. She brushed it out of the way. “Can we go with Zach tomorrow?”
I sighed. “I have to think about it, bunny.”
“But it sounds fun. And we could spend all day together.”
I nodded. “We could.”
“Can you tell him yes?”
“Lily, I—”
“Please, Momma? Pretty please?” She blinked her big blue doe eyes at me.
Why was the universe rallying against me? All I was trying to do was protect my business from a development shark. And Edith’s business. And I was trying to protect myself and Lily from a man whose charming nature could not possibly be real.
Could it?
Zach came off as a perfectly nice man. He was handsome, too. Far more handsome than any man I’d ever laid eyes on in person, which was saying something. My ex had been a good-looking guy, too, but he had nothing on Zach. Few men did.
I was sure his looks had opened a lot of doors for him. Hell, his sharp jawline and dark green eyes might have been to blame for the career path he ended up on. What business woman could look into their dark green depths and say no so easily? Combine that with his sweet-talking, clever tongue, and he was a walking recipe for disaster.
“Momma?”
I blinked, “Yes. Sorry, hon.”
“Yes? We can go?” Lily’s eyes lit up. She bolted out from behind the door and came barreling down the aisle between the clothes racks to throw her arms around my legs. “Thank you, Momma! It will be so much fun!”
“Oh, I—”
Lily craned her head back to peer up at me. She waited patiently.
There was no way I could say no to her. She’d lit up like Christmas lights in the middle of December.
I stroked her hair. “All right, bunny. We can go.”
Chapter 17
Zach
“So, the capitol building, huh?” Bob asked as we sat in the Land Rover in front of Senna’s shop. She was running a few minutes behind and was explaining everything to Ali, who seemed like a competent young woman and very patient. I could see her smiling and nodding through the window as Senna walked her through something on the computer.
“Yeah, I’ve heard it’s a place worth seeing.”
Bob nodded and reached for his coffee in the console between us. He took a long, slurping sip, and then smacked his lips before putting the metallic blue tumbler back in the cup holder. “I’ve driven past it, but I’ve never been inside. Always thought it would be a good idea to go, though. They offer tours and shit. Is that what you’re doing? A tour?”
“No, I booked a VIP pass. That way, we can explore on our own.”
“I’ll b damned. I didn’t know that was an option.”
It wasn’t. Not really. I had to make some calls and pay nearly five times what a normal ticket was worth, but it would be worth it. I had no interest in following a monotone tour guide around a government building. I much preferred the idea of spending my time with the girls and exploring at our leisure.
Maybe we could make up our own facts along the way.
“This lady of yours is taking her sweet time,” Bob said, reaching for his cup again. He took another slurping sip, smacked his lips, and set it back down.
“She worries about leaving the business in someone else’s hands. And she’s not my lady. She’s part of a business deal.”
“Right, sorry.” Another sip of coffee was followed by lip smacking. “Where’s your other little friend? The one with the shorts and sandals?”
“Jonah?”
“Yes, him.”
“He’s not interested in this sort of thing. He stayed back at the hotel to enjoy the sunshine by the pool, I think.”
“Very nice.” Bob nodded. I didn’t doubt he’d stolen some glances at the pool while he waited for me to come down to the car in the mornings. I couldn’t blame the guy.
At almost a quarter to ten, Senna finally came out of her shop with Lily. The little girl was holding her mother’s hand as they crossed the street. Under Senna’s other arm was a car seat.
I hopped out and helped her slide it into the backseat and then buckle it in.
“Morning,” Senna said, sounding a little breathless and stressed. “Sorry we’re late. I had to make sure Ali knew what she was doing if she had to process any returns or do a transaction that wasn’t normal.”
“She has Edith if anything goes wrong, right?” I asked.
“Of course,” Senna said. Then she lifted Lily into the car and put her in the booster seat.
Lily smiled at me, and I winked. “Morning, kiddo.”
“Hi, Zach.”
Senna finished buckling her daughter in and got in the seat beside her. I got back into the passenger seat and put on my seatbelt.
“Good to go, folks?” Bob asked.
Lily and Senna nodded in the backseat. Bob put the SUV in drive, and we pulled out of Apricot Lane to head for the capitol building.
It wasn’t long before it loomed up ahead, still a good ten or so blocks away.
The structure was much more impressive than I’d been expecting, even after looking at a few photos online. It was one of the tallest state capitol buildings in the United States, and it served as the seat of government for the state of Texas.
The architecture was breathtaking.
The building was a warm terracotta color. The grand, rounded archway above the front doors impressed upon visitors how important the place was. How regal. It was surrounded by green space and trees. A road wrapped around, which Bob used when we drew closer to drop us off near the front.
Good Luck Charm: A Single Mother Romance Page 10
