by Marci Bolden
Copyright © 2021 by Marci Bolden
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, locales, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
Cover design by Okay Creations
ebook layout by Lori Colbeck
eISBN-13:
Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Acknowledgments
Coming Soon
Also by Marci Bolden
About the Author
The world is filled with rays of sunshine if you know where to look. Thank you to all the glimmers of light who help illuminate the darkness for those of us who so often lose our way.
One
Darby Zamora lowered her pink cat-eye sunglasses as she watched a windsurfer in dark blue swim trunks expertly lean into the breeze pushing him along Chammont Lake. Though she was onshore with her bright red painted toenails buried in the warm sand, she could appreciate the way his body moved with the grace of a dancer.
“I bet he’s hot,” she muttered.
Jade Kelly didn’t even glance up from the book she was reading. “It’s not even eighty degrees out yet.”
Darby tore her eyes from the muscular figure zigging and zagging in the distance to the woman sitting beside her. Then she leaned forward enough to look around Jade at Taylor O’Shea, the third member of their little circle. The smirk on Taylor’s lips confirmed that Darby had heard correctly. She’d shared her admiration of the man’s physique, and Jade had responded with commentary on the weather.
“I wasn’t talking about the temperature, Jade.” Darby snorted with disbelief. “For freak’s sake. Get your nose out of that book and check out that fine specimen before us.”
Jade blinked at Darby for several seconds before gasping with realization. “Oh! Who?” She whipped her head from side to side, oblivious to the man Darby and Taylor had been watching. “Where?”
Darby sighed as she glanced toward the man who was no more than a distant blur now. “Never mind. What are you reading?” She snagged the paperback and then frowned at the cover of the self-help book. The smiling, well-put-together blonde on the front was surrounded by big colorful text that promised to help the reader heal from unexpected life changes. “Why do you read this crap? There’s nothing wrong with you.”
“I’m glad you think so.” Jade cocked a brow over her sunglasses as she held her hand out in a silent request to have her book returned. When Darby didn’t hand it over immediately, Jade wriggled her fingers, gesturing for her to hand it over. Then she sat forward as if to snag it.
Darby pulled it from her reach and flipped through the pages to read the chapter headings.
“There isn’t anything wrong with you,” Taylor confirmed. “You’re practically perfect in every way. Just ask Liam.”
Jade shook her head as she grabbed the book from Darby. “Don’t start.”
Darby chuckled as she was tempted to ignore the warning and dive right into the game Taylor had started. Her and Taylor’s new favorite pastime these days was teasing Jade about her non-relationship with her non-boyfriend. Liam Cunningham was clearly head over heels for Jade, but as a recent divorcée, Jade wasn’t ready for a relationship yet. Liam appeared to be on standby, waiting for the first sign that she was. Darby and Taylor suspected that as soon as Jade gave him the slightest hint she might be interested, he was going to pounce on it. And her.
Before Darby could engage in mocking Jade’s inevitable relationship status, her phone dinged. “Saved by the bell,” she muttered as she pulled the device from the holder on her chair.
After a moment of turning her phone this way and that to best see the screen in the midday sun, she tapped on the icon that indicated she had a new email. The second her inbox opened and she was able to read the subject line, she gasped and sat taller.
“What is it?” Jade asked, sliding her sunglasses down. Concern filled her voice, but Darby didn’t respond other than to lift a finger in the universally known sign to wait.
Darby swallowed, tapped the new message from The Noah Joplin Show—her favorite podcast—and read the first paragraph.
Congratulations! The Un-Do Wedding Boutique has been selected as our small business of the week!
The Un-Do Wedding Boutique was Darby’s latest attempt at making a living without working too hard. She’d done a million different things—property management, bartending, waitressing—but none of them seemed to stick. Every job she had ended up demanding more effort and time than she wanted to commit to. She preferred to be free with her time and focus. Not that she didn’t want to work. She was more than willing to work—however, she refused to be one of those people who let their so-called careers take over their lives.
Jade had been one of those people and ended up divorced. Taylor was that way too. The best way to tell how her business was doing was to test her mood. If things were going well, she was happy and easygoing. When things weren’t going well, which was too often, she was miserable and grouchy.
Darby wasn’t about to let her entire life be dictated by a job. Nope. Not happening. So she floundered here and there and tried this and that, waiting for the right opportunity to come along. She was certain that had happened several weeks ago when Jade was helping her organize her closet and found the garment bags filled with wedding dresses that Darby had made by hand for brides who had never seen their dream day arrive.
Darby had been in a funk because her latest venture, Mistress of Ceremonies, had turned into a series of unfortunate circumstances where Darby had to explain that her list of party-planning services had not been code for sexual favors. Her bills, her coming due, and her party-planning schedule had been empty. Unless she’d wanted to take up some of those gross offers the strange men thought she’d been proposing, she’d had to come up with a new plan. But it had been Jade who’d pointed out selling the unused wedding dresses would be easy peasy. Darby had only had to list the already made dresses for sale as is and take the cash. And she had plenty of dresses too—from extravagant to simplistic bridal and obnoxious to tame bridesmaids’ dresses. She even had a few adorable flower girl dresses she could sell.
But sadly, like most of her ventures, The Un-Do Wedding Boutique hadn’t gained the traction needed for Darby to stay caught up on her bills. If something didn’t turn around soon, she would have to look for an hourly position. The thought made her skin crawl.
There were a lot of things Darby could tolerate. An office job was not one of them.
However, presenting her store on The Noah Joplin Show was sure to turn things around!
As she read the email a second time, Darby fanned herself with her other hand. Her adrenaline spiked and caused her body to heat. Her eyes grew larger with every bit of information. Finally, she looked up but didn’t see her friend’s face. Her mind was elsewhere. “Give me a moment to collect myself.” Her voice had come out breathless and trembling.
Taylor leaned forward and pulled her glasses off as well. “Darbs?” she asked, sounding as worried as Jade had. “What’s w
rong?”
“Nothing. Nothing is wrong. Actually…” Excitement filled Darby’s chest and erupted in a high-pitched squeal as she kicked her feet in the sand. “Oh my gosh! This is the best news ever!”
“What is?” Jade demanded.
Pressing her hand to her chest, Darby rolled her head back and looked up at the sky as if she couldn’t believe what she was about to say. “Have you ever heard of Noah Joplin?”
“Of course,” Jade said hesitantly. “He has like a million followers.”
“Well, more like a quarter million, which is significantly more than I have.” Darby thought about her number of followers for a few seconds. “Significantly. He has a new segment where he invites local business owners in to talk about what they do and tries to boost their sales. As soon as I heard him announce the new segment, I filled out the online form. That was two weeks ago. I thought for sure he wasn’t interested in my shop, but look at this… I’m in.” Darby’s voice was unnaturally high, and she nearly started squealing again as she bounced in her chair. “Oh my God. He’s so cute. He’s so freaking cute.”
“Who are you talking about?” Taylor asked, effectively splashing cold water all over Darby’s moment.
Darby frowned at Taylor. Of course she didn’t know. “Noah Joplin is the biggest Internet star in eastern Virginia. He’s going to go all the way. He’s going to get a national show someday. I know it. He’s the real deal.”
Jade nodded. “I have to agree. He’s very charismatic.”
“Charismatic,” Darby said with a dreamy tone as she sank back and put her hands to her chest again. “That’s one way to put it. He’s an absolute doll. And I get to meet him.”
“When?” Taylor’s question was flat. Bored. But at least she’d asked. That was progress. Taylor’s rough edges were a side effect of being raised by her grandfather and his horde of contractor buddies. However, over the last year of their friendship, she was starting to learn genuine manners.
Of the three, Taylor was probably the most levelheaded, but that also meant she was the biggest stick in the mud. Jade was smart and responsible, but she was also adventurous and willing to try new things. Trying new things scared Taylor. She overthought everything.
Darby tended to not think things through enough.
Jade turned her face so Darby couldn’t see whatever unspoken reprimand she was giving. As a mother of two, Jade was really good at that silent communication. One look, one frown, one firm shake of her head was usually all it took to get Darby to stop acting foolish or Taylor to stop spreading her gloom and doom.
True to form, Taylor immediately smiled as if she’d intended to be smiling all along. Jade returned her attention to Darby with the same encouraging grin. Darby nearly called her on her motherly intervention—something she did to ward off the sibling rivalry–level bickering Darby and Taylor often fell into, even though they weren’t sisters—but opted to focus on the email instead.
“Thursday.” Darby gasped and turned on her phone’s camera app. She yanked her sunglasses off and looked at the dark roots bleeding into her fire-engine red hair. She had an appointment for a touch-up, but not until the following week. “No! I can’t go in like this. My hair is a mess.” She held her hand out to look at her nails. “My manicure is a disaster.” She dropped her phone and stuck her lip out at Jade because there was no way that Taylor would understand. “I have to see if my hairdresser can get me in. Like now!”
“I have an appointment for tomorrow morning.” Jade pulled her phone from her bag and tapped the screen. “At eleven. If you can’t get in, I’ll reschedule my appointment and you can have my spot. It’s not like I have anyone to impress.”
Jade did have someone to impress, not that Liam needed freshly dyed hair to look at Jade like she’d hung the moon. Again, Darby passed on the opportunity to tease Jade about Liam’s unrequited love. “You’re the best.”
A brilliant smile crossed Jade’s sun-kissed face. Jade’s obsession with outdoor activities had given her just enough muscle tone to scream sexy. In fact, she looked more like a model out of some high-end clothing magazine than the girl next door Darby always considered her to be. Ever since Jade had relocated to Chammont Point, she’d been finding herself. Which made her self-help book addiction even more annoying. If anyone knew where she belonged in this life, it was the zen-as-hell Jade Kelly.
For a moment, Darby felt a tinge of jealousy. She’d never fit in. She’d never found her place in the world. And she’d certainly never managed to squeeze herself into any kind of mold as comfortably as Jade fit the one she’d been creating for herself since her divorce. Sometimes it seemed like Jade won at everything she did—successful career, happy kids, easily landing on her feet after her divorce—while Darby floundered and fell and then floundered some more.
However, Darby knew that assessment of Jade wasn’t exactly true. Jade’s life had been a disaster a year ago. She’d been a disaster a year ago. She’d worked hard to bounce back as much as she had, and Darby was thrilled for her.
Just because Jade was better at pushing herself through life’s ups and downs than Darby didn’t mean things came that easily for her. And just because Taylor tended to bottle things up didn’t mean she didn’t feel things deeply. In fact, she probably felt them more deeply than most, which was why she was so guarded all the time.
Darby could see that even hidden behind what seemed like ten-inch walls of steel, Taylor was excited for her to land this interview. She didn’t have to know who Noah Joplin was for her to be proud. And she didn’t have to say she was proud for Darby to know she was. Darby had no doubt that Taylor would tell anyone who would listen that her friend was going to be on the show. And not because she was name-dropping—she probably wasn’t kidding when she said she didn’t know who Noah Joplin was. She’d tell people because she was proud of Darby in a dysfunctional but supportive kind of way, which Darby had decided was Taylor’s real role in life.
Darby leaned forward so she could see both of her friends. “I think you guys should go with me. Noah Joplin records his show at a news studio in Fairfax. An actual news studio. I’ve always wanted to see what a real studio looks like.”
Taylor’s obviously forced smile spread into something genuine. “I’ve never been inside a studio either. I wonder how they manage all the cords for the lighting.”
“Yeah,” Darby said lightly, “me too.”
Taylor scrunched up her face but didn’t let Darby’s lighthearted teasing get to her. They liked to pick and poke, but both knew the other was doing so with love and admiration.
Clapping her hands together, Darby bounced in her seat again. “I’m going to be famous!”
Thursday afternoon, Darby, Jade, and Taylor were guided through the big spaces of the TV studio where Noah Joplin’s show was recorded. Darby had to fight the urge to do an impression of one of the newscasters she was familiar with. She could see herself sitting there, dressed to the nines and put together like a star with a bright smile on her face as she shared the latest updates and goings-on in her community. She’d sound smart and people would look up to her.
Yeah. She could totally do that. The desire to run up and play pretend must have been written all over her face, because Taylor nudged her.
“Don’t,” Taylor warned.
“What?” Darby asked.
“What you’re thinking about doing…don’t,” Taylor muttered.
Darby gasped, trying to fake offense. “I’m not thinking about anything.”
“Bullshit. You’re totally debating if you should run up to the newscaster’s desk and sit in a chair.”
She wanted to disagree, but she couldn’t stop herself from grinning. Taylor knew her too well, and that was a comforting realization. “I would be a good newscaster.” Darby lifted her chin higher as if she’d discovered some great truth. “Don’t you think?”
Taylor creased her brow. “Do they have a rockabilly station, Darbs?”
Sticking her li
p out slightly, she looked down at her red dress with the black polka dots fashioned to mimic the vintage style. Darby had never been comfortable when she’d been so-called normal. She preferred 1950s-style clothing, bright red hair, and the highest possible heels. “They should. It’d be much more interesting. Then I might actually watch the news.” She picked up her pace as the gap between her and Taylor widened. “Do you know how lucky Noah is to get studio space for his podcast?”
“You said so,” Taylor stated flatly. “Like three times on the way here, and it’s only an hour between Chammont Point and Fairfax.”
“He’s a star,” Darby whispered. “A real star. Most podcasters have cheap equipment tucked away in their parents’ basement.”
Taylor chuckled as Darby glanced at the two people leading them through the studio. Every time Darby looked at him, she had the urge to pinch herself. This felt like a dream to her, but Jade was acting like this was nothing special. She and Noah were chatting like old friends. She didn’t seem the least bit fazed by their location or the status of the man next to her.
Once again, Darby felt a twinge of jealousy at how comfortable in her skin Jade always seemed to be. One of the things that Darby and Taylor shared was their social awkwardness. She glanced to her right and confirmed that Taylor, too, looked out of her depth walking through the studio.
Prior to opening her own business, Jade was some kind of bigwig at a marketing firm, so it made sense that she felt at ease talking to a celebrity. Darby hadn’t ever considered Jade’s job had been commingling with such cool people, but it must have been. Otherwise, how could she be so casual about talking to Noah Joplin?
Darby was much more comfortable than she used to be about putting herself out there. Not Jade-comfortable, but she couldn’t imagine her old self agreeing to be interviewed on a podcast. The new Darby no longer minded being the outcast and not fitting in. She’d come to find that as an asset.