“Yes way. She told me all about him. She’d literally light up like a Christmas tree when she started talking about him.”
“What happened, I wonder?”
“I don’t know, but I couldn’t resist sending Mary to help your dad.”
“Here I thought it was because you wanted to help me,” I scoffed, and he placed a kiss on my cheek.
“Well, you were partially the reason.”
“Life certainly continues to throw surprises my way,” I said, looking at the worn pages of the yearbook. “Look at what this caption says, Most Likely to Grow Old Together: Mary and Charles.”
“Wouldn’t that be something?” Anthony asked, taking a bite of his sandwich.
“Yeah, it would. Can you imagine if, after everything and all these years, they wind up back together?”
And I wondered if maybe the reason my parents were so screwed up boiled down to the simple fact that they married the wrong person. I snuck a sideways glance at Anthony. His expression was contemplative as he looked out toward the water, and for the first time in a long time, I didn’t worry about the future. I just enjoyed the moment.
“I don’t understand,” I said, staring at my email. “I have seventy-five orders for my sparkling star sign.”
“Huh?” Natalie asked, looking up from her flower arrangement. It was Wednesday, my day to pick up Loxxy’s arrangement.
“My inbox is getting flooded with orders for no reason,” I reiterated.
“That’s a good thing, right?” She laughed.
“It is, but I have to update the turnaround time at my shop. There’s no way I can get all these done in a week. Oh, my gosh. The orders are not stopping. What in the world is going on?” I moaned, an odd mixture of excitement and fear zipping through my body.
“So weird,” Natty said, taking a sip of her coffee, but there was a funny glint in her eyes.
“What?” I asked while logging onto my Etsy store. “What aren’t you telling me?”
“No idea what you’re talking about.” She pretended to look at the wire orders coming through.
“There. I updated my store for a two-week turnaround, but I might have to change it if this keeps up. I just don’t get it. I didn’t do any marketing or anything. Well, I’d better get back to Loxxy and try to bust out the rooms so I can go home and start on these orders. This is a blessing and a curse.”
“Mmmhmm,” Natty hummed, without looking at me.
I glanced at the inbox on my phone. “Another ten orders came in.”
“Curious. So you’re not following Anthony?”
“Following Anthony? Why would I be following him? He’s at his house talking with the listing agent. I don’t think he’d be thrilled if I started tracking him down. I’ve got my own life to live. Just because I’m kind of seeing him doesn’t mean that I should start following him everywhere he goes. That’s the exact opposite of what I stand for in relationships.”
Natty was laughing so hard by the time I finished talking, she could barely stay upright.
“I don’t mean physically following him,” she said, wiping away tears. “I mean on Facebook and Twitter.”
My head dropped in shame. “I’m getting old. I can’t believe I didn’t even think of that. But what does that have to do with my orders?”
I clicked on Facebook using my new phone and searched for his name. “Wow. That’s a good profile pic on Facebook.” Just seeing his face brought the warm fuzzies all over. “So you follow him?”
“Of course. He’s about to be my brother-in-law.”
“You hope,” I teased, scrolling down his newsfeed. My heart stopped when I saw a post about my Etsy store from this morning. There were pictures of the sign he’d asked me about several days ago, along with the links to buy it. Over a thousand people had liked the image and hundreds said they were going to buy it. “You knew?”
“I saw it come over on Twitter,” she informed me.
“He posted it there too?” I quickly switched over to Twitter, and this time it felt like the world had fallen out from under me. “Did you see what he wrote?”
“Sure did.”
I stared at the words. In well under one hundred and forty characters, he managed to completely change my world in more ways than one.
Check out my girlfriend’s store. She’s insanely talented.
“Word of advice, though,” Natty warned.
“What’s that?” I asked, looking up at her, dazed by what I saw.
“Don’t look at the replies. There are a lot of angry women out there who are upset that his status is no longer single.”
I laughed. “Well, it’s news to me too.”
“Oh come on. You knew he was into you.”
“Temporarily, yes. But beyond the short-term, I pretty much assumed that once he left the island, that would be it.”
“Tell Negative Nancy to bring my Sappy Sophie back,” Natty teased.
“Well, I think I’m going to fly my way over to Loxxy.”
“Are you going to call Anthony?”
“I think a visit is more in order, but with surprises like this, I’ll be able to pay for a nurse for my dad all by myself.”
Natty smiled and shook her head. “Most people would be planning a vacation or splurging on clothes.”
“Ha. Like that’ll ever happen. I’m too cheap. Frugal is my middle name.”
“Speaking of, did you get next Saturday off?” she asked.
“Not this one, but the next one. Yep. Got the day off approved. I still can’t believe what you guys are doing for my dad and me. It makes me kind of embarrassed.”
“Get that out of your head. Anyway, Jewels has been having so much fun with the planning. There’s a carnival for the kids, a beer-fest and wine tasting for the adults, and . . .” she stopped herself. “All kinds of good things.”
That sounded suspicious, but I had to get over to Loxxy or they’d start to wonder. It was so hard not to call Anthony and thank him, but this had to be done in person. He was amazing.
I picked up the floral bouquet, and Natalie followed me out the door.
“If you need any help with filling the orders, remember to let us know,” Natalie said as I climbed into the car.
“Okay,” I said, narrowing my eyes on her features. “Did you know he was going to do this?”
She grinned and shut my door, and I realized once again how lucky I was to have such an amazing group of friends.
By the time I’d parked and gotten inside the Loxxy, another twenty orders had flooded into my inbox, and serious worry started to fill my veins. How was I going to handle this many orders? Not to mention, Anthony’s home was about to go on the market, which meant I needed to get the staging done this week.
A vibrancy I hadn’t felt in a long time crashed through my system. I felt renewed energy, and the determination to get everything done was a challenge I couldn’t wait to accept.
I’d already cleaned my allotted guestrooms with Marcy this morning, and now my afternoon was filled with finishing inventory and placing our orders for the month. My fingers trembled with pure anticipation at the thought of getting to start the orders. Knowing that something so life changing was in reach made me feel like I no longer needed sleep.
I pressed the button in the elevator for the basement and nearly floated down to my temporary home for the rest of the afternoon.
It was like all the stress over the last several months had started to slip away. With the amount of orders I received today, I could finish paying off the first credit card and start on another one. There was hope.
I grabbed a binder and walked over to the shelf holding all the soaps, conditioners, and lotions. I squatted and leaned into the shelf, counting the rows and multiplying the amounts, but it was almost impossible to stay focused.
“Beautiful arrangement today,” Marcy said, coming up behind me. “I was just upstairs talking to Brad.”
Brad was the assistant manager of the hotel. He w
as the son-in-law of the owners and always seemed pleasant enough, but I liked the owners better.
“There are talks of layoffs.”
I stood up, hitting my head on one of the shelves, and a row of bottled water tumbled to the floor. Rubbing my head, I let the bottles roll around and stared at Mary in disbelief. It didn’t make any sense. They had been remodeling all the rooms, the lobby, and the restaurant.
“What?”
“Brad said they had an awful September and October.”
I shook my head. “Our vacancy rates were the same average as years before. Plus, there were a couple of huge events.”
“Just thought I’d pass it on.”
“That doesn’t make sense, and he shouldn’t be talking to people about that.” I bent down and picked up the bottles.
“I didn’t think he should either. Maybe his in-laws are telling him that so they can give him the boot.”
I laughed.
“Serious.”
“That would be a lot of trouble.”
“Family dynamics are complicated.” Marcy laughed.
“Tell me about it.” I went back to counting the conditioner bottles while Marcy took a seat on one of the stools and began folding the clean towels.
Nick had been working on a huge order for the Loxxy. They’d begun trading out the furniture for his custom pieces all throughout the hotel. I was sure if he hadn’t gotten paid, he would’ve mentioned it to me. Something didn’t seem right about this piece of gossip, but more often than not, island gossip didn’t involve the same people or topic once it had made the rounds.
Besides, I had other things to worry about, like finding time to finish all the signs. Not to mention, any day now, I’d need to make the call for delivery of all the pieces for Anthony’s house. It was like everything I’d ever dreamed about was jumbling into one condensed period, but I was too worried to give up any one job because who knew how long any of this would last?
The rest of the afternoon ticked by painfully slow, and all I wanted to do was get to Anthony’s and back to my dad’s house to begin making the signs. I’d called in Loxxy’s order and decided to check my email again. It had been hours since I last glanced at it, and I was kind of worried by what I’d see.
When I slid my phone on, I saw several missed calls from Anthony but no voicemails. He was probably checking to see if my orders took a sudden turn.
“What are you smiling about?” Marcy asked, dusting her hands off and signing out for the day.
“Life, I guess,” I said, grinning.
“That’s what I like to hear.” She gave a quick wave and walked to the elevator. “See ya in a couple of days.”
“See ya.”
I set the binders back and tidied up the shelves from my inventory count, and nearly skipped to clock out and ride the elevator up to the lobby.
Once the double doors opened and I stepped off the elevator, I saw Brad coming toward me. I didn’t deal with him very often because I never gave him reason to bother me, but the look in his eyes concerned me.
“Sophie, I’d like to see you in my office for a moment.” Brad waved me over.
“Sure.” I glanced around the lobby, and no one seemed to notice as I made my way down the hallway.
Brad’s office had an oversized oak desk with not even one piece of paper on it, and a brown leather chair was pushed into the desk. A large, straggly Ficus tree sat in the corner next to a small couch. His office was the exact opposite of the rest of the hotel. It was drab and lacking personality.
“Please have a seat,” he said. I followed his direction and sat on the couch, sinking to the bottom.
“What can I help you with?” I asked as he pulled out his leather chair but didn’t sit.
“We’re looking at paring down and combining some of our departments.”
“Okay,” I said, unsure of what that had to do with me. Housekeeping was essential.
“We need your input on personnel in housekeeping.”
“Everyone works really hard. I don’t think Loxxy could have a better team.”
“I’m glad you feel that way. Are there any nonessentials?”
“Nonessentials? Absolutely not. With the amount of rooms to clean and the personnel, by some standards we’re actually understaffed. So no. We have no nonessentials, as you put it. With a check-out time of eleven and a check-in time of three, we’re right where we need to be.”
“We’ve been researching moving the check-out time to ten and pushing check-ins to four.”
“That would make for an awful guest experience. People come to Fireweed to escape the everyday, not be chased out of their hotel room.”
“Changing the times would allow for us to eliminate a housekeeping position,” Brad continued on. “I need you to tell me who you suggest for the cut.”
“You’ve got to be kidding me. Thanksgiving is only a couple of weeks away. You’re going to lay someone off before the holidays and our busiest season?”
“It’s the best move for Loxxy. I need the name by Friday.”
“Fine.”
I stood up and didn’t even give him another look. There was no way this was coming from Loxxy’s owners. Impossible.
I charged through the doors and jogged to the safety of my car. How in the world could everything in the world come crashing down at once?
There was no way I was going to give Brad a name. Everyone in housekeeping was a hard worker, and eliminating one position would make all the girls work even longer, harder hours. Not to mention, I refused to be responsible for changing someone’s life.
Absolutely not.
But first thing’s first. I needed to thank Anthony.
By the time I got to his house, I was extremely high-strung. I parked my car and dashed up the stairs, zeroing in on the doorbell and waiting impatiently for him to answer.
The moment the door opened, I flung myself into Anthony’s arms and knew letting him leave Fireweed was going to be the hardest thing I’d ever do.
“It’s so good to see you,” I whispered, feeling the warmth of his embrace.
“You too.” His lips pressed on my hair, and I took a deep breath in smelling his cologne. Facetime wasn’t going to cut it.
“So my day has been filled with one amazing surprise after another. Well, mostly amazing surprises . . . until about ten minutes ago.”
Anthony’s embrace lessened, and I took a step back. He looked concerned, but I shook my head.
“I want to start with all the good.” I snuck my phone out of my purse and slid open the email to see another fifty orders for my signs. I turned my phone so he could see all the emails for today. “I’m well over a hundred orders. I don’t even know how I’m going to fill them all, but I know I’ll be able to pull it off somehow.” I couldn’t even pretend to hide my excitement.
“Wow. That’s great. Must be some great word of mouth,” he said with a twinkle in his eyes.
“I thought that this morning, until Natty asked if I’d seen what you’d been up to, and since I didn’t follow you on Twitter and Facebook, I had no idea what she was talking about.”
“I’m wounded. You don’t follow me on social media? Isn’t that what’s supposed to immediately happen when you’re interested in someone?” he teased, holding my phone.
“I don’t know. I’ve never really been interested in someone before.” I smiled. “Until you.”
I grabbed my phone back and switched over to Twitter. “So you can imagine my surprise when I saw this.” I flipped my phone around and he grinned.
“Yeah, so that made me more excited than the orders flooding my inbox. Is it true, or was that a PR move?”
“I hope it’s true,” he said, pulling me into him.
“Well, that makes me feel a lot better, considering what went down at the florist shop. I started wondering if all women got that treatment, or—”
He groaned.
“Kidding.”
“When you do all these nic
e things, do you stop and wonder how it’s all gonna pan out beforehand?”
He shook his head. “I don’t give it much thought. I’m impulsive. Act now, worry about things later. But I’ve wanted to tell you something for a while now.”
“Is it more than a hundred and forty characters?”
“I think it is, actually.”
I rested my head on his chest and felt the soft beating of his heart and waited.
“So you know the fundraiser for you and your dad?” he asked.
I nodded, feeling his breath skate across the top of my head.
“There’s going to be a concert.”
“That’ll be cool. Will you still be here, or are you headed back to LA before then?”
“I’ll be here.” He let go of me and smiled. “Crimson Strings is playing.”
“What?” I asked. “Are you serious?”
“Jewels was relentless.”
“Wait a second. You acted like you didn’t know each other on Halloween.”
“We didn’t want to ruin the surprise, but I just couldn’t keep it from you anymore.”
I took a step back, looking into his eyes. “I don’t deserve all this.”
“You deserve more.” He threaded his fingers through mine. “Now, I’ve got another surprise for you.”
“Seriously, you have to stop,” I told him as he pulled me down the hall.
“I have an ulterior motive,” he teased me.
“And what is that?”
“I don’t want you to forget about me when I go to LA.”
I pulled him to a stop.
“Never.” I kissed him, feeling the emotions of the day settle over me.
“I want to show you something,” he said between kisses, and he pulled me into the family room, which had been transformed into something from my Etsy store.
“What have you done?” I asked, staring at rows of signs. “How did you pull this off?”
“Nick helped get me all set up.”
“How many are there?”
“Seventy-five,” he said proudly.
I walked, almost in a trance, to the couch, careful not to kick any of the signs and trying to absorb the kindness of this man.
Tangled Love on Pelican Point (Island County Series Book 3) Page 17