“I’m not keeping anything from you, I just didn’t tell you because it didn’t matter. They weren’t even there that long.”
“Just long enough for Josie and Josh to hook up. So how did Daisy keep you entertained while Josh was busy?”
“It’s not even like that.”
“That’s not what it sounded like to me.”
“According to who? Those two? Yeah, Josie and Josh messed around, so what. I didn’t touch Daisy.”
“Then why couldn’t she look me in the eye when Saturday night got brought up?”
“She’s probably embarrassed because she drank a little and came on to me, but it was nothing. She felt bad afterward and left with Josie, but nothing happened.” I looked for the lie in his face, but I was starting to think I wouldn’t know one even if it was there.
“You promise me nothing happened?”
The tension melted from his shoulders and he stepped closer, wrapping his arms around my waist and hooking his thumbs in my belt loops. “Nothing happened, babe. I promise.”
I wanted to believe him, and when he was looking at me that way, like I was the only thing in the world that mattered to him, I felt silly and pathetic for doubting him, and yet there was still a prickle of uncertainty.
Kellen.
But he could easily be lying to me to split us up and mess with Jeremy.
I leaned my head forward against his chest. “I trust you. You better not make a fool of me, Jer.”
“I won’t.” He kissed my head.
“How cute.” The disgusted voice belonged to Kellen and when I glanced over at him, he was looking at me like I was the most pathetic thing he’d ever seen and it made me feel like I was.
Could this day be over already?
I just wanted to get to cheer practice where I could tell Cam everything and she would be straight up with me. She’d tell me if I was being naïve to trust Jeremy, or if she thought Kellen was just kicking up trouble.
Sixteen
Shae
May 1
Present …
Paperwork in hand, I pushed open the door to Premier Real Estate Solutions and stepped into their front office. I’d forgotten to drop off the paperwork last night, and wanted to get it in first thing this morning. Despite my late night, I’d forced myself out of bed at eight sharp. Seeing who was sitting behind the receptionist’s desk, I wished I’d saved myself the trouble and slept in.
“Judy told me she was expecting some paperwork from you. I’m happy to take it and make sure it gets to her,” Cammie smiled her fake sweet smile and held out her perfectly manicured hand for the papers.
I turned on my heel and walked out of the office, the papers crinkling under my tight grip. I marched over to the receptacle by the curb and proceeded to shred them into tiny little scraps before tossing them in.
Bitch, bitch, bitch! I yelled in my head as I ripped. That she even had the nerve to look me in the eye, let alone smile at me and act as if she had no reason to be afraid I would leap over the top of her desk and stab her overly made-up face with a letter opener. I was tempted to go back in there and do exactly that, but I wasn’t sure if my editor and the publishing company would accept getting arrested and going to prison as an adequate excuse for anymore delays.
Who knows, maybe going to prison would help my sales.
Every bitch character I’d ever written was based off that one in there, and I wrote some really hateable characters. She provided so much inspiration.
Sorry Judy, you just lost that commission.
I couldn’t in good conscience work with a company that employed the devil.
The worst betrayals are the ones that come from the people you trust the most, the ones you least expect to ram a knife in your back. Suffice to say, I did not see it coming from her.
On the drive over to the shop, I thought about being eight years old and the new kid at school, nervous, afraid I wouldn’t fit in, and just wanting to go back to my old life in Charlotte. Cammie was the first person who spoke to me at Kingston Elementary and the rest was history. Sleepovers, junior high, crushes, high school, cheerleading, dances, driver’s licenses. We shared so much. I guess she thought she was entitled to everything I had.
Maybe the two of them deserved each other. I didn’t know anymore, but I was so tired of being angry. They deserved to feel my anger and hatred for the next one hundred years, but unfortunately it didn’t work like that. I was the only one suffering and I’d had about as much suffering over those two as I could take. I hated to admit that Kellen Nash might be right about anything, but maybe it was time to just let it go. I wasn’t sure I’d ever reach forgiveness for them, but hate was too ugly a thing to keep carrying around with me.
I took a deep breath and let it out, trying to release some of the bitterness and anger with it.
I didn’t feel much better.
I guess it was going to take a few breaths. And possibly some yoga and meditation. And probably a fair amount of prayer. And wine.
Time to finally let the past lie, and bury old secrets with it. It was time to give serious thought to my future. More than just the next book I was going to write. I’d been holding back for so long and I was tired of being stuck in this place, with just my grief and regrets to keep me company. When I got back to New York, things were really going to change. My Dad would want that for me. Didi would want that for me. I owed it to the ones I loved who weren’t here anymore to live my life. To make it a good life, for them and for me. To remember, but not let the memories trap me.
Stepping inside the shop this time was easier. Picturing her smiling face behind the counter didn’t hurt quite so much. I pulled my hair back into a sloppy bun and stared at the clutter.
“Where to start and what to do with everything?” I muttered. Getting it all packed was the first step. I could handle that. I retrieved what empty boxes were piled in the back, and a stack of old newspapers destined for recycling, and started wrapping and packing everything away.
I was sitting on my butt in front of a shelving unit filled with dolphin figurines, wondering if I had enough newspaper, with the music turned up so high I almost didn’t hear someone rapping on the glass door. I couldn’t see over the shelf, so I peeked my head around it and took in the tall, gorgeous stripper with her nose pressed to the glass. She spotted me and a big smile split her face. She started waving enthusiastically and coffee sloshed from one of the two cups she was holding. It was too late to pull my head back and pretend I wasn’t in here, and I couldn’t deny I was curious how and why she tracked me down.
I gave her the one minute signal with my hand while I searched for where I’d left the keys. Locating them under a stack of newspapers, I hurried to unlock the door and pull it open for her. She had the whole casual glam thing down with her faded denim capris, cute wedges that showed off her pink pedicure, a flowy blouse and hair that would make Farrah Fawcett proud. I was lucky if I even put on real pants before ten these days, as evidenced by the yoga pants I wore now, and my face was bare of any trace of make-up.
“Hey girl,” she chirped brightly, further convincing me that she was indeed one of those rare morning people, which was surprising given her night time profession.
“Hey, Cici, what brings you here?”
“Oh, you can call me Celia when I’m not at work. Or Cici is fine. I don’t mind either way, but my being a stripper makes some people uncomfortable and since Cici is my stage name, they prefer to call me something else, as if it somehow makes me not a stripper anymore.” I don’t think she took a single breath during all that.
“Anyway, I just wanted to say thank you again for last night. Oh and I brought you coffee. You like coffee right? You’re not one of those weird people who doesn’t, are you?”
“No, I like coffee,” I said with a chuckle and accepted the offered cup. “This was very nice of you, but I’ll admit, I’m a little surprised you tracked me down.”
“Oh, right, that was easy. I made
Luke give me your full name, and then I found you on Facebook and Twitter and Instagram. I’m still waiting for you to accept my friend request on Facebook, but I’m already following you on Instagram and Twitter. I saw your tweet a little while ago, that picture of you and your grandma. That’s real sweet. I’m sorry about her passing. She looked like a real sweet lady and this place seems like the shit.” She was looking around. “Real cute and funky. I bet your gran was a kick ass lady. I woulda liked her. Anyway, you tweeted about this place and I decided to come down here, so here I am.”
Oh boy. I took a long drink from the cup. I could tell I was going to need it.
“Yeah, she was great. And so was this place.”
“So you live in New York. Are you planning on moving back to town?”
“Oh, no. I’m just here long enough to settle her things and get her house and this place on the market.”
“She left you her house too? If I were you, I wouldn’t sell that. I bet life in the big city can get pretty crazy. I bet it’d be real nice to have a little place down here, close to the ocean to escape to. You should think about that.” She started wandering deeper into the shop.
When I first came to town, I was in such a hurry to get back out of here. I didn’t want to spend a second longer than absolutely necessary in Conway. Giving it some thought now, Cici’s idea didn’t sound too bad. It might be nice to have a summer home. Maybe I could rent it out to tourists when I wasn’t here. It was definitely worth considering. I did have a lot of memories at that house.
“Yeah, I might.”
“So, is someone buying up this shop? I bet you got a lot of offers coming in. Prime real estate down town.”
“I haven’t actually listed it yet. I’m still in the market for a real estate agent. I thought I’d found a good company, but it turns out they have questionable hiring practices.”
Cici pursed her lips and nodded her head, with an “Mmhmm,” like she knew all about it. “What about all this? What are you going to do with all this great stuff?”
“I don’t know, donate it maybe if whoever buys the building doesn’t want to keep it as an antique and gift shop.”
“You know, this place would make such a great little coffee shop.” I was having a hard time keeping up with her as she wound her way through the place. “Yep. Oh, a coffee shop and bookstore combined.” She stopped at the small reading corner in the back where Didi had stocked a few new and used books.
I looked around with fresh eyes. “You know, it really would. I’ll have to mention that to the real estate agent when I find one. They might be able to use the idea to pitch the place to potential buyers.”
“You do that,” she hummed and then did a complete one-eighty on subjects. “So, you hook up with Luke last night?”
I about choked on my coffee and looked at her with panicked eyes, searching her face. “Why, is he your boyfriend? You planning on kicking my ass or something?” I really did not want to get in a cat fight with a stripper.
She laughed. “No. He’s not my boyfriend. He wishes. And I’m not here to kick your ass. I don’t even think I could. I mean, sure I’m taller than you. You’re a tiny thing, but it’s the little ones you got to watch out for. They’re all feisty and will punch you right in the boob. I saw you in action last night.”
I breathed a quiet sigh of relief. “Well, if it makes any difference, no I didn’t hook up with him. I almost did, but didn’t go through with it. It’s just not really my style, but I was having a bad night. Luke was really cool about it though.”
She nodded again like she understood perfectly. “Yeah, he’s a good guy. And hung like a friggin’ horse if you didn’t get to find that out for yourself.” Oh I did, but that didn’t mean I wanted to reminisce over it. “He knows how to use it too, in case you were wondering.”
I wasn’t. I also figured that out for myself. “You sure he’s not yours?”
“Nope. Like I said, he wishes, but he wants me to quit stripping on account that I don’t need to, but I like it. So I’m not going to quit just because he doesn’t like all those other men looking at me, and it’s fun torturing him. And I don’t figure things would work out with us anyway. He’s a love ‘em and leave ‘em kind of guy, you know?” Did I ever know about those. “And then where would I be? Out of a good paying job, that’s where.”
I just sipped my coffee and nodded like it all made sense in my head too, because I felt like it was the right thing to do.
“So, what do you do back in New York? You got some kind of fancy office job? You know any of those billionaires like that guy in Fifty Shades?”
I laughed. “No, I don’t work in an office and I don’t know any billionaires.”
“That’s too bad. So what do you do?’
“I’m a copy editor.” It’s what I planned to tell everyone around here who asked. It was close enough to the truth, but would save me from the inevitable questions that would follow if I admitted to being a writer, such as, what I wrote.”
“What’s that mean?”
“I edit books for authors.”
“Oh, that sounds like a real sweet gig. You do that from home?”
“Yep, I work my own hours.”
“Then girl, what do you need buyers for? I mean, who wants to stay in that big, polluted city when you could breathe fresh, ocean air every day?”
“I can’t just pack up my life and move back here.”
“Why not? You got a husband or a lover in New York?”
“No,” I admitted.
“Well then I don’t see why you can’t just pack up and move wherever the hell you want. It’s your life, and now you own a house, and you’re going to have a kick ass coffee shop and book store.”
“Maybe I don’t want to leave New York, and besides, I don’t know the first thing about running a business.”
“Well then it’s a good thing I do,” she grinned.
“You know about business?”
“Sure do. Got my bachelor’s degree and everything. Business major with a minor in accounting. That’s why I started stripping in the first place, to pay for classes, but then I made such good money taking my clothes off that even after I graduated I decided to keep doing it. It’s a good thing too, or we never would have met last night and then you’d still be selling this place and going back to New York.”
“Who says I’m not still? This is crazy. I can’t just decide to open a business, and my life is in New York.”
“Your life was in New York, but I’m good at reading people. You’re no city girl.”
I definitely needed more caffeine to keep up with how this woman’s brain functioned and her insane logic. Trinity’s arrival at that moment was not unwelcome. She pushed through the door, setting off the chime.
“Uh, hey,” I could tell she was caught off guard when she spotted Cici. “What are you two up to?”
“Just talking business,” Cici answered her and I couldn’t help the eye roll that happened.
Trinity cocked her head at me. “You considering a life of stripping?”
“Not that kind of business. We’re going to turn this place into a kick ass coffee shop and bookstore,” Cici clarified.
“Seriously?” Trin actually perked up.
“No,” I cut in. “In case you both forgot, I live in New York, and despite what you think,” I was looking at Cici, “It’s not as simple as me just packing up and moving back here.”
“Oh,” Trin didn’t cover her disappointment well.
Cici just clucked at me like I was the one being unreasonable. “Fine then, if you insist on passing up this opportunity, I guess I can help you box this stuff up. I didn’t have plans today anyway.”
“Uh, okay.”
“Yeah, I can help too. Looks like you’ll need more paper and boxes. I know where to get some. I’ll be right back.” I watched Trin run across the street to her brother’s shop.
When she returned, she had two more large empty boxes and a stack
of newspaper, which was good, because with Cici’s help, most of the dolphins were wrapped and boxed and our stack was low. Trin dropped the supplies and then sat down beside the two of us and joined in the monotonous work. We went from shelf to shelf, and while we worked, Cici and Trin kept up the idle chat, but I was still thinking about Cici’s ludicrous idea. Only the more I thought about it, the less ludicrous it sounded.
“So, Cici, you really know all about accounting and running a business?” I tried to ask casually.
She stopped wrapping the seashell picture frame in her hand and turned her head to look at me quizzically.
“Uh, huh.”
“Like what licenses you need and taxes and all that?”
“Yeah.”
“Hmm,” I said almost to myself. Owning a bookstore was something of a fantasy of mine I guess you might say, one I’d never actually considered, but this was the perfect opportunity. Could I really just leave New York though? What did I have tying me there? Our apartment wasn’t that great, and Lizzie could find another roommate if she needed to. I could work from anywhere. Really all that left was Lizzie. I didn’t want to leave her behind, but she’d been saying for a while now that she was tired of the city. Tired of her job. Maybe … no, it really was crazy.
It took a lot of money to get a business going. I’d be looking at espresso equipment and probably some serious renovations to even have it up to code. And to join it with a bookstore, even a small one, that was probably thousands of dollars in inventory I had to come up with. I had a decent savings, and Didi left a small chunk, but this seemed a big risk, especially if Cici turned out to be full of shit. Not to mention the time that would have to go into this. When would I have that kind of time? After my release, whenever that was? By then, they’d be on me for the next one.
No. I’d keep the house. I liked the idea of having a little escape, but I needed to sell this place. Living back here would be hard enough with the risk of bumping into Cammie, my mother and Kellen all the time. Kellen. Geez, I can’t believe I actually even considered Cici’s plan for a minute. Working across the street from him day in and out … I know I said I was going to try and move on, but … just no. That wouldn’t work.
Anywhere But Here Page 14