“We haven’t talked in so long—”
“So? That doesn’t change anything.” Ava looped her arm through Kinley’s, nodding toward the hill. Kinley hadn’t given a lot of thought to climbing back up it when she left the car parked outside the boutique. “We’ll always be friends. It’s not like you married my brother and disappeared six months later.”
Kinley didn’t take the bait about Laurel. She cared for both of her friends dearly but refused to be pitted in the middle of an issue only the two of them could solve. Unfortunately, it would likely require kidnapping Laurel and dragging her back to town so these two could get it out of their system face-to-face.
“Iamback to help Fiona,” Kinley said, deflecting the best she could. The urge to tell Ava about the search for her dad felt natural, but pointless now. Surely there was a good reason her mom had kept an iron wall around the information for all those years.
“How much longer are you in town?”
“I fly back next Thursday.”
“Conveniently missing the alumni event the weekend to follow, I see.”
“Alumni event? Yikes, I dodged a bullet there.”
Ava rolled her eyes at Kinley as they waited for a car to pass the last intersection to the store. “Don’t pretend you didn’t know.”
“I didn’t!” Missing the alumni event was a happy coincidence. Maybe it was fate’s way of apologizing for her missing Patty. “Do people actually go to that thing anymore?”
Ava held the shop door open, allowing Kinley to step inside first. During her visit earlier, Kinley had been on a mission. She hadn’t stayed to look around or even let her eyes scan all the changes Ava’d made to her family’s store. Everything was vastly different. The atmosphere, the products, the layout. It all felt more elevated. Less typical Alaskan gift shop and more charming boutique.
“Of course people go.Igo,” Ava said.
“I finished the ulu display, Miss Ava.” The teenager from earlier lifted her head from the front counter after the clamoring bells above the door faded.
“Thanks, Becca. I’ll check it out. See you same time tomorrow?”
“You bet.” Eyes glued to her phone, Becca grabbed her purse and headed for the door.
Ava moved behind the lone checkout counter, unlocking the office before slipping inside.
The gift shop Kinley remembered from her youth no longer existed. Gone were the tacky tourist souvenirs and trinkets. No more gawky sweatshirts or cheap baseball caps. An adorable boutique housing women’s clothing, handcrafted jewelry, and scarves had taken its place. The entire atmosphere of the store had transformed, gone from gawky to chic.
“Everything in this store is handmade by Alaskans,” Ava told Kinley, closing the office door behind her. “I couldn’t convince Mom to let me make any changes until she signed the store over to me. But I told her, the day she flew out, it was game on.”
Kinley remembered the shop had changed names a few times over the decades, side effect of being passed down through generations. Each new owner tried to put their own stamp on the place, a new spin on the usual. Ava was the first one to transition not only the name, but also the store.
“Ava, this is amazing! And I love the name.” Kinley sifted through a rack of thin, silky tops. “These are gorgeous.” She spent so many of her days in a uniform, never thinking about what to wear, that Kinley hardly thought about dressing up. Several items on the clothing racks tempted her to think outside her camo-colored box. Maybe even let her hair down out of its military-regulation bun. “You’re going to make me spend all kinds of money today!”
“Better wait and see how much that sign’ll cost you,” Ava teased.
Kinley removed a periwinkle blouse from the rack and carried it to the counter, dismissing Ava’s teasing. Kinley had no idea where she’d wear the piece, but the top called to her. Maybe that was the boutique’s real charm. Ava had a knack for keeping products in stock that customers couldn’t resist. “You must miss your mom.”
Ava carefully removed the tag and folded the blouse. “You’d think so, but honestly, the lack of hovering is kinda nice. Mom used to shoot down all my ideas. We get along so much better now that she’s three thousand miles away.”
“You seem happy,” Kinley said.
“I am.”
“Anyone special in your life? Anyone I should know about?”
“Anyone inyours?”
“Hardly.” It felt good to catch up with Ava, almost as if the time they’d spent apart was weeks instead of years. Kinley recalled how easily they fell back into a natural routine during the times they’d met up or spent hours on the phone.
Ava handed Kinley an adorable gift bag the color of forget-me-nots with silver thread sewn into the handles. “Maybe we can find you someone while you’re here.” Ava smiled.
“Yeah, right. Everyone’s lining up around the block to date the woman who plowed into the town sign.”
