Eleanor knew it was the tiniest bit petty, but after all her anxiety, she felt she was entitled to an itty-bitty touch of snark.
“I can’t imagine that either,” she said.
“Congratulations, Ms. Ridley,” the clerk said warmly.
When Eleanor walked out with Garrett, she was walking on air.
“I’m going to have a bookstore!” she cried happily, throwing her arms around his neck. He wrapped his arms around her waist, picked her up, and spun her in a circle.
“Oh, put me down,” she scolded with a laugh. “We’re too old for that kind of thing. You’ll throw out your back.”
“Hush, woman,” he said. “You’re going to have a bookstore. Let me celebrate, old age and all.”
“Let’s celebrate like this, instead,” she countered, pulling him down to press a quick kiss on his lips.
“Oh, yeah, that works too.”
After releasing Garrett, Eleanor thought to glance around for Winnie. She didn’t plan ongloating. She’d come out on top, after all. Bragging about it would be bad form. But she figured that she should say something that might help them bury the hatchet, even if just a little bit.
But when she tried to find the other woman, Winnie was gone.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
When Cadence knocked at Tyler’s door at ten in the morning to drop Isabelle off with him, she felt like her morning had already lasted about a thousand years.
“Hi,” he said, yanking the door open. “I’m so happy to see you both—oh, gosh, Cadence, are you okay?”
Cadence shot him a dry look as Isabelle threw her arms around Tyler’s legs. His hand went absently to his daughter’s head.
“You’re a real flatterer, you know that?” she said, although she wasn’t genuinely annoyed.
He winced.
“Sorry,” he said. “You just look really stressed out.”
She sighed… but his expression did make her smile.
“I am pretty stressed,” she admitted. “I have, like, four artists doing drop-offs today, and then I have some new furniture coming for the gallery, plus there’s a leaky pipe, so the plumber is coming…” She rubbed her forehead. “It’s chaos, and it’s making me feel pretty scattered.”
“I can come help with the furniture,” Tyler offered at once.
“That’s a really nice offer,” Cadence said, “but you might observe the little barnacle stuck to your legs.”
“She means me,” Izzy said, looking up from where she was still hugging him.
“She does mean you,” Tyler agreed with a laugh. “But what do you say, Iz? Do you think we could follow after Mom in a few hours and help with the furniture? I’d do the heavy lifting parts. Your job would just be to sit out of the dragging stuff path and read a book. We could swing by the library first.”
Izzy looked like she had to really puzzle this one out. “Can I getsevenlibrary books?” she asked.
“Sure,” he said.
“Can I getninelibrary books?” she asked.
“You can gettwentylibrary books, as long as you promise to keep them all in the library bag so we don’t lose track of them.”
Cadence gave him an approving look at this addendum, and his return smile made her feel a surge of happiness. As minor as this moment was, it showed that they still could work together.
“Twenty,” Izzy muttered. “Yeah, I can do that.”
