Folded up in the middle of the check was a small, faded photograph. It was a man I’d never met before who looked very much like Mei, with Mei on his left, and on his right...was my father.
“It is the last time I saw him,” Mei explained, her words clipped and emotionless. “I thought perhaps you could make more use of it than I.”
Uh huh.
She wasn’t fooling anyone.
Wu Mei was a better person than she pretended to be.
Incapable of love, my ass.
“I appreciate that,” I told her, trying hard to pretend to be as unaffected as her, and probably entirely failing.
The elevator opened again with a bell sound, and Davin strode back in to pick up the last bag of tools, standing well away from us, waiting.
Mei nodded to me, and without another word, turned and left us alone to take our leave.
CHAPTER 6
After that, it was back to the shop and one of our newest additions: Olive Wilburn. She was a sweet, grandmotherly lady I thought was in her late fifties, who Davin and I had been forced to hire when it turned out we were going to be out of the office most of the time, doing installations and meeting with clients. She answered the phone, took notes, did paperwork, filed everything, inventoried stuff, made orders, and also, knitted a fair amount.
In the month she’d been with us, I was pretty sure she’d made no less than two baby blankets, which I thought was pretty darn impressive. It was either two or more than two, since there had been neon yellow yarn earlier, and now there was some kind of basketweave thing she was making in three different shades of ecru and sage. She could be making multiples of the same things, but that still meant two or more.
That was probably also why I called her grandmotherly, since she’d said both were for new or soon-to-be grandchildren.
It would surprise no one that just like Davin, Mother had found her and sent her to us.
On the other hand, the money we’d just gotten from Mei was probably going to cover Olive’s paycheck as well as other expenses for a good long while, so there was that.
It was the problem with doing actual work. The more clients we got, the more expenses there were, like paying someone to answer the phone. This was why I had always been so hesitant to start a real business.
Okay, no, I’d had no idea there would be Olive, who brought chocolate chip cookies and knitted blankets that looked so soft I was jealous of her unborn grandkids for getting to keep them.
She also thought Amelia was the finest thing that had happened in the history of the world, and the two of them spent hours chatting about tea, which was super weird, but also great. I loved tea, but I didn’t know how much there was to talk about.
So when we got back to the office, toting multiple bags of heavy tools and one bored hungry kitten, I asked Olive, who was in the process of closing up shop for the day, “You coming over to Teas(e) with us for dinner?”
She gave me that warm smile of hers that always made me think she was about to reach over and pinch my cheek, but shook her head. “My daughter-in-law went into labor just after lunch, so I’m off to sit with her in the hospital. I...I might be late tomorrow, if things go long. This is her first.”
Long, like...was she saying the woman had started having a baby already, and mightstillbe in the process of having a babytomorrow? That sounded like a nightmare.
“Not to worry,” Davin promised. “We’ll put a note up if we have to leave for some reason, but family is always more important than work.”
She beamed at him and did in fact reach over to pat his cheek. “That’s why this is the perfect job. You both know what matters in life.”
That was kinda nice. I liked to think I did know what mattered in life, but that was also the reason it had taken me forever to start the business. Having sensible priorities and having a successful business didn’t always go together, in my experience.
So we helped Olive clean up and then locked up as we left for the day, and Davin walked Olive to her car while I accepted the delivery of a rib roast for Twist from my mother. She was never going to stop spoiling my kitten, and given how much meat cost these days, I wasn’t going to complain about the lack of that expense.
Then, we all walked over to Arthur and Amelia Agincourt’s tea shop, Teas(e), together. Like a family, in a weird sort of way.
The feeling was expanded when Grady joined us at the door, and Amelia beamed and waved at us as we entered then motioned to the biggest table, set waiting for us all. “Arthur is just finishing up, so he should be out shortly.”
Then she turned and continued setting plates in front of a few customers. The shop was open for another half hour or so, but they usually quieted this late in the day, and the employees they’d hired took over when we all sat down together.
Because yeah, Teas(e) was doing well enough that Arthur and Amelia had been forced to hire no less than four employees to cover the front while they worked in the kitchen to produce the foods that were making the shop an instant hit in town. They had actually been mentioned in the Avalon Advocate early on, a glowing review, and people had been pouring in since the week the shop had opened. The percentage they paid me was nothing like the amount I might have gotten from some enormously expensive luxury shop, but I couldn’t have cared any less if I had tried.
I got to feel good about the shop next door, and Amelia and Arthur got the ability they deserved to start their place withthe best chance to succeed. Plus there was the food they were constantly shoving at me. Everyone I cared about won, even me.
