“Be sure to let me know when you open, dear.”
“I sure will, Pastor Patty. I’d love for you to come by and do a cleansing.”
“You mean a blessing.”
Skylar twirls her hair. “One of those, too, just to be safe. Thanks for stopping by!” My friend walks away to tend to something else, and that’s when my aunt decides to really clobber me.
Aunt Patty says, “You may be a grown woman, but your choice of gentleman caller is still suspect. That young man was just seen flirting with Evelyn at the Four and Twenty Bakery.”
“Who told you that?” I’ve been trying to remain blank, but my fortitude is wearing thin.
“Lulu saw him! I believe her words were, ‘He definitely has stuck his thumb in too many pies in this town.’”
I’m too grossed out to speak. And in shock. I barely know this man, so what people are saying could be true. On the other hand, I don’t want to believe it. Oliver seemed so…into me.
“Well, I best be off. I’ll do what I can to quash these rumors, but honestly, if you could see fit to tend to your reputation, you wouldn’t be in such a predicament.”
After she wanders off, Skylar sidles up next to me.
“How come I always come up with a dozen zingers after Aunt Patty walks away?”
Skylar pats my back. “Trauma response, sweetie. She’s a meddlesome worrywart and it’s not worth you wasting your breath on family who doesn’t understand you.”
“You’re right,” I say weakly, barely believing it.
“Are you feeling ill? You look sorta green around the gills.”
I nod. “I think I’m going to go home.”
Skylar studies me for a long moment, then looks over at Finn.
“My friend here is about to take to her bed, do you think you could look after my booth while I walk her home?”
“I’m on it, darlin’.”
Finn’s voice is eerily similar to Oliver’s, and noticing that gives me the heebie-jeebies.
On the way home, Skylar does her best to keep my spirits up by talking about all the special edition books she plans to order and excitedly tells me that Finn has offered to look over her renovation plans.
“…that’s if—and it’s a big if—I can manage to snag that lease. It’s the perfect location, and I’d hate to lose it to an out-of-towner, you know…?”
I’m so thankful for Skylar, who never stops talking until I’m safely tucked in my bed.
“Don’t pay her any mind, do you hear me? You can wallow for today, but tomorrow I want you to take the day off and pamper yourself. Nobody wants a depressed and traumatized dressmaker for their wedding. It’s bad luck! Love you!”
My words are muffled from under the duvet as I mutter, “Love you too,” and roll over to face the wall.
I don’t know what I was thinking, getting my hopes up that this thing between Oliver and me is anything more than a fling.
At the end of the week, Oliver will leave town, and that will be that. Everyone will have seen us together and go back to assuming correctly that I’m a second-generation black sheep, carrying on the way I’ve always carried on, driving my saint of an aunt crazy, and bringing shame upon the name of MiMi.
Eleven
Oliver
“Are you sure you want to withdraw the offer?”
Pete Hutchinson is the only realtor in town and approved my application to rent the only empty storefront on Main Street within thirty minutes of receiving my paperwork.
