Shewoulddo this.
And she was going to have a damn good time.
“Good.”Margo grinned, her eyes misty.
“Thank you,” Lilian said again.“For this.For everything.”
“Don’t thank me,” Margo said sternly.“Seriously.I am not responsible for this.”
Lilian shook her head, knowing that couldn’t be true.Margo and Alex had been her biggest supporters since the beginning.Without their creative influence, the shop wouldn’t have been nearly as successful.And now they were helping her again.
Margo was right.Wallowing didn’t help her.It only fed her indecision.Now she was a boss bitch with a plan.
Go to the ball and have the greatest fucking night of their life!And after that, open a kick ass bookstore.
Shewastheownerof Ten Cents Books for approximately two weeks before she decided to sell it.
It was the right decision to make.Her parents both agreed and supported her, but it was still difficult to do.That bookstore had the best and worst of her adolescent years.It had been where she’d first discoveredThe Raven King.Where she’d first actually gotten to know Alex and Hawk.Where she’d found a new sense of confidence.
And now, her days were busy as she tried to move all her inventory out and find a new location for a new bookstore.
No.Not new.
Bodice and Brawn was just relocating from the faire to the real world.
But making that happen was a colossal amount of work.
Her days were filled with talking with the bank, making decisions with her contracting team, and deciding what kind of space would be the best fit.Luckily, her uncle volunteered to act as the foreman for the contractors while his realtor wife helped them look for a new location.
Lilian already had an idea, though.
Every day ended with her falling asleep from exhaustion, a smile on her lips.For weeks, she’d divided her time between Ten Cents Books and the faire, when what she really wanted was to have something of her own.And now she did.
She pulled down her family’s driveway late at night after an evening of picking Emily’s brain about standing up a store.The porch light was the only illumination in the rural darkness.Without it, she would have missed the dark-colored SUV parked in front of the house.
The car wasn’t familiar.
Curious, she got out and let herself into the house.This late at night, her parents were usually tucked in their living room chairs, winding down.But the lights were all on, and the sound of laughter caught her by surprise.
They weren’t in the living room.They were at the kitchen table… with Janelle Carlisle.
“What are you doing here?”
Lilian didn’t mean to sound rude, but the sight of Janelle in her kitchen was so unexpected.It was even stranger to see the woman wearing jeans and a bright pink sweater decorated with little green Christmas trees.
Janelle gave a timid wave, as if even she wasn’t sure what she was doing in the Brody house.“Hawk told me where I might find you.Your parents were keeping me company while I waited.I came by because I need to apologize to you for Marcus’s behavior.”
All three adults were looking at her expectantly.Lilian stared back.The need to say that everything was fine, that it was all water under the bridge, thrummed through her.ThedamnMidwestern politeness.
The waterwasn’tunder the bridge.It was still flooding the roads, drowning everything in its path.When she closed her eyes, Marcus’s accusations rattled inside her head.And Hawk…
Janelle’s voice carried on.“I wanted to personally tell you my husband—” She stopped and corrected herself.“My ex-husband was out of line when he told you that you wouldn’t be welcome back.”
“Oh.”There was so much she wanted to say, but the only thing that came out was, “Ex-husband?”
“We are… separating.Recent events have shown a side of him that I don’t recognize and don’t care to be married to.”
“Oh, Janelle…” Beatrice said.
