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Laughing softly, she nodded. “We’ve always been working on it, but in a very reserved way. Now I think Billie and I can really go a little wild and see what we can do to speed some stuff up.”
“Well don’t rush too much,” Chloe said. “You want it all done right. It’s more important to…”
“Excuse me, ladies,” Evan said as he joined them. “I need to get going, Ashlynn, but I just wanted to congratulate you again.”
“Thank you for all your help,” she gushed. “I don’t know if my nerves could have handled another day with the way things were going.” She shook his hand.
“If there’s ever anything else I can do for you…”
“No offense, Evan, but I really hope I won’t be needing your services ever again,” she teased.
He smiled at her and then at Avery before his gaze landed on Chloe and…lingered.
Doing her best not to seem obvious, Ashlynn slyly glanced at her twin and noticed the blush on her face.
Interesting…
“You ready to go, Evan?” Ryder asked before congratulating Ashlynn again and saying goodbye to Chloe and Avery.
“I seriously can’t thank you enough, Ryder,” Ashlynn gushed. “For everything. I was totally spiraling and you just swooped in and got things done. So…thank you.”
“My pleasure,” he said easily. “And I’m sure we’ll be seeing a lot more of you once the salon opens. Maybe we’ll talk about you helping with the day spa I want to put in at the ski resort.”
“Day spa? I didn’t know you were…”
But he and Evan were already walking toward the door.
“You get used to it,” Marissa said as she walked around them to go and sit with Patrick.
“Everyone keeps saying that, but it still seems weird,” she murmured.
“Come on. Let’s get some pizza and you can tell us all about your plans,” Avery said as she took Ash’s hand and led her into the kitchen.
For the next several hours, she talked about everything she wanted to do to the salon, who she wanted to hire, and how excited she was to have all this negativity behind her. Billie put in her own two cents about what she was looking forward to Ash doing, and Levi talked about all the marketing and promotions they were going to do. For a day that started out so crazy, it turned out to be incredibly emotional in a good way.
It was after eight when it was just down to her, Billie, and Chloe, and she was pleasantly full from all the pizza, brownies, cookies, and champagne. “I’m too full to move.”
“Yeah, but you have to otherwise you’ll be sleeping on the couch. Levi and Jade don’t do sleepovers when Silas is home, so…”
“But I don’t have to move right this minute, do I? I’m just so comfortable.”
“I think you’re going to crash hard tonight,” Billie said quietly. “I think the emotional roller coaster you’ve been on has finally stopped and you’re going to crawl into bed and probably sleep for a solid eight to ten hours.” Then she laughed softly. “I wish I could sleep like that.”
“I hate to break it to you, but for the most part, I’ve been sleeping fine.”
“Well…not this week,” Chloe chimed in. “You know this week has been the worst of it.”
“Okay, fine. Every other week since I got fired, I’ve slept just fine. Happy?”
Her twin smiled serenely. “As a matter of fact, I am.”
“Goody for you.”
They sat in companionable silence before Chloe spoke. “Are you going to go home and talk to Reid?”
The sigh was out before she could stop it. “I know I need to, but I’m not sure I’m ready.”
“Why not?” Billie asked.
