AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Excuse me?” Cory choked out.
“Melinda,” Dillon said, not getting why Cory seemed to be having trouble breathing. Then he realized his brother hadn’t quite caught on to his topic shift and barked out a laugh. “Jesus, you thought I meant Vicky? Hell no. She’d kill you in a day.”
“Maybe I’d kill her.” Cory turned back to his computer. “It’s not appropriate for me to ask Melinda out,” he added.
“You asked Alexa.”
“You’re obsessed with Lex.” Cory eyed him with speculation. “Are you obsessed with Lex?”
“Alexa,” Dillon corrected, ignoring the question. “But you wanna ask Mindy out. Desperately.”
“I have work to do. Go hammer something.”
Dillon chuckled and rose. He might not have figured out how to stop Cory from trying to evict Alexa or how to improve Alexa’s rent situation, but he’d gained some valuable fodder to use against his brother. One thing at a time.
Besides, maybe he could figure out how to help Alexa all on his own without involving his brother. And without her being any the wiser.
Yeah, probably not, though that didn’t mean he didn’t intend to try. Giving up—especially now that he knew what she was up against—wasn’t in his vocabulary.
“Good luck with Meta—”
“Get out of here,” Cory interrupted with a grin just before Dillon shut the door behind him.
…
“Have a nice day!” Alexa called to the customer on her way out the door, barely smothering a sigh. Yet another non-buyer.
August was often a slow time unless a shop booked a lot of wedding-related events. Not that she had the staff for that. She’d set up a booking for a “farewell to summer” party two weeks from now, but she knew that was mainly due to her father being friends with the client. Besides, it was a small event, twelve tables with small arrangements on each. She and Nellie could do those in a day.
One day she hoped she’d be able to do bigger, grander events. Her new splashy website was part one of that plan.
“Hey, Trav, come out here for a minute, please,” she called. “Bring the computer.”
He trotted out obediently, the Mac under his arm. “Yeah, Lex?”
“Can I see how far you’ve gotten on the site? I’m hoping to roll it out sooner rather than later.”
“Sure.” Tr
avis set the computer up on the counter then brought up the site, pointing out a few of the features. She liked the colors they’d decided on, cream and maroon, which tied in tastefully to the colors of the shop. Roz had always fought Alexa when she’d mentioned developing a web presence, but Alexa hoped she would be proud of how Alexa was doing in her stead anyway.
The numbers weren’t there yet, true. All that meant was that she’d have to work harder—and smarter.
“I just set up Divine’s PayPal account this morning, and I’m hoping to have the other pages finished by the end of the week. You know, for upcoming holidays.” He frowned and clicked on the Fall Inspirations page. “You have a ton more pictures of Halloween displays than anything else. The fall page is super crowded.”
She shrugged and smiled at the photo of a huge wall wreath made out of real autumn leaves and interwoven with thin strips of orange and black silk ribbons. Fat sunflowers curved along the bottom. The special-order piece had taken hours and was still one of her favorites. “So I love Halloween. Sue me.”
He glanced over his shoulder, his lips pursed. “Do you still get dressed up?”
“If I have a reason to.” Laughing, she poked him lightly in the shoulder. “If you’re asking me if I don a witch costume just to sit home and watch monster movies, no. I don’t.”
“Too bad.” A grin lit up his face. He started to respond, but yet again, the bell jingled.
This time when she glanced at the doorway, a broad frame filled it, almost blocking the sunlight with his shoulders.
Dillon.
Joy came first, followed by her usual pragmatism. He’d probably just come to tell her he needed to get into her apartment to work on her sink.
