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Chapter Twenty-One
I finally metthe infamous Piper, Natalie’s employer, a week later when I brought some of my shell pieces over to photograph at her house.
“Are you nervous?” Natalie asked as we unloaded my stuff from the car.
“No,” I lied. “I mean, maybe a little.” I wanted her to like me. She and Natalie spent a lot of time together, and clearly Natalie idolized her. I also didn’t want her to think I was unprofessional.
“You’ll be fine,” Natalie said, bumping my shoulder with hers as she pulled out a box with two of my lamps in it.
The house was huge and white, with blue trim and a dark blue door. Very coastal, very Maine. A huge porch wrapped around the front and included several light blue rocking chairs and a porch swing. A few children’s toys clashed with the color scheme.
“There’s a hook on the front door for wreaths, so I thought we could use that,” Natalie said. There wasn’t a wreath on there now, but Natalie said that Piper liked to decorate for all seasons and had a whole closet full of decorations.
“Yeah, the lighting is perfect.” The sun was out and there wasn’t even a whisper of a cloud in the sky. The perfect Maine summer day.
“And I we can do the lamps in the solarium,” Natalie said.
“They have a fucking solarium?” I asked. I didn’t even know what that was.
“Yeah, that’s what they call it, anyway,” Natalie said with a shrug.
“Do they also have a den instead of a living room?” I asked.
“Well, yes,” she said. “But they’re not like that.”
I was having a hard time believing I was going to be comfortable in this house.
I made Natalie knock on the door, and it opened to reveal the woman I’d seen in the pictures online that I’d looked up. I didn’t know much about fabrics, but I had the feeling her entire outfit was linen and was not purchased at a discount store.
Pearls hung from her ears, and her dark hair was pulled back revealing cheekbones that would make angels cry.
She was one of the most beautiful women I’d ever seen. Natalie was the first, obviously, but she was up there.
“Come on in,” she said, smiling and stepping back.
“Where’s my boy?” Natalie asked, setting the box down in the foyer. It was absolutely a foyer. There was no other term for it. A table with vases and a lamp on it sat next to the door, shoes stacked neatly together on the shelf at the bottom.
I looked up and found a sparkling chandelier right above my head.
“He’s napping, but you can go and check in on him if you want,” she said. Her voice was deeper than I thought. Why was everything about her so intimidating?
“I’ll go later,” Natalie said. “This is my girlfriend, Emerald.”
All my anxiety fled as soon as she said those words, replaced by little flutters in my chest. I loved hearing Natalie call me her girlfriend. It was my favorite thing to be called in the world.
“It’s so nice to meet you, Emerald. I feel like I know you already because you’re pretty much all Natalie talks about,” she said.
Natalie blushed.
“Is that so?” I said, nudging her.
“Stop it,” she said.
“It’s nice to meet you. I’ve heard a lot about you, and I know how much Natalie adores Preston,” I said.
“He’s easy to adore,” Piper said. “So, I’m sorry that the place is a little bit of a mess.”
I almost opened my mouth and asked where the mess was. I’d never seen a home with less mess than this one in my life.
