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Yes, the only thing that seemed to have Reg’s nose out of joint was that his doctor had told him it could take three months before his ankle was healed enough for him to get back out on the waves. Which effectively sidelined him for the rest of the season.
As June stretched into July, Andy noticed her usually affable coworker looking less and less so as his gaze frequently wandered to the windows. “You know, Reg,” she said one Friday afternoon as they were beginning a closing shift together, “I do think it’s a good sign you’re off the crutches already. I have a friend who injured her ankle skateboarding once. I seem to recall it was only a couple weeks after PJ got off the crutches that she was right back at it.”
Reggie — who’d been looking downright glum as he rang up a special order next to her — brightened considerably. “Now that’s what I’m talking about!” Turning, he shot her a fist bump. Then he high-fived his customer.
Andy rolled her eyes at Reggie’s silly antics, but couldn’t hide a small grin of pleasure for having lifted the man’s spirits.
Glancing towards the sales floor, she saw that Luke hadn’t missed the moment either, his gaze finding hers as he and Dylan wheeled two shiny new fixtures in from the back.
The two had spent the day sequestered in the workshop assembling the units, while Rashida — who’d worked a short day shift with Mary — had been tasked with keeping Luke’s sister out of their hair.
The teen had also been instructed to stall Mary in the office for as long as possible while they counted out their tills, so the rest of the gang had time to set up the big surprise.
Andy’s grin widened in anticipation.
Luke winked at her.
Oh, god, the suspense was killing her. It was Mary’s last day before going on maternity leave, and Andy really hoped she liked the surprise they’d cooked up for her.
“You’ve got the helm,” she told Reg, abandoning the scheduling she’d been working on and sprinting from the cashwrap.
“Are they ready to be stocked?” Andy asked Luke, practically bouncing she was so eager for the green light.
It came in the form of a shaka. “Do your thing.”
Immediately, she started yanking swimwear from racks, concentrating her efforts on all the wild patterns and crazy neon colors that stuck out like a sore thumb since they didn’t match the rest of the tranquil aesthetic around the store.
The new fixtures were part console tables, part apparel chests. Each one had four rows of velvet-lined drawers with frosted plexiglass facings so the guests could see the various bikinis Andy was rapidly stuffing inside.
Luke and Dylan had placed the two chests back to back to create one big table with plenty of space on top to showcase the new product line the Sand Spot was launching.
If Mary agreed to it, of course.
“We good?” Dylan whispered just as Andy was stuffing a handful of bright yellow bikinis into the last drawer.
“Yeah.”
“And now for the cherry,” Luke said, rushing back in from the workshop with another, much smaller fixture. This one he set on top of the apparel tables, and it was just as he flashed Andy a conspiratorial grin that their time ran out.
The door to the office slid open just enough for Rashida to slip through. Then she closed it in Mary’s face before darting around the cashwrap. Giggling uncontrollably, she took up position in the huddle, looping her arm through Andy’s.
“Rash? What the hell?” The door slid back open, Mary stepped into the cashwrap, and for the briefest second, she looked even more annoyed to see every fixture in the store shoved out of place. That is, until her sights settled on the new ones.
“Surprise!”they all shouted.
“My god,” Mary cried, gripping Reg’s arm for support. “It’s breathtaking.”
Everyone chuckled as she pushed away from him and made a beeline for the new fixtures. Passing a hand over their brushed metal finishes, she laughed in delight when she saw where Andy had stocked all the most garishly colored swimwear.
“You like?” Andy ventured with a tiny smile.
“I love,” Mary said on a choked cry.
“Well, wait till you see this.” Luke yanked the covering off the smaller project he and Dylan had worked on their past few shifts. The display's centerpiece was a wooden barrel cut in half and turned on its side. Dylan had spray-painted it white to match the miniature surfboard attached to its side. A surfboard that was emblazoned with a badass logo designed by Luke that read—
“Mary’s Surf Suds.” Luke’s sister took in the retro style of the graphic, which featured a clawfoot tub bubbling over with some fins peeking out — surfboard fins, of course — and her eyes suddenly widened. “This is for my…”
Luke nodded proudly. “Your soaps, yeah.”
