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“Really!?” Mary palmed her shifting belly. Baby Frankie, it seemed, was picking up on her mother’s burgeoning excitement. “You really think I could sell them in the shop?”
“Absolutely. Your soaps are the bomb.” Luke tagged Dylan’s shoulder. “This guy steals those mint bars you make from my bathroom every time he runs out.”
Dylan shrugged. “What? I like the tingle.”
Luke’s gaze shot to Andy and she blushed.
Yeah, her mind had veered, once again, to where she’d first experienced said tingle. Judging by Luke’s smirk, he could tell.
Andy stuck her tongue out at him.
He chuffed out a laugh.
Mary’s attention, meanwhile, was still riveted to the display. “Oh my gosh, I don’t know what to say.”
Luke patted the empty bucket on the table. “Say you’ll fill this up soon.”
Mary’s excited expression suddenly yielded to caution. “You ran this by Kyle?”
“Yup.”
“And he’s okay with it?”
“Yeah,” replied the man in question, strolling in from the back right on cue, “I’m okay with it.”
Despite the confirmation, Mary looked even more suspicious as Kyle approached with a vibrant bouquet of coral and hot pink roses. “Those for me?”
“No, they’re for Frankenbaby,” he said, handing them over with a sigh.
Mary did the sniff test, then let slip a begrudging smile. One that said Kyle had pleased her. Something, Andy had noticed, that didn’t happen too often as Mary seemed perpetually annoyed with the man.
“So what do you say, Scary Mary?” Kyle drawled. “You gonna help the Sand Spot expand its product line or what?”
Mary glanced back at the empty display, smile widening. “The only thing scary is going to be my profit margin when we ink this deal.”
Cheers rang out.
“Hell yeah, sis!” Dylan cried, hauling her in for a hug. She kissed his cheek and promptly burst into tears.
“Those better be the happy kind,” Luke joked, swooping in for his turn.
Mary sighed in his arms. “Trust me, I’m so happy right now I may never leave.”
Luke pulled free. “Oh, no. You are definitely leaving. I will drive your pregnant butt home if I have to.”
Andy grinned as Mary lifted onto her toes and landed an affectionate smooch on her brother’s scowling cheek.
“And what am I? Chopped liver?”
Mary turned to Kyle, who was tapping his perfectly chiseled jaw. Studying said jaw for all of two seconds, she smirked. “Nope. No kiss for you. ’Cause then I’d have to admit that after all these years, you’re finally growing on me, Vaughn.”
Andy noted that this, more than a peck on the cheek, seemed to please Kyle because his eyes sparkled as Mary glanced back towards the new fixtures. “Thanks for these, by the way.”
Now Kyle was the one smirking. “Don’t thank me. I just financed ’em. It was Andy who came up with the idea.”
And she had.
When the guys had been mulling over the best way to merchandise Mary’s soaps, and Kyle had said he wanted something big — something that no one could possibly miss when they walked into the store — Andy had been struck with a genius way to showcase the new product line while also providing storage for their existing stuff.
