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“Everything all right?”
Sarah shook her head, telling him everything that had happened with Rudolph and the customer right after him.
“I’m just worried,” she said when she finished, twirling the fabric of her apron in her hands just for something to do.
“I know,” William answered, his voice full of sympathy as he stepped toward her.
He reached out his large arms and wrapped them around her, pulling her toward him in a tight embrace.
“It’s okay to be worried. But I promise everything is going to be all right,” he murmured as he pressed soft kisses to the top of her head. “Sweet Thing is a staple in this community. People are excited that there’s someplace new. That’s perfectly okay and to be expected. But they’ll come back. I promise.”
“How do you know?” she asked, unable to keep the worry from lacing her tone.
“I’m the behind-the-scenes guy, it’s my job to know these things.”
Sarah chuckled despite herself, feeling marginally better at William’s sweet words.
“Plus,” he said, looking down at her with his soft kind eyes. “No matter what I’ll always be here. So that’s at least one customer you can’t get rid of. Ever. Ever. Ever.”
He punctuated each ‘ever’ with a kiss to one of her cheeks, and this time a real laugh pulled itself from her lips. She raised her hands and tried to push herself out of his grasp, fleeing his kisses but he held her tight as her giggles bubbled over. When finally, he stopped, he squeezed her tight once more before letting his arms drop back to his sides as he held her gaze.
“Better?” he asked.
“Better.” Sarah nodded, and she was happy to find that she meant it.
* * *
Zach sat back on his stool, smiling at the painting before him and how it was coming together. It would be finished soon, and he was proud of it. Prouder than he could recall being about a painting in quite some time.
His phone began ringing, the bright, merry chiming snapping him out of his moment of contemplation. He reached into his pocket, fishing out his phone and glancing at the screen. The name DENNIS bounced across the top of it, and he smiled as he pressedacceptand raised the device to his ear.
“Hey, bud,” he said, genuine affection rolling through him.
“Hey, hey, hey.” Dennis’s jovial voice sounded on the other end of the line. “How are you? How’s Snowy Pine Ridge treating you?”
“It’s great, man.” Zach blew out a breath. “Really great, actually. I’m painting right now.”
“Anything good?”
He chuckled. “Surprisingly, yes. It’s different. Realist landscapes. But it’s good.”
“I knew it.” Dennis laughed, and Zach could hear the other man’s smile through the phone. “I knew it would be the perfect place to help you find your center.”
“You know how much I hate to say it, but you were right.”
“Where are you staying?”
“A gorgeous house. Old Victorian. The woman who used to live here passed away a few months ago and left everything to the younger woman that was taking care of her. She lives on the grounds, actually, but she didn’t want to move into this massive place. So now I’m here.”
There was a brief pause on the other end of the line, followed by Dennis blowing out a breath and then asking, “You wouldn’t be talking about Emma and Colette by any chance, would you?”
It hadn’t occurred to Zach that Dennis would have known the old woman, and he found himself wishing that he hadn’t phrased it in the way he had.
“I am,” Zach answered, his voice taking on a softer tone. “Colette is my landlord.”
“Oh. Wow. I didn’t know that Emma had passed. I’m so sorry to hear that. She was an amazing woman.”
“That’s what Colette said too. And everyone I’ve met so far as well. Everyone seems to have loved her.”
