“Well, c'mon. You gotta admit this whole room smells like elderly folks and musty, moldy books.”
I glanced at Asher, who was checking out one of our model trains with what looked to be genuine interest. What was he doing in here? In fact, I doubted he'd ever stepped foot in my shop before.
“You got a moment to talk?” he asked me once Lana was tied up answering a customer's phone call. “It's about the, uh, plan.”
He was all business today, almost as if our naked tryst in his apartment had never happened. It shouldn't have bothered me; I knew his reputation, and expected him to move on quick.
But not this quick.
“Then let's talk.” I showed him to an empty aisle near the back of the store. “Hopefully, it's not more bad news this time.”
He checked to make sure we weren't being spied on, then came closer. He smelled so good, and looked so amazing in that shirt –
No! Stop wanting him, damn it. Because it was clear as day that would only lead to my own heartbreak.
“My father knows about us. Macy does too. Neither of them are very happy about our marriage.”
“Gee, what did you expect? Your sister thinks my brother is the devil, and Heath, well, that's obvious.”
He bit his lip. “He pointed something else out in the contract. It says he's got to deem the marriage 'legitimate' or it's void for purposes of the contract.”
“But that's crazy. Why does he get to decide? Sounds like this whole thing was set up to fail from the start.”
“That's what I thought too. Still, dad's a man of his word. If we can make this wedding seem legit, he'll have no choice but to accept it.”
At the register, Lana was getting louder and louder. She was on the phone with someone else, probably one of her many friends, although I warned her about personal calls while she was on the clock.
“It shouldn't be too hard. Just book a date at the nearest church and be done with it.”
“Not that simple. First of all, eloping or doing this by ourselves ain't going to happen. We do that, dad will know the truth.”
“So you're saying we have to go all out.”
He nodded. “Unfortunately. I fed him the story that we've been in love for years and, no thanks to his meddling, we've got no choice but to hurry and get hitched.”
Maybe this whole thing was fake, but I did get a bit excited about the idea of planning my own wedding. After all, who knew if I would ever get married for real?
“There will have to be a reception, then,” I said. “A caterer. Band. And we'd better hurry and invite the guests.”
“Yeah. Although I feel a bit bad about having family fly in from across country, all for some scam.” The worry on his face slowly softened as he looked me over. “Y'know, you sure do seem awfully into all this.”
I played with the braids on an old rocking horse's mane. “Yeah, sort of. What girl doesn't grow up dreaming of her wedding? It's the biggest day of her life – even if this one happens to be fake.”
To my surprise, he put his arm around me. His touch brought to mind the delicious evening spent beneath his sheets. How much I wanted it again...
“I know it's fake, but Sarah, I promise I'll do my best to make it everything you'd dreamed of.”
The tenderness in his voice was not something I'd heard coming from him ever before. Usually, he would have responded to my girlish wedding-related glee with a cocky, sarcastic remark, or apathy at best.
But now he talked like he really gave a crap about me. What was I supposed to make of that?
“I mean, it's not like I have a choice,” he said, clearing his throat and looking the other way. “Dad wants me to prove the relationship is real. Tough to do that if we don't pull out all the stops.”
“I imagine it'll be hard for you. Bet you've never committed to any woman in your life.”
“It'll be a lot easier so long as I have you in my –”
“There you two are!”
Lana emerged from around the corner. She looked us over in her suspicious way; Asher had no time to remove his arm from me. Instead, he hugged me tighter.
For a second I worried she'd try to stab him with the letter opener in her hand.
“Something the matter, Lana?” I put on a cheery smile.
“I'll say.” She shot Asher another dirty look, then frowned. “I just got off the phone with Mason Storage. They say they'll be doing business with one of our competitors from now on.”
“What? But they've been one of our best suppliers for years!”
A dust ball blew down the aisle like a tumbleweed across a lonely desert. Fitting, really. Almost made me laugh.
“Brady said he's got another shop offering him better prices for the same pieces. Where we might pay fifty bucks for a set of silverware, they can double it, no questions asked.”
I pulled away from Asher so he wouldn't see the angry tears forming in my eyes. Brady Mason was a friend of the family, so he'd always given me good deals. But now?
It felt like such a betrayal.
“Having supply problems?” Asher looked around the shop. “Seems you've got plenty of stock to me.”
“Yeah, for now. Brady runs a storage unit place. Whenever people stopped paying their bills, he'd give me first crack at buying their unit. I get a lot of my stock that way.”
“But now someone has undercut you in price.” He shook his head. “It sucks, but that's how business works. All you can do is search out another supplier
