Wade laughed. “I suppose I never thought of it that way, but you could be right. In this case, I think it’s for a good cause.”
“I imagine that’s what she always thinks, too,” Tommy replied.
No doubt about it, Wade thought. And lately, with Gabriella in his life, he was in no position to argue with her reasoning.
* * *
“Retail therapy,” Emily declared when she arrived at Cora Jane’s right on the heels of Samantha, who came in dragging after a day of waiting tables at Castle’s. “My treat. I just got paid an exorbitant amount of money for that consult I did on the ski lodge in Aspen.”
“You should be setting it aside for your wedding,” Gabi told her.
“And there will be plenty for that, especially now that Dad’s picking up most of the tab,” Emily replied. “But today I am taking my two favorite sisters impulse shopping. We are only buying things we love, not things we need. Just this once we’re going to be totally impractical.”
“Gabi will never be able to do that,” Samantha teased. “She doesn’t have an impulsive, impractical bone in her body.”
“Hey, I’m carrying a baby, aren’t I?” Gabi protested. “Surely that should get me a couple of points for doing the unexpected.”
“True,” Emily concurred. “So, are you two game? At the end of the day, the person who’s bought the craziest, most impractical thing wins.”
“What’s the prize?” Gabi asked at once, getting into the spirit of Emily’s challenge. There was a time when she’d liked nothing more than a good dare from her sisters. “And who decides who wins?”
“Grandmother decides,” Samantha suggested at once. “She’s impartial.” She glanced at Emily. “Any thoughts about the prize?”
“Now that’s a tough one. How about dinner for two at Boone’s Harbor?”
Gabi lifted a brow. “How’s Boone going to feel about you giving away a free meal at his restaurant?”
“He’ll feel great if I win and he gets an entire evening with me with no interference,” Emily said. “And we all know I’m the most impulsive one, so I’m bound to win.”
Gabi looked at Samantha. “There’s a challenge I can’t resist. How about you?”
“Oh, yeah,” Samantha agreed. “Any rules? You need to tell us now. You can’t be making them up once we’re out there.”
“Fair enough,” Emily agreed. “The impulse buy has to be something we really, really want, not just something we think will win.”
“Oh, I like that,” Gabi said. “I can hardly wait to get started.”
They started close to their grandmother’s, popping into shops with everything from sea-glass jewelry and art to fancy beachwear. Gabi stopped in front of a baby boutique, her gaze drawn to all the tiny outfits.
“Too practical,” Emily declared. “Besides, we don’t know yet if it’s a boy or a girl. I think you could find out by now if you wanted to know.”
“I know I could,” Gabi agreed. “I don’t want to.”
“Because then you’d start wanting little pink things or little blue things for a baby you don’t plan to keep?” Samantha asked gently. “Doesn’t that tell you something, sweetie? You want to keep this baby.”
Gabi held up a hand, not prepared to discuss her evolving feelings. “Don’t start on me again. What I might want and what’s right are not necessarily the same thing.”
She walked away and went into a shop with local art. Her gaze was instantly drawn to glass wind chimes sparkling in the sunlight, their sweet music stirred by the breeze of an air-conditioning vent. Something in her heart filled at the sound. She remembered sitting on Grandmother’s porch, listening to a sound just like that, a merry tinkling that was all that was bright and cheerful about summer. The same music sang her to sleep at night now...and kept Samantha awake, she recalled with amusement.
Though she walked away, she kept being drawn back to the display of wind chimes.
“I want that,” she whispered, stunned by the admission.
Samantha studied her curiously. “The wind chime? Which one? Is that your impulse buy?”
Gabi shook her head as an idea began to unfurl in her head. She wondered if it had been sparked by that serene sound or had her earlier examination of those inept paintings stirred some artistic trait she’d been unaware she possessed?
“I don’t want to buy any of them,” she told Samantha. “Although that one is lovely.” She pointed to one with an iris painted on what looked like antique glass filled with tiny bubbles. The dangling shards of glass were multicolored in shades of green and purple.
She faced her sister and announced, “I want to make them.”
Emily joined them just then and stared at her in confusion. “You want to make wind chimes? For kicks?”
“For a living,” she corrected.
Both Emily and Samantha looked stunned.
“Do you have any idea how it’s done?” Samantha asked.
“Not a clue,” Gabi admitted. “But I can learn.”
More excited than she’d been about much of anything recently, she headed for the cashier with the hand-painted glass wind chime in hand. “Was this made by a local artist?” she asked.
The girl shrugged. “No idea. I just work here.”
“Could you find out? Or tell me how I could reach the owner.”
“Leave a name and I’ll have Meg call you,” the girl said indifferently. “You gonna buy that?”
Gabi looked at the rippled shards of glass, the delicately painted iris on a larger glass diamond at the top. “Yes, please.” It would always be a reminder of this epiphany of hers, even if it never led to a new career.
Emily appeared at her side with a credit card. “It’s on me, remember?” She grinned. “I didn’t think you had any grasp of the whole impulsive thing. You surprised me.”
Gabi felt a slow smile spread across her face. “I surprised myself.”
Emily turned to Samantha, who gave a slight nod. “Since neither Samantha or I have found a thing we couldn’t live without, we declare you today’s winner!” she told Gabi. “Let me know when you want that dinner and I’ll make sure Boone makes
