Total pages in book: 131
Estimated words: 131387 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 657(@200wpm)___ 526(@250wpm)___ 438(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 131387 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 657(@200wpm)___ 526(@250wpm)___ 438(@300wpm)
She called, crying, asking how I knew she’d always wanted a reading chair just like that, but she could never afford it.
I told her shopkeepers had their ways.
Sure, refinishing that chair had taken a lot of time and energy.
But in the end, it found its way to where it was supposed to be.
The shop kept going strong under Abigail’s management, and we both took my cross-marketing thing with Kimmy and ran with it.
I found a big old wood-framed, school green chalkboard, and Hutch and Brett mounted it on the wall just inside the door to my shop.
Julie was really artistic, so once a week, she used colored chalk to prettily draw on the board a schedule of the happenings in Misted Pines: Jill’s tour times, Bob Wagoner’s trail rides, the farmer’s market, what was showing at the cinema, events and classes at the Art Center, deals the spa was having at the Pinetop, high school games, plays and concerts, performances in Frick Park, parades, all that kind of thing.
I noted more than once folks who came in took a picture of it.
Further, we made a deal with Jenna, who owned Mistery Flowers and Gifts, and she sent a big bouquet for our counter every Monday that we placed a card under so people knew it came from her. We sold boxes of the candy store’s homemade fudge. Made more deals with artists at the Art Center to sell their stuff, along with pointing people to the shop at the center where they could find more.
And I was pretty proud of the leaflet I designed on my laptop over a map of the town that looked like a (prettier) legend of a mall that explained what you could find where in terms of shopping, food and entertainment in Misted Pines.
And everyone carried them.
It was rad.
However, I had no idea what I was getting into when I made my deal with Kimmy, considering she took it as carte blanche to decorate my store for every holiday.
Even so, as noted, she was good at it.
And the Christmas look she gave The Groove?
It was off the hook.
Slowly, I made my mark on Hutch’s cabin.
I didn’t girlify it or anything.
But some of the buckshot hit Hutch’s couch, and since mine was newer, longer and comfier, we sold his online and moved mine in.
Before I returned the pictures of Clementine and Chisolm to Jill, I had copies made (with her permission), and I framed the one on their wedding day and hung it in the kitchen.
I did my thing with baskets, pottery, throw blankets, toss pillows, art and lamps, but I didn’t fill the place with knickknacks and clutter.
It looked like what it used to look like.
Just…homier.
Hutch could do homier too, though in his way.
For example, I came home one day and found an attractive wine rack in the living room, and it was filled with wine.
Then, he’d been out on the errand for me of picking up some stuff I won in an online auction, and when he was there, he bought a load of copper cookware that hadn’t sold, but I’d told him while I was bidding that I’d fallen in love with it.
I didn’t get it because I didn’t think it would sell in the shop since the reserve price was so high, thus my price would need to be higher.
But I told him I wanted it for us because it would be absolutely perfect in the kitchen (it was so gorgeous, we didn’t have to put it away, and cooking with it would be a dream).
But again, I couldn’t buy it, yeah, because the reserve price was so high.
Hutch didn’t agree.
I came home to that cookware.
He was a man who did those kinds of things.
And I was a woman who was lucky to have that kind of man.
Hutch had one more soul-baring session in him.
It came close after the night Enstrom and his boys stormed our log cabin.
He shared he’d had his PI friend look into me.
I could tell he thought I’d be pissed.
But I was not.
It just proved how much he liked me from the very beginning.
I still gave him shit, but I knew he knew with the way he grinned at me through it that I didn’t mean it.
But a girl’s gotta keep up appearances.
Though open communication with your guy would inevitably lead to some disagreements.
And this happened when Hutch sat me down in the kitchen and told me he’d made a decision about said kitchen.
He was going to have it dismantled and auctioned so he could donate the proceeds to the sanctuary. He was then going to have whatever kitchen I wanted installed.
After he shared that, I shared, if he auctioned that kitchen, I’d be buying it and reinstalling it.
And I countered with us having a look at the money I’d saved from unloading my life in Orlando, as well as the money Frank gave me. We would decide what we needed for our lives and our futures, set that aside, and give the rest to Stony Bluff.