“How long have you known the rest of the Barlows?” Rachel asked.
“I just met them a couple weeks ago. I didn’t know about any of them until now.” He glanced over at Luke and Mac, who were grinning at him like a couple of fools. Clearly, there was going to be merciless teasing when he returned to the table. Which he should have done a long time ago, but he really liked talking to Rachel. Watching her smile, the way that gesture lit her eyes and brightened her face.
“Wow. That’s a lot to digest in such a short time frame. No wonder you seemed a little...discombobulated when you came in the shop.”
He chuckled. “Yeah, it’s been a lot. But my brothers are great and that makes it easier.”
“Well, you’re in a good family. Mac, Luke and Jack are great guys.”
It heartened him that his brothers were well liked. He wondered if maybe—by extension—Rachel would paint him with the same brush. “Does that approval umbrella extend over me, too?” Colton asked. “And encourage you to say yes when I remind you that I asked you out?”
She took a sip from the white mug, avoiding his gaze. “I thought I said no to a date.”
“You were...vague. So let me try this again.” He spun the stool until he was facing her head-on and looking into those deep green eyes. He knew he probably wasn’t staying in this town for long. Knew he was crazy to date a woman he barely knew, a woman he wouldn’t see again if he went back to Atlanta. But he wanted more of those smiles that seemed to light her from somewhere deep inside. “Would you like to go to dinner with me tonight, Rachel?”
She opened her mouth, closed it. “Tonight? As in this evening?”
He smirked. “That’s usually the time people have dinner.”
“It’s just that I usually bring dinner to my dad’s house and eat with him.”
“Oh, okay. I understand.” Disappointment weighed in his gut. That no was a lot more definite. He laid a hand on the counter, inches away from hers, got to his feet. “Well, I’ll let you enjoy your breakfast.”
Just as he turned away, she covered his hand with her own. “But maybe I can meet you a little later. Like...seven?”
It was like he was fifteen again and the pretty girl in algebra had sent him a note across the aisle. He tried not to look like too much of an overeager dork. “Seven would be great. Let me pick you up. Make it an official date and everything.”
“An official date?” She shook her head and let out a little laugh. “I haven’t been on one of those in so long, I don’t think I remember what to do.”
“Just smile, Rachel,” he said, reaching up and tracing an easy line along the curve of her smile. Wanting to do so much more than that. “The rest will fall right into place.”
* * *
Just smile.
That was pretty much all she did the rest of the day. She smiled as she went over the bills. Smiled as she restocked the shelves. Smiled at Harvey when he came in with the daily bait delivery and smiled as she stacked containers of worms and crickets in the small refrigerator by the door.
The bell over the shop door rang a little after two, and Ginny Wilkins strode into the shop. Rachel had known Ginny pretty much all her life. The younger girl had been a cheerleader in high school and one of the most popular debutantes in all of Stone Gap. She came from a family that could trace its roots almost all the way to the Mayflower and had a six-acre property just on the edge of town, presided over by a two-story white antebellum mansion that had withstood hurricanes and the Civil War, and would probably outlast them all.
Ginny was also a girl known for extravagance in everything she did, which included the bright pink tea-length dress she was wearing, paired with an even brighter pink purse and flats. Her platinum-blond hair was done in bouncy curls that danced along her shoulders. “Rachel, I am so glad you are here!” Ginny said. “I need your help.”
Rachel slid around the counter, a little perplexed as to why Ginny, the girliest girl she’d ever known, would be in a hardware shop. Maybe buying a gift for her father or boyfriend? “Sure. What do you need? We have a sale on—”
“I’m getting married!” The words exploded out of Ginny, complete with a little squeal and a wild flourish of a giant pear-shaped diamond on her left hand. “And I need you to plan it for me. I haven’t the foggiest idea where to start or what to do.”
“Ginny, I’m not doing that right now. I’m working here, at my dad’s shop. I—”
“But you have to! You’re the only one I trust. I mean, you did such a fabulous job with Arnelle Beauchamp’s wedding and, oh, my, the venue you set up for Lucy Coleridge’s wedding—amazing. I know you can do something even better for me. And that will make those two gooses green with envy over how amazing my wedding was.” Ginny grinned. “You know there’s nothing I like better than going further over the top than anyone else.”
That was true. If there was one woman in Stone Gap to add more ruffles, more pink, more flowers, it was Ginny. She’d never been the kind to sit sedately in a corner. Everything she did, she did loud. Planning her wedding would be fun, Rachel thought. The kind of no-holds-barred event that would not only be an adventure, but also get people talking about Rachel’s business.
The exact kind of jump-start she needed to get her company running again. If Ginny’s wedding was a year or so away, there would be plenty of time for Rachel to both run the shop and get the event planned. And by then, surely her dad would be back at work every day.
Yes, she could make it work. Just thinking about getting back to the wedding-planning world that she loved caused a little tickle of excitement in Rachel’s stomach. It was an incredible opportunity.
“I know the ideal location, Ginny. Perfect for the kind of wedding you want to have. There’s this new hotel two towns away that’s really something to talk about. It’s pink and white and giant,” Rachel said. She could already see it decorated in Ginny’s signature color, imagine the band on the stage, the guests dining on something extravagant. It would be amazing, as Ginny had said.
“Pink? My favorite color!” Ginny exclaimed. The woman used more exclamation points in her daily speech than an Oscar winner. “All my bridesmaids are going to wear flamingo pink, and I’m going to have bright pink roses in my bouquet and a trail of them down the back of my dress, and it will look like I’m walking out of a garden. It’s going to be all pink, all the time!”
Rachel bit back a grin at Ginny’s ideas. That would be a wedding to remember for sure. “This hotel also has the most amazing outdoor patio, overlooking the water. You could have a gazebo on the patio and get married right there, with the boats in the background.”
“Do you think we could get all the boats to have pink sails?” Ginny asked.
“I’m not sure,” Rachel hedged. She could just see herself making that kind of request in the harbormaster’s office. “That’s a pretty tall order. But I’m sure we could hang pink organza from the gazebo and along the aisle.”
Ginny clapped her hands. “Oh, my, that sounds too perfect for words! And do you think you can get it all done in three months?”
“Three...months?” A stone sank in Rachel’s gut. “As in ninety days?”
“I know it’s fast, but when you fall in love, you just don’t want to wait. And I love my Bernard so very much.” A smile stole across Ginny’s face, the kind that only a woman truly in love wore, as if she had a secret no one else in the world possessed. It almost made Rachel jealous.
“There’s no way I can get a wedding pulled together in three months,” Rachel said, and tried not to let her own disappointment show through. This would have been the opportunity she’d needed, the big break that would breathe new life