Chapter 27
CALLUM
Isat outside the private airstrip and watched the Blackwell jet come in for landing. Ten minutes later, Dash and Krista were climbing into my car.
“How was the flight?” I asked.
“Good. Smooth.” Krista laughed in the back seat. “I’m still getting used to how your family lives.”
My cousin grinned at her and wagged his brows. “Don’t pretend you didn’t like taking advantage of that couch.”
“Dash!” Krista slapped his shoulder. The woman turned a very bright shade of red.
I shook my head. “A gentleman doesn’t kiss and tell.”
Dash shrugged. “I won’t pretend I don’t love the mother of my child. And she’s glowing. The gentlemanly thing to do was show her how much I cherish her.”
The newlyweds were a little much, but things with Victoria had changed my perspective recently. I was starting to understand what it was like when you find the real thing. Victoria was like an addiction, and it was a struggle to focus on anything else.
I put the car in drive and headed for Beverly Hills. I wondered what Victoria would look like pregnant. Glowy? Happy? Her belly swollen with my child growing inside her. Holy shit. Where did that thought come from? We weren’t even official and I was daydreaming about knocking her up.
I parked in front of the Blackwell Couture store, proud to show my cousin what we’d accomplished. It looked good. I knew it was stunning. The storefront was everything the renderings had promised. The name on the door was in brushed gold lettering that matched the Blackwell Couture logo.
“Oh,” Krista said when she climbed out of the car. “It’s gorgeous.”
“Yeah,” I said. “It is.”
The door swung open before we reached it. Drew stood there with a big smile. He pointed at me. “You’re late.”
“You’re not my boss,” I said with a laugh. “And I told you I had to pick these guys up.”
Drew stepped forward, keeping his foot against the door to hold it open. “Krista, you look incredible. This guy giving you trouble?” He gestured at Dash.
“Constantly,” she said, and kissed Drew’s cheek.
We stepped inside. Standing in the middle of the store with Dash and Krista and seeing it through fresh eyes made me appreciate it all over again. It was everything it was supposed to be. It oozed luxury. The epitome of elegance. The very thing that made the Blackwell name so trusted.
“Callum,” Dash said, turning in a slow circle in the center of the showroom. He had his hands in his pockets and his head tipped back slightly, taking in the ceiling detail. “This is so much better in person than on the page. I mean, the designs looked great, but this is killer.”
I nodded. “These crews did amazing work, despite a few hiccups.”
“This is genuinely impressive,” Krista said. “This isn’t a store. This is an experience.”
“I helped make it happen,” I said. “But I can’t take credit for the years of planning that you all did.”
Dash clapped me on the shoulder. “I’m so glad we trusted you with this.”
Krista drifted toward the wedding section, drawn there the way women always were. Krista was all cargo pants and sturdy hiking boots but even she couldn’t resist the dress section. It was some magnetic pull toward the white and silk.
She ran her fingers along the edge of one of the velvet display risers. “Where are the gowns going?”
“We’ll have a few along this wall, angled toward the windows,” I said, crossing the floor to stand beside her. “Cleo wants natural light on the dresses. And there’s a whole room with special lighting where they can try things on.”
“Smart,” Krista said.
I showed them around the other sections, each with its own vibe while still feeling cohesive with the rest of the store.
“This is wild finally seeing it like this,” Dash said. “Adrian is going to lose his mind. In a good way.”
“It is so cool!” Krista said. “I want it to open up already.”
“All in due time,” I said, smiling. “But yes, I’m also looking forward to the big day. Before that, we’re going to put on one hell of a show here.”
Dash grinned. “Your dad runs a studio. If anyone knows about putting on a show, it’s your branch of the family.”
Drew groaned like it was the worst job in the world. He was being just a little dramatic but I understood. There was a reason we didn’t want to follow in my father’s footsteps.
“I sat through three hours of development notes on a film I care nothing about last spring because Dad thought it would be good for me to understand the full scope of the business,” Drew said. “Three hours. Do you know what I could have done with three hours?”
“Caused significant property damage,” I offered.
He pointed his finger at me. “Only when you ask me to.”
Krista laughed. “You two sound a lot like the Blackwells on the other side of the country.” She playfully pushed Dash. “Especially this one. I think it’s in the DNA. You boys don’t know how to behave.”
“Callum does,” Drew said.
“It’s called being responsible,” I said.
“I’ve been having fun helping out here,” Drew said. “Whenever you guys plan your next project, tag me in.”
“We keep growing, so there’s plenty of work to go around,” Dash said. “This store is just part of the company’s recent expansion.”
“How’s the swimsuit line going?” I asked.
“Amazing,” Dash said.
“That was one hell of a show.”
Krista looked at Dash with a huge smile. “He kicked ass in Greece.”
“He clearly pissed off Mother Nature. Or Zeus.” I laughed. “No way that storm blew in with no warning.”
Dash laughed. “You think I ordered a storm to rain out my runway show? Do you know how much work went into putting that thing together only to have it rained out.”
“The rain was a gift,” Krista said. “People are still talking about it.”
I had traveled to Greece to see how to put together a runway show, in case we wanted to do some for our wedding lines. It had given me some experience in prepping for the runway show here at the store. Lucky for me, it was going to be a much smaller operation and there would be no rain.
The charity aspect changed things, but Victoria had guided me through that like the professional she was.
“I’m glad you two are here,” I said. “If there’s any detail I’ve missed in this place, I need someone to spot it before the event. I’ve been staring at it too long. I can’t see it clearly anymore.”
“I helped double check things,” Drew said. “But Callum obviously doesn’t trust me.”
“Hey,” I told him, shaking my head. “I need people who know this world.”
Dash nodded and started to walk the perimeter of the space.
Krista had moved to the window wall and was looking out at the street.
She turned back to study the interior from that vantage point.
She was new to the family and the business, but she understood logistics.
“What are you going to do about the giant window come showtime?” she asked.
“Victoria had an idea.” I crossed to stand beside her and looked at the same angle she was looking. “Huge curtain. Cover it up completely.”
Krista looked at me with surprise. “Victoria came up with that?”
“She did.”
“Smart woman.”
“Yes, she is.”
Dash paused near the menswear section. He ran his hand along the wood paneling the same way I had when it first went up. It was funny because it was just one of those things you had to touch.
“The seam work on these panels is excellent,” Dash said.
“Let’s talk runway placement,” I said.
“Walk me through where you’re thinking you want the catwalk set up,” Dash said, coming to stand beside me.
“Runway runs from the back wall down through the center of the floor. Audience lines both sides. Around a hundred people. Intimate.”
“What’s the width?”
“Six feet. Enough for two people side by side.”
“Good.” He nodded. “For the couples it needs to feel like they’re walking together, not in a single file line. Six feet gives you that.” He looked down the proposed path. “Where are you building the platform from?”
“Temporary modular sections. They go up the morning of the event and come down the following day. The supplier confirmed delivery for that Thursday.”
“Confirmed or committed?”
I looked at him.
“There’s a difference,” he said mildly.
I pulled my phone back out and made a note to follow up. Good god. There was always something and this was exactly why I needed them here.
Drew had migrated to the consulting-room doorway, nestled in the back of the wedding section.
He was looking into the space where Cleo and Mandy had designed the private bridal experience.
Soft chairs, a large mirror, lighting that could be adjusted to simulate different times of day so a bride could see how her dress looked at a morning ceremony versus an evening one.
Cleo and Mandy had gone all out with our little corner of the store.
“Damn,” Drew said. “This place is wild. I’m not going to lie. I didn’t see the vision. You guys did.”
“Cleo did. Mandy did. I kind of saw things but even I’m impressed by how it’s all come together.” I gestured around the rest of the store. “This whole place will be an amazing luxury experience.”
“This charity runway show is going to drum up so much press,” Krista said, coming to stand beside me. “You need to find a way to copyright this idea.”
I laughed. “I don’t think that’s an option, but I wish it was.”
“It’s going to take off,” she said.
“It’s going to be a success,” Dash added. “I know it.”
We all meandered back into the main floor area. Dash was taking pictures of the space and sending them to Adrian. I had been sending them all regular updates, but it had never been this close to ready before.
Krista settled onto one of the velvet couches near the window and was looking around the room. She had her hands resting on her stomach in the way that pregnant women did without even noticing they were doing it.
Dash looked up from his phone and slid it back into his pocket. “Where’s Victoria?”
“Catching up on work,” I said. “She had a deadline she’d been putting off. Needed a day to get caught up on some things.”
“Putting off because of a certain someone?” Drew asked, not even trying to hide the grin.
“Because she’s busy,” I said.
“Uh huh.”
Dash dropped onto the couch beside Krista and stretched his arms along the back of it like he owned the place, which he kind of did. “And how are things going with you two? Generally speaking.”
“Generally speaking, things are good.” I wasn’t prepared for an interrogation. “Really good, actually. Once this opening is behind us and I can breathe again, things are going to be a lot better. For both of us.”
“You think life settles down after the grand opening?” Dash asked.
“Right now everything is stacked up at once,” I said. “The build-out, the runway show, the auction component, the charity tie-in. It’s a lot of moving pieces. Once the doors open and the event is behind us, yes, my life will absolutely calm down.”
Dash looked at Krista and then they both laughed.
“What?” I asked.
“Nothing,” Krista said with a knowing smile.
“Say it.”
“I just think you might be building up this idea of normal in your head. Like once the opening happens, some switch flips and suddenly life slows down and falls into a rhythm.” She paused. “It doesn’t really work that way. Not in this family and I’m new to it. You should know better than I do.”
“She’s not wrong,” Dash said.
“It was never normal,” Drew said from the other end of the couch. “Even before all of this. You were always managing something.” He looked at me. “This is just a new version of the same thing. You’ll be picking up something else as soon as this is cleared from your plate.”
I didn’t argue because there wasn’t much to argue with. It was true. I did normally do that.
“I’m not saying I expect it to be boring,” I said. “I’m saying I expect it to be less chaotic than the last three months.”
“For a little while,” Dash agreed. “And then something else comes up. It always does.” He looked at Krista.
“When we launched the swimwear line, I told myself the same thing. Once the show is done, once the press cycle settles, I can actually breathe. And we did get a very short window.” He glanced at Krista.
“Then we found out about the baby and moving and then Adrian called about a new direction for the fall collection and suddenly I was back in it.”
“The window is real,” Krista said. “It’s just shorter than you’re expecting.”
“So what are you telling me?” I asked. “That I’ll never have a chance to have a relationship.”
“Not if you can’t find a way to balance your work life with your real life.
” Dash paused and once again looked at his girl.
“The women in this family are remarkable people. Every single one of them. They deserve to be treated like queens. So, you can work hard, but you damn well better love them harder.”
Krista smiled at me. “You’ll figure it out. I believe in you.”