Chapter 15
Seventh Week of Faire: Pirate Weekend
"Dear god, how do you stand working back here all day?”
Lilian looked up from her pile of pirate books at the handsome rogue lounging outside the shop.
Logan was sprawled across a small wooden chair, surveying the Reject Woods with undisguised horror.
There was something about the eyeliner, the barely buttoned shirt, and the single earring dangling from one ear that made pirates the rock stars of the Renaissance Faire, and he certainly fit the bill.
His crutches leaned against the shop, hidden behind the chair, safely out of view from any guests.
“What’s so bad about it?” she asked, picking up a copy of V. E. Schwab’s A Gathering of Shadows for the display table.
“There’s no one back here!” Logan waved dramatically at the dirt paths, which were admittedly a little sparse.
But it was Pirate Weekend. Most of the crowd gravitated toward Pirate’s Cove where the Sunken Ship Theater and The Grog were set up, along with nonstop attractions.
Lilian didn’t mind; they weren’t doing terrible business, all things considered.
She resisted the urge to tell him that today was actually a good day compared to previous weeks.
“Everyone’s at the Cove, actually… why aren’t you there?” She raised a brow at the captain.
Logan lifted his head in her direction. Eyeliner smeared along the underside of his right eye, either a result of sweat or crying. She wasn’t sure. “Alex exiled me.”
“What?” Lilian shared a look with Margo, who shrugged her shoulders. Usually, he called Alex by her stage name, Captain Misty Stormsail. The use of her mundane name piqued her interest. “That doesn’t sound like her.”
“Of course it does. Now that I’m injured, she’s taken over my show and given out orders to my pirate band. She practically told me I’m useless and sent me over here to help you with marketing.”
Lilian bit her tongue to hold in a sharp remark. Alex could definitely be bossy, but she’d never gotten the sense that the other actress wanted to actually overthrow Logan’s place as the pirate king. Their rivalry was only for the show. Mostly.
It didn’t surprise her at all that their rivalry had gone up a notch since Thursday night, when Logan had openly poached one of Alex’s crew mates.
Historically, Pirate Weekend was one of Lilian and Margo’s favorite weekends.
The faire was overrun with Jack Sparrow imitators, sea shanties, and roguish smiles.
It was also arguably one of the busiest. Alex and her crew were running around, flirting and interacting with guests.
Not to be outdone, Logan had apparently sent his men to do the same.
“Well, we don’t need you either,” Margo snapped. “Not if you’re going to drive away customers with your moping.”
“I can’t leave,” Logan sniped back. “Do you know how far the Cove is on crutches? No. I’m here now. Use me.”
Margo looked ready to throw one of Logan’s crutches at his head. Lilian couldn’t entirely blame her.
“Of course, you can’t leave,” she interjected.
“It’s Pirate Weekend. And we need the sexiest pirate in the faire to help us woo some customers, so take this book and do what you do best.” She handed him a copy of The Princess Bride, which, as far as Lilian was concerned, counted as a pirate book.
She gave Logan an encouraging smile, waiting for him to agree.
But all he did was give the paperback a scrutinizing look.
She fought down a sigh. “What is it?”
“I don’t like fantasy novels,” he told her primly.
Lilian was beginning to understand why Alex sent him away. And she was beginning to hate her friend for it.
“All right.” She snatched the book back. “Then do your best to try to get them in the door. Surely, Pirate King Devlin Locke can do that.”
Logan shrugged. “I don’t really have a choice, do I?”
“That’s the spirit.” Lilian slapped him on the shoulder and retreated inside her shop.
Margo gave her a look. “We have to do something about him,” she whispered. “We can’t have a depressed, irritable pirate outside our shop. He’ll scare away customers.”
And they couldn’t risk losing momentum. Lilian nodded, looking around the shop thoughtfully. The shelves were already stocked with seafaring novels. The Hunt the Hunk wall had Logan’s picture, along with a few other members of his crew.
Then her eyes landed on the pile of fake flowers left over from Romance Weekend.
A plan started to form. She scooped them up and carried them outside.
One by one, she tied and twisted the plastic stems around the edges of Logan’s chair, surrounding him in a pastel explosion of flowers.
The colors clashed wildly with his black wardrobe, but somehow it made Logan look like he belonged in front of her soft little bookshop.
“What are you doing, Ms. Bodice?” He frowned at the flowers. “I’m the pirate king. Not some springtime fae!”
“Every king deserves a throne.” Lilian smiled, adding a bundle of plastic roses to the arms of the chair.
“This is unbecoming of a pirate.”
“I think it makes you look dashing,” Lilian said before she could stop herself.
There was something about Logan that made him easy to tease. He could be overdramatic, but that only made it easier to play along with his character. It was easy to be Ms. Bodice around him and David. But when Hawk was nearby, the shield slipped away, leaving only Lilian.
Logan’s protests caught the attention of a woman and her daughter, who paused in front of the shop. The teenager giggled, and the mother looked amused.
His complaints paused as if he were coming to the same realization. His eyes darted from the flowers to Lilian, to the mother and daughter, who were suddenly making their way over. Just like that, his scowl tipped into a grin that would make any woman swoon.
“Well, if you think so,” he purred loud enough for their small audience to overhear.
“Excuse me,” the mother greeted timidly, phone in hand. “Would it be all right if I took a picture with you and my daughter?”
“Of course!” Logan cheered. “Why not both of you? Ms. Bodice here would be happy to snap a… what was it again? A pick-ture?”
The woman giggled while Lilian shook her head. She took the camera, waited while the two sidled up beside Logan, and snapped the picture. When it was done, she checked to make sure it turned out right. “Whoa…”
Her little flower throne photographed well. Really well. Logan’s black attire set a nice contrast against the vibrant flowers. It looked… almost professional.
His attention quickly deviated to the new arrivalsm where his charm went on full display. Lilian shook her head and ducked back into the shop where Margo stood watching in awe.
“What was that?” she asked. “One minute, the man won’t stop complaining, and the next, he’s exuding freaking Jack Sparrow charisma.”
“That,” Lilian said, “is acting. And this”—she gestured toward the mother-daughter pair who had wandered into the shop and were already picking through the pirate novels—“is marketing.”
Soon, a crowd had gathered. Their space was filled with women looking to take a picture with the faire’s very own pirate king.
They quickly became a well-oiled machine: Logan smiled and flirted, Margo took the picture, and then the guests dutifully stepped into the shop to claim their reward from the wanted poster.
Their supply of pirate romances was gone in no time. And then the pirate fantasy novels followed soon after.
“I can’t believe it,” Margo said, peering through the bodies in the shop to take in the line that was forming around Logan. “It’s actually working.”
“Pirates sell.”
“Sex sells,” Margo corrected. “And that man… yum. He can be insufferable, but a one-night stand with him wouldn’t be so bad.”
Lilian nudged her friend’s shoulder as they grinned at each other. She could hardly believe it herself, but she wasn’t about to pinch herself awake if this was a dream. She threw herself into the work, unable to stop smiling as customers giggled over the handsome pirate.
At one point, she glanced up to wipe the sweat from her forehead and caught sight of a large purple plume bobbing above the crowd.
Alex. She thought she heard Logan call out to her, trying to coax her to stay, but the pirate queen was too busy with her own obligations for Pirate Weekend and didn’t slow her stride.
Finally, four o’clock rolled around, and the crowds thinned as the faire day wound down. Margo let out a long, exhausted sigh as she collapsed against the wooden counter. “That was intense.”
“I think you mean thank you,” Logan said from his throne. They’d moved it inside, where it now sat in the corner beneath his wanted sign. “Your shop needed a little life breathed into it, and I did that for you.”
Lilian managed not to roll her eyes, but she wasn’t above showing her appreciation. “Thank you, Logan.”
“Hey… you,” Logan said, snapping his fingers at Margo. “Could you take a picture of me on this thing. I’d like to share it with my fans.”
“I have a name, you know,” Margo muttered, locking eyes with Lilian. “Maybe a one-night stand would be too much.”
Lilian smothered her smile as Logan called out, “Wench! Did you hear me?”
“I’m not a wench!” Margo snapped back, huffing toward him.
Lilian kept a careful eye on the two to make sure they didn’t come to blows, but a familiar shape stepped into the shop. Her heart fluttered at the sight of Hawk.
“Hey,” he greeted casually. “I tried to stop by earlier, but it looked like you had a crowd.”
“We did,” she said. “You would be proud. I marketed the hell out of this pirate. And I sold a ton of books in the process.”
Hawk’s usual stoic expression softened into what almost looked like pride. Once again, heat rushed through her. “I can see that, congratulations.” And then, as quickly as it appeared, the smile was gone. “But one good weekend doesn’t mean you have a booming business.”