Chapter 2
Chapter Two
OLIVIA
Hours later, feeling like an over-caffeinated zombie, Olivia walked to meet her mother and Georgia.
Little pokes of red and orange shone through the trees, despite it only being September. She enjoyed stretching her legs as she rounded the town square, which already had hay bales around the gazebo.
An unusually crisp wind fluttered her long hair as she walked past Pop’s old diner. He’d sold it to a large, faceless company—his only offer—and retired a month ago. She was happy for him, but it had been the end of an era.
The pang of nostalgia was interrupted by a series of pings from her phone.
BESTIE LIL
Your mom said you’re in town
YAYYY
I can’t wait to seeee youuuu
Hellooooo
Are you alive?
If you die right as you get home, I’m going to be BIG MAD at you.
It’s been 1,000 years since we’ve been in the same state, let alone the same town.
Helloooooooo????
Are you friend-breaking up with me??
And after all we’ve been through.
We have shared deodorant TOO MANY TIMES for you to ghost me
WHY DONT YOU LOOOOVE MEEEEE
oh my bad I was on airplane mode
Come seeeeeeee meeeeeeee at Bloom.
OLIVIA
Alive
But barely
Be there in 1 min
BESTIE LIL
Dolphin noises!!!
Olivia smiled at their old inside joke. Her face felt weird.
Ohmygod, has it been that long since I’ve smiled?
She looked at her reflection in the hardware store windows in surprise.
Add that to my list of things to do more.
She crossed the square to Bloom and spied Lily setting up a new window display. Her pretty face burst into a grin, and Olivia heard her whoop from ten feet away.
A cackling, tiny bullet of blonde hair ran out the door of Bloom and launched at her.
“You’re here!” Lily said as she jumped onto Olivia and wrapped her in a spider monkey-like hug. Olivia squeezed her best friend back hard, so happy to see her. They’d been inseparable as kids and had rarely gotten to see each other in the last fifteen years due to work schedules.
“Warning, the Guild is here,” Lily said, climbing down and looping their arms together.
The Gossip Guild was the ladies’ auxiliary in Fairwick Falls her mother had founded ages ago. They did a lot of good for the town.
While talking a lot of shit.
“All of them?” Olivia grimaced, bracing herself for the invasion of the aunties.
Lily opened the front door for her. “They rented out the shop for an afternoon tea to plan the fall festival.”
The scents of chrysanthemums, lilies, and roses wrapped around Olivia as she walked into Lily’s pretty flower shop, Bloom.
Ladies she’d known all her life who were basically her adopted aunts waved at her with bright, beaming faces.
“What a sight for sore eyes,” Georgia said, walking to her with dramatic open arms. Her old dance teacher looked like if a museum gift shop was a person. “My star student ballerina back in Fairwick Falls!”
Olivia opened her mouth to correct her. “Well—”
She crushed Olivia in a bone-breaking hug.
“Oh, good, you’re here,” her mother said, dancing with happiness as Olivia gasped for breath. “Georgia has exciting news.”
Georgia let her go but wrapped an iron hand around Olivia’s upper arm, which was code for You will listen, now. Her bangles and layered wooden necklaces clanked against each other with each movement. “Your mother said you need a place to practice while you’re here this fall.”
Olivia blinked, still groggy and playing catch up. “Yes—”
“I insist you use The Barre between classes for your practice. Also, my cottage isn’t being used right now.” Georgia wiggled her eyebrows. “Your mother might like some alone time with her new hubby and I have taken a lover—”
Olivia felt a wave of awkwardness crush through her. “Oh, I don’t need to know—”
“—so I insist you stay at the cottage. Give you your own space. I need a house sitter anyway. Here are the keys,” Georgia said, shoving them into Olivia’s hand.
Olivia looked from her mom to Georgia, waiting for the catch. They smiled at her placidly, but she didn’t trust that something wasn’t afoot.
Access to a great studio and some space away from her childhood potential? Yes the hell please. “I don’t think I can pay you, though. For the space.”
Georgia waved a hand, clanking her bracelets. “No cost, of course. You’re practically family. The gold key is for the house, and the other is for The Barre. You’ll have plenty of time to practice uninterrupted.”
“Perfect.” Olivia smiled at last, feeling a weight lifting off her shoulders.
She could practice every hour possible, have her own space, and still only be a quick drive away from her mom and Pop.
Things are looking so up.
“Thank you. This is…just thank you.”
“You’re welcome, my dear,” Georgia said, patting her hand and finally releasing her arm. “Now, don’t forget, the tots class starts at one PM sharp today.”
“Uh…” Olivia had a sinking feeling. Like she’d just been hoodwinked by a fae into an unbreakable bond. “What was that?”
Georgia picked up her purse and waved to the other ladies as she walked to the front door. “The kids will be so excited you’re their teacher. A real ballerina. They always ask about you.”
Not a ballerina. “But—”
“And you’ll need to go to Bookish and do the story time at four today.
We’ve got to recruit for the new fall season of classes.
Do you have a tutu with you? Oh, of course you do, what am I talking about?
You’re a professional ballerina! Make sure to wear your sparkliest one.
We need to really impress. I’ve been hyping it up to that handsome owner of the bookstore.
Oof, if I was thirty years younger… hell, if I was ten years younger,” she snorted, elbowing Olivia as she walked past. “Don’t forget—four PM. Today.”
Olivia looked at her phone. Shit, that’s in a few hours.
Georgia walked toward the door. “The class schedule’s on—”
“But—” Olivia called.
“—the front desk. Please make sure to water my plants in my beautiful house that you will, I’m sure, take excellent care of.”
Aha, there was the guilt trip.
My old friend, we meet again.
Olivia forced her lips into a pained smile. “Sure thing.”
Studio space and a place to live in exchange for teaching very small children.
“Now.” Georgia turned with a dramatic flair as she opened the door. “Please do everything I would do, especially with any amorous callers.” She winked as she walked out.
Olivia’s mom kissed her cheek before she walked off to her friends. “So good to have you home, dear.”
Olivia stared at the keys in her hand.
Well, shit.
Nothing like being hoodwinked by the people who love you most to make you feel right at home.
* * *
LUCA
Luca slammed the mallet into the side of a bumper, trying to pop out a stubborn dent one of his guys couldn’t get.
He’d founded an auto body shop, and it had grown like crazy in the last four years. He had a couple of good guys working for him, but he still liked being hands-on.
Everything had to be right for his clients. He didn’t want someone feeling like they got ripped off. People worked hard for their money, and they deserved the best that his team could give them.
Despite being the owner, sometimes he stepped in on a job. He knew it irritated the shit out of Angie, his office manager. Sometimes, he could just take five minutes and make everything better.
“Goddamnit,” he muttered, whacking the bumper again.
Putting a little more oomph behind it, he tried to find the sweet spot. Hard enough to pop out the bumper so it was round again, but light enough not to fuck it all up.
Ritchie and Cam stood watching him. “Not so easy, is it, boss?” Ritchie said with a smirk.
There. He hit it just right and the bumper popped out.
“Yeah, pretty easy,” Luca said, smirking back as he handed the mallet to Ritchie, who rolled his eyes. “This one has to be finished today.”
“I know, boss,” Ritchie called back in annoyance, stepping over the bumper and finishing out the small dings.
Their bread and butter was fender benders, bumps, and scrapes. Every once in a while, they’d get some young guy in who wanted his Nissan to look like a street racer, and they were starting to get more clients who wanted expensive custom paint jobs. Business was looking up.
“Boss,” Angie called over from the garage office. “Somethin’ won’t shut up on your phone. Come get it or I’m tossin’ it in the fuckin’ bucket of car shampoo.”
Luca grabbed his handkerchief from his back pocket and wiped the grease off his hands.
He’d told the staff last week that they’d be moving the shop to Fairwick Falls soon and everyone was still pissed at him.
He’d offered them a raise for the extra gas and trouble, or a great reference, and they’d all decided to make the move with him.
He couldn't deal with ten more years of forty-five-minute drives to and from Fairwick Falls. They’d moved because Annabelle needed a school that would take her allergy seriously. He’d do anything for her, including piss off his favorite employees.
Because maybe, if he fixed her childhood, he’d somehow fix his, too.
He grabbed his phone and saw his alarm had been going off for twenty minutes.
Fuck. Late again.
SHE-DEMON SISTER
Story time’s almost over.
AB can hang out with Reed and I at the store if you’re running late.
“Got to go,” he said, grabbing his keys.
“You want us to leave the door unlocked?” Angie said, swirling around in her chair.
He grabbed his wallet from his desk. “I’ll, uh, come back, later.”
Angie rolled her eyes. “See you then.”
LUCA
Be there in 40
Thirty-six minutes later, he slammed his SUV into park in front of Bookish, the Fairwick Falls bookstore where his sister worked part-time.
He’d been forty minutes late to pick up last week too. Annabelle played it off like it was no big deal, but he knew it hurt her feelings.
Luca threw open the big, ornate door into the bookshop and was hit in the face with a bunch of dangling fall leaves that he swatted out of the way.
Fuck. He was disoriented, trying to untangle himself. What a terrible idea.
As he shook his hair free of the remaining strings, he glanced up to look for Annabelle.
He froze as his heart stopped.
A beautiful, sparkling ballerina slowly turned on the bookstore’s small stage in the warmth of the setting sun.
Strawberry blonde hair caught the golden afternoon sun as it streamed through the back window, spotlighting her.
She stood on tip toe mid-pose, like she’d been plucked out of a music box. She gracefully moved elegant arms as she gently hovered in those classic ballet shoes with ribbons on her ankles. Her light pink tutu glittered like diamonds in the filtered beams of sunshine.
Am I…hallucinating?
But the thing that had made his heart stop?
The beaming, gorgeous smile she shared with his Annabelle.
AB stared at her, entranced, like she was an angel that had fallen from the sky.
The ballerina’s wide pretty eyes were filled with kindness and humor. The apples of her cheeks curved delicately to a princess-perfect jawline. Her elegant neck looked like it was spun from fine glass as it sloped down to the gentle curve of her throat.
As he took in the rest of her—a strong dancer’s body, adorable earlobes, elegant hands, full lips in a mischievous smile—a stunning realization hit Luca with all the subtlety of a Mack truck honking its horn at full volume.
I am going to marry her.