30. Millie
CHAPTER 30
Millie
S ince I stayed at Will’s last night, the walk over to the shop is shorter than normal, and I’m grateful for it. I’m also glad I have thirty minutes by myself before Mom and Kristie get here.
There are a few things I have to get done around the store. It’s like I’ve been here, but I haven’t been present. There’s a lot of inventory that needs to be organized, so I write that on the white board. There are ribbons that need to be re-rolled and there’s a box or two from a previous event that need to be put away. I write that down too.
After, I check the front of the store, which needs to be redecorated a little bit. Once a month or so, I change the display or the front windows. It’s an easy way to let people know when we have new things in store, and sometimes I’ll even draw on the window if I want to promote something special.
So, I make note of that because I could use it as a good opportunity to promote the spring festival.
Mom comes in through the back door a little while later with Kristie in tow, and I smell the scones before she yells at me to come to the back .
“Hi, sweetie.” Mom greets me with a hug.
Kristie waves and looks around the back room, taking it all in.
“Hi. Mm, what flavor are these today?” I ask.
“Um, I don’t know, she didn’t say.”
“Cinnamon Streusel,” Kristie says. When we look her way, she shrugs and says, “saw it on the whiteboard.”
“Oh, one of my favorites. Sometimes I get it confused with her fall scone, but it’s a little different. She doesn’t make the fall flavor out of season.”
Mom sets the pastries and coffee on the table and walks around to view the white board.
“Okay, what’s on the agenda today?” she asks.
“Wait, Mom, I have a question for you.”
“Oh?” She peeks over her shoulder. She already has a marker in her hand, ready to write more tasks on the board.
“Do you need me to leave the room?” Kristie asks.
I shake my head. “No, no, not at all. This could be good timing to have you here too. I’ve um…” I pause to take a sip of my coffee and get courage to ask the question. “I’ve been thinking of hiring help for the store.”
As soon as the words leave my mouth, Mom whips around, nearly throwing the marker at me in excitement.
“Millie! What? Are you sure?” she asks.
“Yup, and I was wondering if you could ask around?” I ask.
“Of course. Wow, this is exciting. I’m going to call a few friends with the good news right now while I’m thinking about it.” She grins and runs out to the front room.
I chuckle and turn to Kristie to find her laughing along with me. She’s had such a hard life, from the little she told Will and I. I hope she plans to stick around.
“Are you hiring right now?” she asks but averts her eyes to pretend to be busy.
“Are you looking for a job?” I ask. I mean it to be light-hearted. Luckily, she takes it that way and shrugs with a laugh .
“Maybe?” She cringes and looks at me. “I didn’t plan this far ahead, to be honest.”
“What do you mean?” I ask.
We have a few minutes until people come in, and even if they did, Mom is out front. So, I take a seat across from Kristie at the table, which is currently loaded with flowers.
“Well,” Kristie says, messing with the stem of one of the flowers in front of her. “I gave my mom one last chance to call me back before I left. I figure I should give her the benefit you know, to see me again if she wanted to. I should have known when I called her and it went straight to voicemail that I was on my own. I mean, I’m eighteen now, and it’s not like she bothered to be there for my birthday.”
“She wasn’t there for your birthday?”
Kristie shakes her head. “I shouldn’t have expected anything different, but I thought she’d want to celebrate with me. It’s dumb, I don’t know. She’s always gone, so it shouldn’t have been a surprise.”
I reach over the flowers and grasp her hand, ignoring the thorns on the roses under my arm that are trying to find their way into my skin.
“You’re welcome to stay here as long as you need.” I squeeze her hand.
Growing up, I had two parents. Two loving parents that would drop anything to do something for me, especially celebrate a birthday. That’s kind of a no brainer. I never had to worry if they would be there to pick me up, or if I’d come home one day to them being gone. Even though Kristie hasn’t had the best childhood, I can make sure that she feels welcome here. That we, especially Will, want her to stay. He’s the only reliable family she has.
“Thank you. I don’t want to overstay my welcome though. So, I mean, if you hypothetically were needing more help around here, I would love to help. It’s not like I have anything else to fill my time.”
“You know what, I would love that. It’s fairly chill around here, but if you want to earn some extra cash while you figure out what’s next, I’d love the extra help.”
“Me too!” Mom chimes in as she comes through the front door. She turns to me. “First, your father is thrilled you’ve finally accepted the fact that you need help. Second, Kristie, dear, I would love for you to work here. How else are you going to update me on these new shows you were telling me about?”
“New shows?” I ask.
Kristie puts a palm to her forehead, and even though it’s a short moment in time, I observe her for the teenager that she is. I don’t mean her age, of course she’s young, but more her teenage longing for acceptance and a place to call home. She’s already feeling comfortable here. And I shouldn’t be surprised. Mom has a way of doing that, making anyone she comes into contact with feel like a million bucks. It helps Dad for sure, when he has to have fancy meetings with fancy people. Bring Mom in and she will get anyone to talk and feel good about it.
“Oh, yes, Kristie was watching some show with vampires this morning and I told her I want to watch it. It looked good.” Mom shrugs and winks over at Kristie.
“Okay, well, it shouldn’t be a surprise, but I don’t have any new hire paperwork. So, I’m going to go over to Miss Jane’s for a minute and ask if she has any files to send me. She hires people frequently, so I’m sure she has something to share with me.”
“Okay, sweetie. We will be okay here,” Mom smiles, and Kristie does the same.
After making sure they knew what tasks we should do first to make sure we are set for the week, I throw my coat on and head out the door. For late February, it’s unbelievably cold.
At least the sun is out and it’s nearly lunchtime, that’s what I’m telling myself as I walk into the coffee shop. Somehow, it’s almost always busy here. Between people who are here for the mountains and others that are here for weddings, Miss Jane tends to have a crowd. I wouldn’t be surprised if people drove here for her scones and pastries either.
“Millie, dear, it’s a rare day when I get to greet every Rose family member.” Miss Jane smiles. She’s standing at the counter behind the register wearing the brightest yellow sweater.
“Oh, yeah? Dad and Jere came in at some point?”
“Sure did. Your dad came in with your mom earlier, and you missed Jeremy. He was grumbling about something.”
“He’s always grumbling.”
We both laugh.
“Do you need more coffee already? I thought I sent your mom with enough for the three of you, assuming Kristie drinks coffee. That girl is adorable.”
Well, that means that the entire town will soon know about Kristie and her relation to Will. Not that it’s a bad thing, but we haven’t even figured out how to deal with it. Will doesn’t need something else on his plate right now, and the entire town coming to ask him about his new family is something he won’t want.
“No, not more coffee. My body would revolt. But, I was wondering if you had new employee paperwork you could share with me?”
Miss Jane tilts her head. “You want to work here?”
I shake my hand and my head in tandem. “No, gosh. You think I have time for that?” We both laugh. “I, um, am hiring soon. And I believe I’m hiring Kristie. Anyway, I realized I don’t have any idea what new hire paperwork looks like. It’s been a while since someone worked with me.” I drop my gaze to the counter.
“Oh, gosh, that’s so exciting Millie.” Miss Jane smacks the counter with her hand. It’s no surprise to anyone that lives here that I overload my plate with things.
“What’s exciting?” A low voice comes from behind me, and I shiver.
William .
He wraps his arms around my waist, giving me a hug from behind.
Playing the part in front of Miss Jane, I’m sure, because this isn’t something he’d normally do. And even though I should shrug him off because I’m liking this a little too much, I can’t bring myself to do it. Instead, I melt into him, and the sides of my lips tug up as he leans his face closer to mine and plants a kiss on his cheek.
“I was walking to meet you when I saw you through the window,” he whispers into my ear, even though it’s not something that needs to be kept a secret. He’s doing it to mess with me, I know he is because he chuckles, squeezes my hips once, then removes his hands from me. He stands next to me and asks Miss Jane for a cup of coffee to go.
She obliges, turning around to grab his cup while hollering, “Millie hired employees.”
“Plural?” He turns to peer at me with a raised eyebrow.
“Well, not yet. Hopefully Mom finds a few people and Kristie wants to work with me.”
“Oh?” He says it like a question, likely as surprised as I am that this is even happening at all. “That’s incredible, love. You need a break.”
Will presses a kiss to the top of my head, and damn this man.
I remind Miss Jane about the paperwork, needing to distract my mind with things that are the opposite of Will naked in bed. She goes to the back room to fetch the paperwork or email it to me, I’m not sure. Either way, it’s going to be helpful.
“You’re a little early,” I say to Will when we are alone by the register.
“Barely.” He chuckles. “Grant came earlier than expected and kicked me out. Told me he’d call me if there were any issues.”
“That’s good.”
Something happened, I can tell. He’s avoiding my gaze and trying to hide it by being overly touchy .
“Do you want to talk about whatever is bothering you?”
His mask cracks. Not a lot, but enough to show me how much he’s hurting on the inside. His eyes focus on me, his lips curve down, and his hands tense at his side.
“I—” Will starts to say something, but he sighs and rakes a hand through his hair. “It’s going to be okay.”
“Will, you have to let me in, you know.” I do my best to whisper since we are in the middle of the coffee shop and not alone. “How do you expect me to help if you don’t tell me about what’s going on?”
And before he has the chance to answer, Miss Jane comes barreling through the back door holding a stack of papers. She thrusts them at me and I take them as she explains that she also emailed me digital copies of whatever she uses when she hires someone new.
Will and I turn to leave, saying bye to her and a few locals we recognize, and begin the short walk to the flower shop. It’s not enough time to say anything, but Will does grab my free hand. I wish I was strong enough to pull away, but I’m not. And I’m tired of pretending that Will isn’t the one person I want to spend my life with. He’s shaken me to my core, ever since that first kiss a decade ago, and he’s going to be the one to break me when this all comes crumbling down. And it will, if he doesn’t let me in.