Page 81 of The One You Want

“I don’t think we’ll fit inmy—”

“Nonsense,” Sherry said, and she too swayed a little when she stood. “You live in one of those fancy condos on the water, don’tyou?”

“Well, yeah,but—”

“Show us your jewelry, Jenny!” Margaret said, clapping her hands. “Come on, we want tosee.”

I shot a look at Riley but she only grinned at me, and shrugged. I thought about my condo—so quiet and clean and empty. And then I thought about all of the rowdy Libbies in my space, most likely making amess.

Maybe it’s time you showed them, Grant had said. Maybe it was. I took a deep breath and stood. “Okay. Let’sgo.”

* * *

We drew quitea bit of attention as we made our way from Libby’s store and across the square. Twenty-something tipsy women walking as a pack tended to do that. It didn’t help that Sherry had taken it upon herself to sing loudly and several of the girls found it hilarious to link arms and skip—without much coordination. I saw Andrew and Edward Powell up ahead but when they saw us coming, they immediately turned around and ran back to Rose’s to hide. I couldn’t blame them—they were both quite attractive men and God knew attractive men were like catnip to theseladies.

As the crowd pounded up the stairs past the third floor, Owen Nichols stuck his head out of his door. “What in the hell is happening here?” he asked, bewildered by the swarm ofwomen.

Cora patted the side of his face as she passed. “Nothing for you to worry about, dear. Go back to listening to your showtunes.”

“Ooh, Owen, you like show tunes?” Libby called, and all the girls laughed. Owen scowled at his girlfriend and ducked back into his condo, grumbling something about inebriated nutjobs.

“Careful of the cats,” I called over my shoulder as I opened mydoor.

“Jenny, seriously?” Riley asked. “I thought you were bringing them back to the shelter weeksago.”

“I might have something worked out,” I told her, thinking about Jerry’s offer to take them off my hands. I pushed away the nagging sense of wrongness that thought dredged up and gestured the girlsinside.

“Nice digs, girl,” Tessa said, looking around my place. I cast a glance around at the familiar, minimalist walls and furniture, the breathtaking view of the bay through the wall of windows. Embarrassment threatened, that voice in my brain whispering that they were probably all judging me, thinking about my grandparents, how spoiled Iwas—

“Ooh!” Lilac squealed, kneeling down in front of my entertainment unit. “You have all the Disney movies on Blu-ray!” She turned to me with shining eyes. “I’m a total Disneyfanatic.”

“Oh, um, me too,” I admitted, and shegrinned.

“Next time you host a meeting, just bringthis.”

“Movie nights are a vastly unexplored option,” Libby said, rubbing her chin inthought.

“You think we’re going to keep Sherry quiet through an entire movie?” Coraasked.

Sherry nodded solemnly. “She has a point. I would be completely obnoxious.” Then she turned to me. “So where’s thisjewelry?”

Taking a deep breath, and trying not to feel like I wanted to climb out of my skin with nerves, I led them to the craftroom.

“Oh, wow,” Margaret murmured. “This is quite a set-up.”

The other girls—as many of them as could fit—crowded their way into the room, exclaiming over my rows and rows of neat storage andsupplies.

“I spend a lot of time in this room,” I said shyly, walking over to the shelf behind my desk. I pulled a few boxes down and started unwrapping necklaces, all carefully arranged and waiting for the nextmarket.

“Oh, wow,” Iris whispered, reaching for one. She held it up, the tiny chips of inlaid garnets glittering in the light. “This isgorgeous.”

“Holy crap, Jenny.” Libby took another necklace from the box. “You madethis?”

The piece she held was a delicate, twisting rope of silver, inlaid with tiny gold leaves and minuscule crystal flower petals. I was particularly proud of that one—I made it the day after Grant and I kissed for the first time. Unsurprisingly, I had flowers on the brain thatday.

“I made all of these,” I said, pulling out a box of rings. The girls oohed and ahhed as they passed around each piece, some of them trying on the rings andbracelets.

“How much do you charge for something like this?” Tessa asked, moving her wrist this way and that so the sparkly turquoise resin in the bracelet caught thelight.