Page 82 of The Billionaire's Wife

“I usually aim to decorate the last week of September. That’s still later than all the other stores, but long enough that it builds some excitement. Orange and black come down on November first and are replaced with fall and Thanksgiving orange and yellows, complete with turkeys and cornucopias. Then Christmas comes out on Black Friday if there’s time.”

“All right. I guess I didn’t realize it was a thing for stores. I think of it more for like, I don’t know, elementary school classrooms.” And that sounded like a putdown. Given the narrow-eyed glare Megan shot my way, she took it as one. “Sorry.”

“You’re forgiven this time. But you probably have to do the spiders now.”

I started to ask, then decided not to. As long as the spiders weren’t real, I could probably deal with it.

The bell over the door chimed and Megan greeted the customer—a mother with a toddler by the hand and another in a stroller.

I tapped on my phone and opened a text message.

Are you sure I can’t just hang out at home by myself?

Positive. The girls are fun. You’ll have a good time.

You make a lot of promises.

I can bail on the guys if you want to hang out. Do you really not want to join girls’ night?

I winced. I wasn’t trying to get Tristan to give up his evening out. His parents had left that morning and I knew having them for a little over a week had been a lot for him. He’d enjoyed it. As had I, honestly, but there hadn’t been time for anything other than making their visit pleasant. Besides, since I’d been on the scene, Tristan’s time with his guy friends had been sorely depleted.

No. You go with the guys. I’ll stay and do my best.

Just have fun. Okay?

See you later at home.

I clicked off my phone and tucked it under my leg. So much for getting out of this. And maybe I didn’t really want to. I liked Megan. I liked Jenna—at least I had in Paris. Was it possible she’d acted differently because we were on a trip together? Anything was possible. But I didn’t get the vibe that she was anything other than who she was. I’d liked Whitney when we met. So really, there was no reason to worry. Sunny and Kayla were probably just as great as the rest of them.

Now I just had to hope they decided to like me. Would they do it for Tristan’s sake?

Megan rang up a small stack of books for the mother and her kids and waved them out the door with a smile. A couple of minutes after that, Jenna bustled in on a gust of wind.

“Oof. It’s getting chilly. Maybe we’ll actually have fall sometime before winter.” She shrugged out of her jacket, draped it over the back of a chair, then sat. “What’s dinner?”

“Italian.” Megan joined us in the seating area and perched on the arm of the sofa. “You know we’ll still have a heat wave in two weeks, right? Maybe we’ll get some cool between now and then, but it’s almost always in the high eighties at Halloween.”

“I know you’re right, but a girl can dream.” Jenna shrugged and glanced over at me before jerking her thumb at Megan. “How is it working for this one?”

“It’s fine. I like working here.”

“Here, sure.” Jenna grinned. “It’s books. What’s not to love. But cranky pants over there has to be hard to work for.”

“Mostly I see her when it’s shift change.”

“Hey!” Megan frowned at me. “I’m not cranky.”

I muffled a laugh.

“All evidence to the contrary.” Jenna muttered.

“Look, you. Both of you—”

The bell over the door cut off whatever was coming next. Whitney and a very pregnant Kayla came in together.

“Tell these two to stop picking on me.”

Kayla eyed the chairs and opted for one of the firmer armchairs. “What did you do to make them pick on you?”

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