Page 52 of Return To You

“Me? Why?”

“You-you-you organized all this.”

“All what? This is a small town. Word got around that you were showing the house this morning. They were kind enough to come before the spa was open—I even provided little cakes and stuff!”

He wags his finger at me. “I’ll pay for a house inspection myself. This house will sell in no time once my buyers see the report. Start packing your lotions.”

“Maybe if you tell the seller to repair the deck it’ll get done? Be a shame if someone got hurt through their negligence.”

He slams the door on his way out, looking furiously at all my friends who took refuge in their cars but didn’t leave. He’s barely around the corner when they all come back in.

Cassandra leads the charge. “We need a plan. Any ideas?”

Autumn takes a mini chocolate éclair from the box Kiara is passing around. “A fundraiser?”

Several women voice their approval.

“For what?” Kiara asks, handing me a double mousse chocolate brownie.

“To help Grace buy the building.”

Oh wow. They would help me buy the building? That is not happening, but I’ll take all the love and support from where that intention is coming from. “Guys, that’s super generous, but no. I can’t accept charity for my spa. All I need is help finding another location. Does anyone have leads?”

“The old schoolhouse up Hunger Hill?”

“Too small.”

“The Chandler’s barn next to Dewey’s Brook? Heard someone was interested in buying it to move it to LA.”

“No water or electric.”

“There’s some rental space on Allen Block, upstairs.”

My heart sinks. An upstairs location on a busy street is not what I was hoping for, but if all else fails…

“We could always do pop-up spas at one another’s homes for a while,” Haley says. “I could see if Mom can offer up the farm for an afternoon to kick it off.”

“I could coordinate,” Claudia says.

“That could actually be fun,” Autumn says. “I’d donate props and my time to decorate the space.”

That’s lovely and creative and thoughtful, but my friends don’t realize how much equipment is actually involved in running a high-end spa like mine. Just the pedicure stations and the state of the art, all-in-one facial station I use can’t be moved from place to place like I did with my portable massage table for the fair. Needing time to think on their ideas as well as absorb the love coming my way, I plop the whole brownie in my mouth.

Chloe, Justin’s new girlfriend, steps up. “How about a subscription? You ask people to buy a monthly facial or mani-pedi or massage subscription, you give them a discount for committing for a year, and a deeper discount if they pay a year in advance.”

Smart. “That would give me some cash,” I say, my mouth still full.

Cassandra seems to think on that. “Nothing like what you’d need to buy the place outright, but…”

“Maybe enough to get a local bank to talk to you?” Haley offers.

Cassandra narrows her eyes on me. “You know, if you want to go for it, I’ll contact my mailing list. You might get a lot of new clients too. I don’t know why we haven’t thought of that before!”

Cassandra’s clientele is high end. They’re from New York, Boston, and Montreal, and they come to Emerald Creek to have a private retreat… and do some quality shopping at places like Cassie’s lingerie boutique. I squeeze her hand. “That would be fantastic.”

Cassandra takes the stack of brochures Claudia is already handing her. “I’ll hold onto these until you have your subscription figured out,” she tells me.

“I’ll start working on that,” Claudia says.

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