Page 11 of Tangled Up In You

That might not be written anywhere, she thought as Chloe left. But she'd learned two important lessons from the wandering years of her life: no one could have it all, and nothing lasted forever.

After a quick takeout lunch in the apartment upstairs, Molly returned to the store, ready to dig into the work ahead of her. She tackled the showroom first, which, while daunting, was not as cluttered or as messy as the back room. If she could get this room ready for retail, she'd be that much closer to making some money.

She'd worked in several retail stores over the years, many of which had sold similar products, but she'd never been in charge, never had to order, or take inventory, or worry about hiring and cash flow. She felt a little daunted as she thought of everything she didn't know, including whatever accounting system Phoebe might have on the one computer on the counter—if there even was an accounting system.

Back in the day, Phoebe liked to keep track of everything by hand and with a simple cash register. The cash register was still on the counter, too, but she hadn't been able to figure out a way to open it yet. Not that she'd had much time. She was only twenty-four hours into this new adventure. She needed to cut herself a break.

She just needed to start—somewhere.

Maybe with the boxes. Many of the boxes had one name on them: Caroline Montgomery. The attorney had told her that Phoebe had recently inherited items from the estate of Caroline Montgomery, Phoebe's long-time friend. Caroline had passed away only three days before Phoebe, so Phoebe had apparently never looked at what had been left to her.

Phoebe had talked about her friend a lot. Caroline had grown up in Whisper Lake with Phoebe but had moved to LA when she was sixteen and had eventually become an award-winning movie star. She had been married at least three times and as she'd gotten older, she'd become a world traveler, often sending Phoebe items from her travels: an incense burner from India, a crystal from Nicaragua. Molly remembered how excited Phoebe would get when a package would show up from Caroline.

But those packages had usually come one at a time. There were now a dozen large boxes in the showroom and another ten in the back room. She was curious what was inside all the boxes, but she really needed to concentrate on the practical first. She needed products to sell and concentrating on the boxes that had come from various manufacturers was a priority.

Before she could move, a knock came at the door, and she looked up in surprise. There was a tall, lanky boy standing outside.

She walked over to the door and opened it. "Hi there. I'm sorry, but we're not open."

"I saw the sign. Do you still need help?"

As he tipped his head toward the Help Wanted sign, she realized it must have been put there by the previous manager. "Oh, I didn't even realize that was up."

"So there's no job?"

"Well…" She hesitated. There was a mountain of work to be done, and she could definitely use some help. She also remembered standing at this door a long time ago, asking the same question, hoping someone would give her a chance to make some money, to be independent. "I'm getting the store up and running again. Right now, I just need someone to help me clean up, re-shelve items, take inventory, and do that kind of thing. Maybe two hours a day to start, and then it could work into more once I reopen. I can start at minimum wage. What do you think?"

"Two hours a day works for me," he replied with a careless shrug.

"Okay. Do you want to start tomorrow? Can you come in at ten and work until twelve?"

"Sounds good."

"What's your name?"

"Drew Kilborn."

"I'm Molly Trent."

"See you tomorrow," he said, then shuffled down the sidewalk.

As soon as he was gone, she realized she should have asked him for more information than just his name, but there was so much to do and having another pair of hands could only be a good thing.

For the next hour, she cleaned off shelves, checked expiration dates on products, threw some away, and put others into piles to organize by category.

Besides vitamins, herbs, lotions, and bath products, the store also sold yoga gear, meditation assets, health and wellness books, sleep aids, aromatherapy products, and other mystical miscellaneous items designed to create a harmonizing environment. There was also a new display featuring the latest in medicinal CBD products, the area that apparently incensed the shop owner next door, even though the products were all completely legal to sell.

She took a couple of trash bags out to the dumpster. As she came back into the room, she moved to the area behind the door and climbed up on the stepladder to clear off the top shelf.

She was halfway up the ladder when the front door opened.

Startled, she realized she hadn't locked it after Drew left.

She also realized it was Adam Cole coming through the door.

In her haste to get down, she missed the step and let out a squeal as she fell off the ladder.

But she didn't hit the ground.

---