Page 52 of Seductive Nights

Carley smiled. "You look beautiful, Margo. Happy."

"Thank you. I feel happy. Isn't that weird?"

"No, of course it's not weird. Why would it be weird?"

"Well, when you think about it, three weeks ago I was sitting in the hospital while my husband was dying."

"Right and in those three weeks, you found out what a shithead he was, and you realized that you hadn't had a marriage in a long time. You are so ready for a decent relationship. Is it a decent relationship for you?"

She swallowed a big knot in her throat and looked at her sister through watery eyes. She smiled. "Oh my god. It's better than a decent relationship. It’s phenomenal. I guess I've been in denial for so long, and now it's like I've woken up or something. And he's good. He's so good, Carley. We had fun. Great conversation, and sometimes, we sat on his back deck quietly, and it wasn't uncomfortable. We both just sat and enjoyed not having to chatter."

Her sister smiled. "Awesome. I have breakfast here for you. Sit down. Have some coffee and then you can go shower and change and we'll go to the office."

Margo sat down at the counter, shaking her head. It was almost like they were kids again. Carley was always her mother figure when their mother wasn't around. She wanted Carley to be happy, too.

"Are you doing okay, Carley?"

"I am. I have some sad moments when I feel like I'm kind of the seventh wheel with your little group. Grace and Hanna are lovely. They're just lovely people to be around, and Quinn and Sid and Jace have all been very nice, but when we all go out like we did last night, I'm the odd man out. So that made me a little sad even though nobody made me feel that way. I'm just not used to being alone or single, but I'll get there."

Margo nodded. "There's a wonderful man out there for you Carley. I just know it."

She laughed. "Well, we'll see. I'm not in any big hurry right now."

Margo nodded. "Okay, well, that's fair."

She ate the breakfast Carley had ready for her. She cleaned up her dishes and showered. They drove to the office and gathered their paperwork. She checked with Addison to see if there were any new messages and was slightly relieved there weren't any. She liked sales messages, but she didn't want Sierra’s messages.

As they pulled up to the title company, she saw Jace pull up with his truck. He got out first and walked down the sidewalk toward her car. He waited at the front of her car, a grin on his face.

Margo grabbed her briefcase from the back of her SUV and sauntered up to him.

He leaned down and kissed her lips. Her cheeks heated, but she was excited to see him. He whispered, "Nice to see you."

It was sexy and low and almost like they had a secret.

She smiled. "Nice to see you too, handsome."

He turned to her sister. "Nice to see you, Carley. How are you doing?"

"I'm doing well, Jace. Thank you."

Margo strutted toward the big front door. "All right, let's go get you a thrift shop, shall we?"

29

Jace left the title company, with Margo and Carley close behind.

As they stepped outside, he said, "You ladies have a nice day. I'm having a little celebration at the Sandbar tonight, and Quinn, Hanna, Sid, and Grace will be there. Come and join us, please."

Margo grinned. "We'll be there, won't we Carley?"

She worried that Carley wouldn't want to come after her comment this morning about being the seventh wheel.

"Yeah," she said. "That'll be fun."

He pulled Margo into his body, wrapped her in a hug, and kissed her. She smiled beautifully. Then he held her car door open. He winked as he closed her door, then jumped in his truck. He got back to the Sandbar eager for the day. It was a new day for him. Now he just had to wait till Monday night's town hall meeting. In the meantime, they had the weekend to get through with live music every day and big crowds.

He had an interview with a potential server this afternoon, and he thought maybe he would expand that to two more servers. He was going to be busy with the expansion even if the town hall wouldn't allow him to expand upward. He was going to expand outward now that he had the thrift shop taken care of. And maybe he was gonna need another bartender too. He'd take a look at that quickly, set up his ads, and go from there.

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