Page 31 of Beached Wedding

Ashley distracted me by touching my back as she leaned to take a plate, causing a light shiver to chase down my spine.

“Help yourself,” she invited. She sent a look of warning to Whitney as she began filling her own plate.

“What?” Whitney took the next plate and dished up behind them. “I’m allowed to have questions.”

Joanna waved for Fliss to go ahead of her before filling her plate last.

“Ask me anything,” I said mildly, even though I knew every single ear was trained on me along with not-very-surreptitious stares.

“Why didn’t you talk to Shane sooner?” Whitney demanded. “You could have saved us a crap ton of money.”

“Come on, Whit,” Ashley cut in. “You wanted to come here more than I did.”

Whitney made a shut-up face at her sister and looked expectantly at me.

“I—” I hesitated to speak a truth that would only hurt Ashley more.I didn’t think Shane would let it get this far. It was a sobering thought and I disguised it by shaking some hot sauceinto a puddle on my plate. “I think we all got caught up, not addressing the reality of it.”

“By that you mean how it affects your business? I would think that would have come up the minute Shane and Ashley got engaged,” Whitney said.

“It did.” I could be one hundred percent truthful about that. “I called our lawyer, got his opinion, and told Shane the next day that I expected him to sign a prenup to protect my share in the business and the house, even if he wasn’t worried about his share.”

“What’s your store even worth? Because?—”

“Whit!” Ashley hissed. “You’re being so rude.”

“Well, I don’t understand how a bathing suit boutique is worth breaking up a wedding for.”

“It’s more than that.” Ashley’s color went up with her dander.

I wanted to pat her arm and say, ‘Easy, tiger,’ but I was also kind of heartened that she was coming to my defense.

“We carry a lot of high-end equipment,” I said. “Designer sunglasses, wetsuits, boards, camping gear. On paper, Togs and Boards is worth two million. That’ll double in the first year if our distribution deal goes through on our T&B branded products. We’re aiming for ten in five years by expanding with at least two more shops. That’s conservative. I’m confident it’ll be three shops and annual revenue closer to fifteen.”

“Oh.” Whitney blinked.

“They bought the house for a two million,” Ashley threw in. “It will probably sell for five when they’ve finished fixing it up.”

“You flip houses?” Oliver perked up. “I’ve always wanted to try that.”

“The trick is to do it fast so you’re not carrying the mortgage longer than a few months. We typically find something we can live in and do the reno as time allows, but living in a work site gets old real fast. With this one, we’ve become victims of our ownsuccess. Running T&B hasn’t left much time for a side hustle. We used to flip two or three a year. This one has been going on for eight months and it’s only half done. We’ve had to hire out a lot of things we usually do ourselves. We won’t lose money, but we won’t come away with as much profit as I initially projected.”

“Wow. I didn’t realize. I guess all of that is worth protecting,” Whitney said in a small aside to Ashely.

“Thanks,” I drawled. “I thought my assets were worth protecting when all I had was four thousand bucks and my girlfriend at the time walked away with it, but okay.”Glad I have your approval, I conveyed, not meaning to get pissy, but shit. It had been a hard lesson and one that I hadn’t needed to learn twice.

Whitney dropped her lashes and her mouth tightened. She shoved the spoon back into the pasta salad.

“I didn’t know that,” Ashley said as she led me outside.

“Long time ago,” I dismissed.

“I’m impressed that you went from zero to where you are today. How old were you when that happened?”

“Twenty.” I tugged my earlobe, glancing up self-consciously as Oliver and Whitney settled at the table with Ryan, listening in. “I was taking my business degree and those savings were my rent and groceries. I had to give up my lease and pull out of school, go back to working for Eddie.”

“You worked for Eddie?” Joanna asked, coming to take the fourth seat at the table.

“On and off through the years.” I nodded. “I don’t have a trade, but I can swing a hammer and dig a hole. Shane was still on the circuit?—”

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