Page 21 of All Dressed Up

“Good job.” Zoe patted him on the back just as an old man came walking over.

“Greetings,” the old guy said, tipping his straw hat at Zoe.

“Hello,” Zoe said.

“Are you Will Jenkins?” he asked Will, shoving his hands into his tan pants pockets.

“Yeah.” Will squinted up at the old man. He didn’t recognize him. Was he one of his parents’ friends? He looked about their age—maybe older.

“Might want to get back to your boutique. Mary’s cooking,” he said matter-of-factly and kept walking through the park.

“Weird,” Will said, watching the stranger leave the main entrance and slowly get into a beat-up station wagon.

“Do you know him?” Zoe asked.

“No, you?”

Zoe shook her head, her eyebrows knitted as she gazed in the other direction. “Oh dear.”

“What’s the matter?”

“Is that smoke over there?”

Will followed Zoe’s gaze, his eyes widening, and he bolted up from the bench. “Oh shit. My mom’s shop.” Sure enough, a large black smoke cloud was rising up Main Street on the side of the Belle Bridal Boutique.

*

Upstairs! XX, Mary

Upstairs. What did that even mean? Frustrated, Rachel tapped the cream card on the counter. She’d had the magical purse for two days, and this had been the only thing in it.

She was tired of Mary and her notes. She’d broken in to Will’s home and risked getting arrested for the dang purse. Couldn’t the dead ghost throw her a bone and give her something else? Anything?

When she’d taken the purse from Will’s—okay, stolen it—she’d hoped that the bag might give her some sign that he was still interested in her, or at least help her sort out all her feelings for him.

But nope. The only thing she’d found so far was this bizarre note.

She set the card to the side, wishing she could redo the other night, starting with inviting Amber to open the trunk and ending with the encounter with Will in his bedroom.

Her thoughts rolled back to her standing in his closet, hoisting the pink sweater in the air, and pretending it was why she was there while her racing heart revealed an entirely different reason.

And it wasn’t the stupid bag either. Sure, she’d told herself it was only for the purse, but it wasn’t.

When Will had stepped into her space and locked his chocolate brown eyes on her, it’d taken all her might not to latch her arms around his neck, press her lips to his mouth, and show him exactly how much she missed him.

But she didn’t. She had way too much pride for that when he all but admitted he’d had an amazing first date with Amber.

Now, all she had was the purse and a note that made absolutely no sense.

When he realized the bag wasn’t hanging on his coatrack, would he come looking for it?

She cast a look of disgust over at the purse. He could have it back, because as far as she knew, this was one big game to the ghost. “Mary, what ‘upstairs’?” She dropped her head back. If Mary meant the upstairs to her florist shop, there was nothing up there.

The second floor of the building was a joint space that she shared with Bethany’s parents. Most of it was used for storage of the Christmas Corners’ inventory. She kept a couple of bins off to the side filled with seasonal supplies and decorations.

Maybe there was something of Mary’s stashed up there that had been overlooked. It wouldn’t be the first time the ghost left one of her artifacts around town. Rachel straightened her light blue top over her dark denim skirt and headed in the direction of the back stairs for a quick peek. It was dead right now. She could sneak up for a minute.

Her door chimes rang out.

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