Page 29 of The Summer House
“I’ll be there in an hour.”
She couldn’t stop herself from grinning.
Sherry’s wasthe name of a boutique that had only recently opened, the retail market being quite limited in Waves. Most of the shopping was further north in the villages of Nags Head and Duck. As advertised, Sherry’s had Juliette’s line in the window. It was situated in the center of the one small, renovated strip mall in town. Callie wasn’t sure they could afford anything from the shop but she figured she could have a look and maybe get some ideas, then move on to the next. It was quiet today—no reporters. Luke opened the door and allowed them to enter first, Wyatt trailing behind Callie and Olivia. They’d promised him an ice cream cone if he could endure all the clothes shopping. He was giving it his best effort, they could tell.
While Olivia thumbed through a rack of tank tops, Callie turned to Luke. “So what would you pick out?” she asked. He was wearing a perfectly worn, pale blue T-shirt with a stylishly faded boating logo on the front and a pair of shorts, and he looked more like a surfer than a millionaire, his bronze skin and bleached streaks in his hair revealing long days on the beach. She wondered what it would be like to run her fingers down his arm. She pulled her eyes away. When had she last felt like this? Had she ever?
He stared at her, clearly out of his comfort zone but trying to come up with something. Perhaps he’d been expecting to just weigh in on her choices rather than being asked to pick something at random.
“This isn’t hard,” she said. “Look around. Think about any girl you know, and imagine what she might be wearing at your party.” She pulled a top from one of the racks and held it up. “Would she wear this to the party?”
He looked into her eyes and then his gaze moved around her face. “No,” he said with a smile.
She hung it back with the others. “How about this?”
He shook his head.
“Okay, then. Find me something she’d wear.”
Luke glanced over at Wyatt for help but Wyatt, who’d located a chair, was trying to solve two sides on his Rubik’s cube. He made eye contact and shrugged.
“You’re no help,” Luke told him with a smirk. Then he began to walk around the shop, tugging on the sleeves of shirts to view them and then letting them drop, the garments swinging back into position on the rack.
Wyatt sniggered.
Olivia, who’d already told her she’d planned to splurge today if she found something wonderful, had two silky tops and a pair of linen trousers draped over her arm while Callie followed Luke with her eyes. He was concentrating, the skin adorably wrinkled between his eyes as he looked through a row of mint green tops. Then he caught sight of something and moved over to another rack.
“This,” he said, pulling out a flowing sundress and holding it up. The dress was soft and feminine with pale flowers in various shades of pink and salmon. It had spaghetti straps and the hem looked like it would fall just above her knees. The almond-colored wedge sandals she’d seen in the window at the front of the shop and a brown pair of Jackie O-style sunglasses would look great with it.
“I’ll try it on,” she said, taking it from him. She couldn’t help but smile—he’d picked out something that was just her personality without even knowing it.
After asking the sales lady to get her size in the wedge sandals, Callie slipped into the dressing room and tried it on. She turned around and saw her reflection. It was perfect. She peered down at the tag to view the price and held her breath for a second. It was a hundred and fifty dollars. But more concerning than that was the fact that the brand was Coastal Pop. That was Juliette Sullivan’s brand. She couldn’t show up to the party wearing Juliette’s dress! She’d look like she was trying too hard.
Callie came out of the dressing room and Luke’s face lit up. “That looks great,” he said.
Olivia had chosen an outfit from the sale section and was looking through the children’s clothes for Wyatt. She gave her a very happy thumbs up.
“I like it too, but I can’t buy it. It’s your sister’s line.”
“You know my sister’s clothing brand?” He was almost cautious as he asked.
Olivia had lumped a few things on the counter and was counting with her fingers as she mentally added up the total. Callie wondered if she was just as shocked at the prices. This was the only boutique like it in the area, and Callie knew they did have a clientele—those people who rented the enormous new cottages that stretched across the beach, eating up the coastline as fast as the contractors could build them.
“Of course we know your sister’s line,” said Olivia. “You’re a Sullivan, a local celebrity.” She laughed. “Okay, we have to admit it, we may have paid more attention to certain articles in certain local publications than we might have a few months ago.”
Callie bit her lip. She got the sense that Luke didn’t like reporters, and he wasn’t too keen on what they wrote about him. Luke wasn’t smiling.
“Olivia, he’s going to think we’re stalking him!” She turned to Luke. “But we can’t help but know who you are. I think I first heard your last name when I was around twelve. And when I told Olivia about getting a burger with you that day we met, we had a few magazines lying around so we read the articles.
Luke looked startled. “So you think you know everything there is to know about the Sullivans?”
Callie shook her head. “No!” She felt awful—imagine if someone had access to all kinds of information about her. It made her want to squirm.
Luke opened his mouth to speak, but didn’t.
“Really, we know better than to believe everything we read in the papers.”
He nodded slowly then narrowed his eyes, but his lips were starting to smile again. “What’s my mother’s name?”
