Page 7 of Taurus
“I’ll eat anything you put in front of me. My brother Declan likes to call me a human garbage disposal.”
“Charming,” she smiles over her shoulder at me.
“So, what do you like to do around here for fun?" I ask, picking up our glasses and walking them over to the sink. "I can't imagine there's a lot of nightlife around here.”
“You’re looking at it.” Cordelia gestures around the small kitchen that opens up into the living room. “Well, this and my workshop.”
“Your workshop?” I ask, glancing out at the rundown structure behind the cottage.
“Not there,” she says, waving for me to follow her. “Back here.”
Cordelia leads me down the hall into the back room. Inside it’s set up with two mini workstations. There's a wall of shelves holding hurricane glass jars filled with colorful sea glass.
“Did you find these all yourself?” I ask, pointing towards the sea glass.
“Yeah.” She nods, glancing over at her vast collection. “I’ve been collecting them since I was a kid. Only recently have I started making jewelry with the pieces to sell to local vendors.”
“Do you have a website?”
She shakes her head.
“Social media presence?”
Cordelia makes a face. “It’s on my list of things to do. I was just hoping word of mouth might be enough to help me.”
“It certainly wouldn’t hurt for people to recommend your work to others, but you still have to have an online presence if you want them to know where to find you.”
“Do you know anything about setting this up?”
“It’s what I did for a living. I helped small businesses like yourself cultivate their brand and set up the tools they’d need to grow their business.”
“Did?” she asks.
I hesitate for a moment, not sure if I’m ready to talk about what happened with Trevor yet, but there’s something about the way she’s looking at me that makes me feel like she isn’t going to judge me.
“I don’t do it anymore because my business partner drained all the company accounts before running off to leave me with nothing.”
Cordelia surprises me when she doesn’t try to justify Trevor’s actions, like everyone else in my life. Instead, she walks over to me and slips her arms around my waist, and pulls me close. I tense for only a moment before I let myself relax against her. Somehow this simple act means more to me than anything she could have said.
“What an asshole,” she says.
Then again, maybe not.
I chuckle into her soft curls. She smells like sweet sunshine. I don't have any other words to describe it. I take a deep breath and wrap my arms around her. The way she feels in my arms isn’t foreign. In fact, it feels like the opposite. It feels like she was always meant to be there like she is home to me.
I suddenly start to understand what Declan and Franny felt like when they fell for each other so quickly. Franny’s words repeat in my mind. “When you know it’s right, why prolong the inevitable?”
I’m falling in love with Cordelia.
5
CORDELIA
With Jace helping me over the last week with “building my brand," as he calls it, I’ve now got a website, which he built, and I’m starting to grow a following on social media. Orders are already beginning to come in from all over the country. My sales in the last few days alone have already surpassed what I made last month.
As a thank you to him, I invited him over for dinner on my back patio under the stars. I even called Franny to find out if she knew what his favorite meal was—roast beef and redskin potatoes. He thinks he’s coming over to help me take more photos for the website.
I slip on the floral dress that compliments my curves, which I spent the last half hour picking out. My room looks like my closet exploded with dinner outfit rejects.
