Page 25 of Love Redesigned
“Built in 1804,” Paige read over my shoulder.
I swallowed. “And worth more than two million dollars.”
I swiped through the photos of the home, likely the ones that had accompanied the last real estate listing.
I gasped at the next photo that filled my screen. “Paige! Look at this garden!” I turned my phone around so she could see. Brick walkways, Carolina Jasmine curling around a wrought iron fence. Flowers everywhere.
Charleston city ordinances required historical homes to stay historical, keeping the outside looking just like it would have when it was originally built. It gave the city an old-world feel that my entire family had always loved. Cobblestone streets, gas lamps, and beautiful gardens like the one in the photo.
But loving downtown andlivingdowntown were different things. That Isaac was living there indicated a measure of financial success I could hardly fathom.
“Um, Dani?” Paige held her own phone now, the gelato temporarily forgotten. “Have you checked out Isaac’s YouTube channel lately?”
“What? Why?”
“He has over ten million subscribers.”
My jaw dropped. “Are you serious?”
“I’m pretty sure that makes him like, legit YouTube famous. Ten million subscribers is a lot of people.”
I’d never felt so out of touch with my brother’s life. I remembered a few years before when he’d hit the one million subscriber mark. And I’d known then that it was a pretty big deal. But, ten million? “So I guess we know why he needed to hire a money guy,” I said.
“I should say so,” Paige agreed, through a mouth full of gelato.
“They’re planning this big charity thing on Christmas Eve,” I said. “An online scavenger hunt called the Compassion Experiment to benefit some charity organization. I’m totally baffled by the whole thing.”
“More baffled than you are by a two-million-dollar house?” Paige asked. “Ijust can’t believe they didn’t tell you they were working together. Such a dude thing to do. Did they seriously think you wouldn’t find out? Or wouldn’t care when you did?”
“Isaacdidtell me. I guess it was my mistake for assuming it was just to do his taxes.”
“Yeah, but Alex should have said something too.” Paige sighed. “So lame. I’m sorry, Dani.”
I shrugged. “At least it’s over now. He’ll go back to Charleston, I’ll go back to work, and we’ll both go back to not ever seeing each other.”
“It sucks,” she said. “Nothing like grinding a little bit of sand into your sunburn.”
I reached for the gelato and scooped up a generous spoonful.
“Does Sasha ever ask about Alex?”
“Not really,” I said. “I mean, she knows everything. She was pretty sympathetic when he left New York. She gave me the day off, even. But no one at work really talks about him much. He’s not actually a LeFranc, you know? And he was there such a short time. I don’t know that he ever really felt like a part of the company. Sasha definitely doesn’t talk about him like she talks about Gabriel and Victor.”
“Isn’t Sasha only slightly older than Gabriel and Victor?”
“Oh, she’s younger than Victor,” I said. I fluttered my eyelashes with dramatic flair. “But she’s going to be such a good stepmom.”
Paige frowned. “I know you say she’s good to you, Dani, but there’s a lot about that woman that bugs me.”
I stared into my gelato, not sure if I was ready to admit how I was really feeling. For almost two years, Sasha had been my everything. She was my ticket—the one who held all the power to give me my dream job. I had given everything to LeFranc. Worked ridiculous hours. Answered the phone no matter the time of day. I’d designed at home, giving Sasha my designs without question, without demanding anything in return because Iknewshe saw my value and would, as soon as she could, promote me to the design team.
But when?
More and more lately, I’d been feeling a lot moreusedand a lot less appreciated. “Honestly, she’s been bugging me lately, too.”
“In what way?”
“I don’t know. She’s talking so much about how privileged I should feel that she’s taking my stuff to the design team. But she’s not giving me any credit for it. Literally, no one but Chase knows I know anything about clothes.”
