Page 101 of Love to Hate You

“Barbie pink,” Summer guessed.

“That was at the top of my list!” Autumn said with enthusiasm. “But before we talk about me, I want to hear all about you.”

Summer pulled her twin’s hands into her lap and locked eyes like they used to when they were kids.

“Oh, I think we’re going to need some chocolate ice cream for this talk.”

“You can tell me while we finish tying up these swag bags.”

“God, I need the help. I have four days to finish a thousand and I just started.”

“Well, I’m the queen of swag, and now you have her at your service and she already can tell you you’re doing it wrong. The bookmark goes in first, then the pen, and lastly the magnet. Now at the top, a pretty bow.” Autumn demonstrated, and it looked a hundred times better. “I will commend you on choice of bag color. Wild Orchid. How risqué.” Autumn waggled her brows.

“It was a no-brainer.”

Chapter 29

the darkest moment

The next day, Wes was still dealing with his plumbing problems. By day it was either Old Faithful or the Mohave. But by night? By night his personal pipes were working overtime. As Summer could attest to.

He and Autumn had essentially swapped houses, with Randy and Autumn in the penthouse – deciding to defer their move to New York for a while—and Wes at the apartment. The switch seemed to suit each couple to the tee.

“How much do you think there is in damage?” Randy asked, walking toward him. He was dressed in business casual, perfect for his new job, and he had the bling of an engagement ring on. Autumn said it was to tell the other ladies he was off the market. Wes preferred his love marks and nail scratches to a material item when it came to ownership.

“Tens of thousands in water-damaged books alone. Then there’s the concrete they had to dig up to find the pipe and fix it. Insurance will cover most of it, but it’s a headache.”

“At least we’ll still make the grand opening,” Randy said. “Right?”

“All of the damage is in the basement. Had we not found the leak when we did it would have overflowed into the stockroom and then, no, we would not make the grand opening.”

As it was, he had six industrial fans going around the clock, an interior designer and her team finishing the decor, ten stockers stocking shelves with books and toys, and a partridge in a pear tree. And Wes was trying to oversee it all, but cutting his hours from ninety a week down to a sensible sixty so he could spend time with Summer wasn’t helping.

He was a master delegator, but this opening was too important to leave even one detail to someone else. He and Randy’s professional lives depended on it. The only person he trusted to do his thing was Randy. It was a way to let him stand on his own two feet and gain confidence in his new position at the company. Which was why Wes had felt comfortable canceling their most recent update meeting.

“Well, we’d better make it, because I’ve been putting all my time and energy into this opening. The other night I was lying in bed with Autumn—”

“I don’t need to hear the rest of this.”

“Not like that. Although ten minutes before it was going on, if you know what I mean.” Wes rolled his eyes. “Anyway, I had an ah-ha moment and it hit me. Instead of opening at ten a.m., why not open at one minute after midnight?”

“Who the hell is going to show up at midnight?”

“Oh, just every Sloan Chase fan in the surrounding three states.”

Fear, stark and vivid, registered in his gut. “What the hell do you mean Sloan is coming here?”

“It worked out perfect, man. Her book comes out on the day of our grand opening and her publicist thought it would be a perfect pairing to host a mega signing. I have eleven sponsors donating things for swag bags, a DJ”—he mentioned the name of some masked DJ who was world-famous—“and I even got a red carpet with photographers for super fans for a meet and greet with Sloan to get their photo taken. We’re talking red carpet event.Entertainment Tonightis going to promo it tomorrow, I’ve already sent out newsletters to our subscriber list, which is now over a million by the way thanks to Autumn helping with social media outreach. Our publicity team is working with another company that has access to another three million romance readers.”

Wes’s head began to pound. “Does Autumn know?”

“Not yet. I wanted to see if I could pull it off first. I was going to run it by you the other day at our meeting, but you had to bail to meet Summer for lunch, remember?”

Oh, he remembered. They’d skipped lunch and made love until they both collapsed breathless on the bed.

“I wanted to talk to you first, but tonight I wanted to ask Autumn to host live on our social media feeds.”

Randy was clearly not reading the room, because while Wes’s heart was jackhammering against his chest, and the excitement and pride Summer had carried around the past couple weeks played over and over in his mind, his brother just went on and on about how much he’d done, who he’d signed contracts with, the endorsers he’d partnered with, the verbal agreements he’d made, all in the company’s name—with the kinds of people you didn’t default on without getting sued.

---