Page 14 of Love in the Details

“Company? This is my second job, ever. First one that pays, though.”

“Kass, there will be celebrities there. When you pull this off with a bang, which you will, you’ll have clients flooding in to book your services. Why not set things up from the beginning?”

“I know nothing about websites, Mom.”

“No, but Lauren was saying the gal taking over for them at the lodge while she and Walker are on vacation is some big-time blogger. Ashley something. Maybe give her a call and see if she has any insight.”

Kassidy frowned. “You want me to call up some girl I don’t even know and say, ‘Hey, will you design my website?’ That’s not going to work.”

Her mother leaned over and patted her leg. “Oh, Kass, I wasn’t saying to just dump it into her lap. Maybe we could swing by and check on things at the lodge for a few minutes. You could ask who she recommends for building websites.”

Tonya McBride wasn’t going to let her get off easy, so Kassidy said, “I did tell Lauren we’d grab that one broken frame so Colter can fix it. May as well stop on the way home.” She tried to play off the fact that she cared about the idea of creating a business, but this was the most excited she’d been about anything since she’d decided to head to California at the beginning of the year.

So much had happened with just a few words from Dustin, telling her she’d gotten the job. Now she just needed to follow through and make it the most memorable gala ever.

Chapter 8

Dustin chuckled as he replayed the expression on Kassidy’s face after he told her she had the job. The last few interviews had been interesting, and he hadn’t lied when he said there were a couple of planners with more experience, but neither had come with ideas already planned out for him.Kassidy had already done some of the legwork for the job, and from the passion she’d shown him, he knew she’d deliver.

“That will be fifteen sixty-seven.”

Dustin handed the cashier a twenty-dollar bill and thanked him, refusing the change. He wasn’t even out the door before he’d popped open the bottle of ibuprofen and swallowed a couple of them with a long gulp of cola. The height of the pain was still growing, but he hoped the medicine would curb the length of it somewhat.

Getting back to the mansion, he was grateful his grandma had already gone to bed. The intensity of the pain behind his eyes made it hard to function, the spots at the periphery of his vision signaling that he wasn’t past the migraine. He fell into bed, ready to sleep it off in the pitch-black room.

When he finally woke up, the pain had receded some, but there was still a halo around his vision. Checking his phone, he did a double-take, seeing it was nearly nine the next morning.

He was supposed to be on with headquarters back in California in an hour, and he still had a couple more reports to go through. The main topic for the meeting was to talk about the details and fate of the factory here in Coldwater Creek. He’d come back to Coldwater Creek determined to shut it down because of the lower production numbers, but after going over the reports, he needed to see the factory itself, to talk to the people and get their explanations for how things were.

It was something his grandfather had always prided himself on doing, visiting the factories from time to time to get a better in-depth take on how the factories and the employees were actually running. It was something he needed to get back to doing.

The doorbell rang, and he took a quick look in the mirror. The rumpled suit pants he’d forgotten to change out of as the fury of the migraine took over last night and his hair sticking up on one side caused him to groan. He usually didn’t sleep this long even with a headache coming on.

Running a comb through his hair, he assumed Margritte would get the door. But when the bell rang again, he knew he’d have to be okay with the disheveled look for a few minutes. He hurried downstairs, buttoning his shirt along the way.

With a quick twist of the knob, he opened the door, surprised to see Kassidy on the front step. Their conversation floated back to his mind from the night before. He’d told her to come over in the morning, and now he was flustered. He’d always taken such care to keep everything in his life buttoned up.

Memories of opening up to Lila washed over him. He thought he loved her, had even bought a ring for her, until she saw he wasn’t completely perfect and hated going to all the major functions she did—and redirected her interest to his best friend.

Using his fingers to comb through his hair, he waved Kassidy in. “Go ahead and have a seat at the table. I need to change, and I’ll be right back.”

“Are you okay?” Kassidy asked, concern pulling her eyebrows together.

He waved her away, already a few steps up the stairs. “Yeah, just had to sleep off the headache last night. I’ll go change, and we’ll get things all filled out.”

After a two-minute shower, he realized he’d forgotten to take his suits to the cleaners. Not that he’d absolutely need them to interview people over the computer, but it had become some kind of security blanket. After donning a polo and some slacks, he came down the stairs and was surprised by the amount of stuff she’d brought with her.

“Did you just haul that in from your Jeep? Where did you find all this stuff?” Dustin asked her, pointing to a book of fabric and then a ring of paint swatches.

“Yes. I borrowed the paint book from the hardware store, and the fabric is from Lottie’s fabric store. My mom has wooed many a person in this town with her apple pie. I may have benefitted from a recent manic baking episode.”

Dustin chuckled and took a seat catty-corner from Kassidy. He pushed over a packet of paper toward her, followed by a pen.“Okay, here is the contract between Wakefield Family Trust and yourself. Or your company if you have one.”

She reached over, her fingers wrapping around the top of the pen. Her pinky skimmed his knuckle, sending a tingle along his skin toward the back of his hand. He glanced up, studying her face. Had she felt it too?

A broad smile appeared along with a twinkle in her eye. “I actually do. Rustic Event Planning. A friend helped me come up with it last night.”

When she smiled like that, Dustin wondered why he’d sworn off women.

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