Page 81 of Can't Help Falling in Love
Lexi
About to go running right now so I’m still weird. My college one might but probably not high school.
Becca
You two could be track stars and your men can be your cheerleaders.
The conversation made her stomach twist. Who knew if Will or either of them would be in her life next year?
Lexi
She selected a playlist and started her run, pushing next year, old friends, new friends, her mother, and everything that wasn’t the road in front of her to the back of her mind.
Instead of heading to the high school to use the track, she wove through her neighborhood, letting her muscles warm and loosen. Jogging had never been her thing. She’d trained to run races quickly and win them. This was different. It gave her time with her own thoughts, the cool, slightly dewy morning air slapping her awake. Like her feet only knew familiar paths, she found herself running toward the Dress Hut before it even registered. It wasn’t until she saw Bitsy that it did. Her soon-to-be-former boss was dragging a large object that looked suspiciously tree-like, trying to hold the door with her hip while maneuvering whatever it was. Lexi quickened her pace.
“What are you doing? Let me get that,” Lexi said, her breath a bit choppy as she wrapped her arms around what was indeed a fake tree.
“Baking a cake. What does it look like I’m doing?” Bitsy asked, doing a little heavy breathing of her own.
“The door stopper is right there. Grab that so we can prop it open.”
The door swung against the tree when Bitsy moved to grab the little wedge. Once she’d propped the door open, they worked together to wrangle the poky plastic pine inside. Bitsy sat down on one of the waiting area chairs while Lexi shut and locked the door.
“I repeat, what are you doing?” Lexi laughed, thinking she wouldn’t miss the work here as much as the quirkiness of this woman who’d given her a job when she was just a teenager and again when she was a slightly broken adult.
“Exactly what it looks like.” Bitsy gave her a cheeky smile. Her silver hair curled around her face, her funky, blue-framed glasses making her eyes look bigger. “I’m dragging a fake tree into my store.”
Lexi put her hands on her hips. “Any particular reason?”
Sucking in a deep breath, Bitsy stood up, moved to the top of the tree, and started dragging it toward the window. “I’m going to do a Christmas display.”
Lexi picked up the bottom of the tree. Now that they weren’t trying to shove it through a doorway, it was easier to move. “You just randomly decided to come in super-early and do this? We’re a week away from Halloween. It might be a bit early.”
Together they propped the tree upright in the little staging area in front of the window. Currently, it had a few mannequins dressed in fall sweaters and accessories like scarves and hats.
She held out a hand to help Bitsy step down off the platform. Bitsy waved her away.
“I was up anyway. At my age, you might as well sleep by the bathroom, you gotta pee so much. Plus, I move slow. You’ll see as you get older. Things that used to take no time take an eternity. Trust me, it’ll be Christmas by the time I get it all worked out.”
Guilt stabbed her in the chest. “I can come back and help with this stuff.”
Bitsy patted her arm on the way past, moving behind the counter. “You don’t need to take care of me, Lexi. My store, my responsibility.”
Lexi leaned her forearms on the counter as Bitsy puttered around behind it. “I left you in the lurch.”
Bitsy’s glasses slipped down her nose, so she peered at Lexi over them. “Honey. You found a replacement, you’re interviewing more, and you’re still here three mornings a week. It’s not like business is booming. I don’t think you know whatleft you in the lurchmeans, college girl.”
Lexi laughed but uncertainty rolled around in her gut. “I’ll comehelp with stuff if you need anything. You know that, right? You’re like family to me.”
Thinking about how nice it had been to have a big noisy dinner with Will’s family before the night had gone sideways, Lexi wondered why she’d let herself believe it was just her and her mom. It wasn’t. There was Bitsy, her card-sharp friends, Maisie, who included her and Gwen in everything.
Bitsy stopped going through receipts, pushed her glasses up her nose. “Oh yeah? Then how come it was Lenora who told me you’re engaged to some big-shot Seattle hottie?”
Lexi’s heart dropped like a boulder into the ocean. “First, please don’t sayhottieever again.”
“Hunk?” Bitsy smiled but Lexi saw the hurt under it. Felt it.
Swallowing past the lump in her throat, she shook her head.
