From Bags to Riches. Sandra D. Bricker
today?”
“Nah. Slept in and had some work to do.”
“I stopped by with Allie last night, but you weren’t around. Hot date with Jessie?”
“We went out to the marina to meet Steph and Vince for dinner on the boat.”
“Yeah? How’d that go?” he asked, slurping his coffee. “Celebrate any engagements lately?”
“If one more person asks me about that today, I just may go postal.”
“You? Postal?” Riggs snickered. “Gimme a break.”
“Just don’t get me near a gun and a rooftop.”
“Please.”
Danny wanted to ask about things with Charlotte, what he and Allie had come by about, but his mood had soured and he didn’t feel much like making polite conversation. Sinking against the back of his chair, he simply glared down into his almost empty cup and ground his teeth together.
***
Jessie finished sorting the stack of receipts from the outside of her desk while Amber sat on the working side in front of the laptop, typing in figures at warp speed.
“Data entry is definitely one of your gifts,” she remarked. “You’re so fast.”
Amber glanced up only long enough to smirk before returning her attention to the screen in front of her. “Okay,” she finally said. “That’s it for the rentals. Hand me the stack of purchases for the week, and I’ll get those entered, too.”
Jessie handed them over. “Danny’s coming by for lunch at Nosh. Can I bring you something?”
“No, I’m packing this week,” she said without looking away from her work. “I need every spare penny if I’m going to move into a bigger apartment next month.”
“I can treat you to lunch, Amber. What would you like?”
“Seriously, I’m good. I have leftovers from dinner at Mambo last night.”
“You went to Mambo? I haven’t been there in years,” Jessie exclaimed. “I love Cuban food.”
The click-click-click of Amber’s fingers across the keyboard ceased, and the silence drew Jessie’s attention. When she looked up, Amber stared at her, grinning from one ear to the other, her cheeks stained pink.
“What?”
“Promise you won’t think less of me?” Amber prefaced.
“Of course.”
She leaned forward as she spilled, “I called that friend of Danny’s, and we went out last night.”
“What friend of—” As it sank in, Jessie grinned. “Rafe? You went out on a date with Rafe Padillo?”
She nodded, nibbling on the corner of her lip. “He’s dreamy.”
“And? How did the date go?”
Amber swooned. “That was dreamy, too.”
“Tell me everything.”
“Well, like I said,” she exclaimed as she closed the laptop, “we went to Mambo. The food was unbelievable of course, and he can salsa like you wouldn’t believe.”
Jessie giggled. She had a hard time visualizing Detective Padillo dancing.
“Then we went to my friend Manny’s play at this little theater in North Hollywood.”
“Dinner, salsa dancing, and a play. And afterward?”
“Afterward, we had coffee and went for a walk down Melrose. It was really so great, Jessie.”
The jingle of the front door sounded just then, and Jessie whimpered. “That’ll be Danny. We’ll pick this up the instant I get back. Promise?”
Amber raised three fingers in a mock vow and nodded.
Jessie checked her makeup in the mirror on the office wall before grabbing her purse from the hook on the door and hurrying out into the store. She glanced at Marcia, Amber’s friend from her church who they’d hired to temporarily fill in on the sales floor, and they exchanged a smile before Jessie greeted Danny with a peck to his stubbly cheek.
“I’ll be back in an hour,” she called back, and Marcia nodded.
“Have fun.”
Once the glass door jingled behind them and they reached the sidewalk, Jessie tucked her arm into the crook of Danny’s.
“Who’s the new clerk?” he asked as they strolled toward the end of the plaza.
“A friend of Amber’s. She needed a job, and I’m giving her a try as an Adornments Angel to see if she’s a good fit.”
“An Adornments . . .”
“Oh,” she replied with a chuckle. “Khloe and Kourtney Kardashian apparently have Dash Dolls for their store. It’s called Dash. . . . Oh, never mind. It’s just something Amber thought up.”
“Adornments Angels.” He nodded, suppressing the smirk. “I can see that. Sure.”
“Oh, hush,” she said, tapping his arm as they made their way into Nosh and headed for an open bistro table at the back.
As he held Jessie’s chair for her, Danny asked, “Salad or sandwich?”
“I think I’ll get a little crazy,” she teased. “I’ll have soup. Vegetable, if they have it.”
He chuckled. “Half a sandwich to go with it?”
“Tuna on one of those little French baguettes.”
“You really are a wild one.”
She watched him head for the counter before digging her phone out of her purse and setting it on the table. On the other side of the shiny glass window, a toddler with springy gold curls clung tightly to her mother’s hand as they slowly made their way down the sidewalk past the bistro. She couldn’t make out the words or tune, but Jessie’s heart seized at the sight and distant sound of them singing out loud, and she wondered if she’d ever have a little daughter or son to walk with or sing to, someone with her own dark hair and blue eyes . . . or with Danny’s blond—
She sliced her own thoughts cleanly in two at the realization that they’d automatically drawn her straight toward Danny as the other half of her future scenario.
“It’ll be a few minutes,” he remarked, unaware of the train of thought he’d casually derailed. “But I got you a tea.” He placed two sturdy cups on the table between them and sat across from her. “Now tell me about these exciting phone calls of yours.”
She opened one of the napkins he’d brought along and smoothed it over her lap. “Okay. Let’s start with this. I’m going to make Amber a partner in the store.”
Danny’s smile came slow and steady. “Really.”
“Her birthday is next week. I was on the phone a good part of my afternoon yesterday with Antonio’s business attorney. Remember the one who helped me get things straight when I started the store?”
“Sure.”
“Well, I’d gotten to thinking about how valuable Amber has been to me, from the very first. I mean, she’s so invested in Adornments. Anyway, it occurred to me that I owe her everything. I mean I couldn’t possibly have made a go of things without her.”
“So you decided to hand over a stake in the store?”
She nodded, then shook her head in amazement at the decision. “I know. It seems strange, but at the same time . . . it seems so right. So I’m going to give her a 30 percent share of the store for her birthday. We’ve worked it out so she’ll have the option to buy in—up to another 15 percent—over