Page 6 of With This Ring
Hudson stared at the screen. As moments ticked by, worry sifted through him. He shook his head. He knew what he had to do.
The sale of the company would take a few months before it was final, which meant he could come and go from the office as he pleased. He would pack up his essentials and head to Flowering Grove.
He shrugged on his coat, grabbed his laptop, and called a cab.
It was his job to take care of his baby sister—and he wasn’t about to let her make the biggest mistake of her life.
Chapter 2
The bell above the door rang the following Tuesday afternoon just as Dakota was walking out of her workroom and toward the front of the store.
“Kayleigh!” Dakota called out in greeting. “What brings you out this way?”
Her best friend since kindergarten placed a stack of flyers on the counter. “I’m passing these out along Main Street, and I thought I’d stop in. We’re trying to drum up publicity for the ’80s-themed night at the rink on Saturday.”
“Ugh, you know I love a leg warmer moment. Hand me one to put up in the window!” Dakota reached behind her desk for the tape. “My best friend buying the rink is maybe the fifth best thing ever to happen to me.”
“Only fifth? I’d have thought we’d rank higher since you seem to be on the rink every night.” Kayleigh laughed. “But for me too. The car dealership’s business is great and all, but since it has beenin Brice’s family for so long, he wanted something fun that was just ours. I’m glad I let him convince me we should buy the rink when it went up for sale.”
“And you two have been doing a great job ever since!” Dakota beamed. “My best friend breathing new life into the Flowering Grove Rollerama—saving our community from a life without disco balls, teaching a whole new generation to love skating. A true hero.”
Kayleigh laughed again. “Thanks, friend. Brice thinks we’ll bring in more business if we try more theme nights.”
Dakota pulled a piece of tape off its dispenser. “We all know the success is due to your two amazing roller-skating instructors.” Dakota loved teaching others how to skate. It took her back to when her mother had taught her in the cul-de-sac in front of their house when she was only six years old.
“We are the best, aren’t we?” Kayleigh agreed.
Dakota hung one flyer in the window and then taped another on the door before returning to the counter. “How’s little Gigi doing?”
“She’s a mess.” Kayleigh yanked her phone from the back pocket of her jeans. “You gotta see what she wore today.” She angled the screen toward her friend.
Dakota chuckled as she took in Kayleigh’s six-year-old, clad in a violet dress and purple rain boots with periwinkle bows on her curly blond pigtails. “Oh, Kay. She’s such a cutie pie.”
“She’s decided it’s time to choose her own outfits for school, so she insisted on wearing the dress Brice’s mom got her last year. I’m surprised it still fits. Of course we all have to wear rain boots with our best dresses, right?”
With her bright-blue eyes and angelic face, Gigi was the spitting image of her mother—but she was just like her dad in personality. Little Gigi was determined, and when she set hersights on something, she went for it. It reminded Dakota of how sure Brice had been about Kayleigh when they started dating eight years ago. They’d locked eyes from across the skating rink one evening, and that was it. He said it took just one lap for him to know she wasthe one.
That was the type of love Dakota wanted. Someone whose devotion was unwavering, who picked her every day. And she’d thought, once upon a time, that maybe she’d found it...
But that heartache was behind her. She had her friends, her family, and her own slice of happily ever after with her store.
“She looks just like you,” Dakota said.
“My mom says she acts like me too. Stubborn as an ox.”
“As we all should be.” Dakota gave her a high five, and they laughed again.
Kayleigh picked up the remaining flyers. “I’d better get running. I have to pick Gigi up from school in about an hour.” She pulled Dakota in for a side hug. “I’ll see you Friday night at the rink, right?”
“Don’t you always? Tell Gigi and Brice hello for me.”
“Will do.” Tossing a wave behind her, Kayleigh hurried out onto Main Street.
Dakota returned to her workroom full of dresses in need of care. She’d had a half dozen customers stop by so far this week, and five of them were disappointed with her selection of gowns. The sixth didn’t purchase a dress, but she did try one on and promised to come back with her mother. Dakota tried her best to keep her worry and disappointment at bay. Sales were going to get better. They had to. She just needed to keep steaming the gowns and getting them out onto the floor.
Dakota finished the gown she was working on and was adding it to a rack when she heard the front doorbell ring. She looked upand saw Layla Garrity hurrying into the store, her aunt Trudy close behind.
“I’m engaged!” Layla flashed a small solitaire diamond in a gold setting at Dakota. In her right hand she held a small tote bag.