Well Played (Well Met #2)(87)
“Oh, Stacey.” His kiss told me everything I needed to know, but my heart still soared when he drew back to whisper in my ear. “Anastasia. I love you.”
“I love you,” I whispered back, but the words were lost in the music and in his kiss.
So, yes, Daniel and I declared our love for each other while his cousins sang a traditional sea shanty roughly eight feet away from us, but I wouldn’t have had it any other way.
Epilogue
You’re kidding, right?” Emily looked skeptical.
I shook my head and adjusted my grip on my phone. Dropping her while we were on a video call would be rude. “I am not kidding.”
“Yeah, but . . . barf?”
“BARF.” My voice was deadpan. “It stands for Bay Area Renaissance Festival. It’s one of the bigger ones here in Florida.”
Emily covered her mouth with her hand, and her giggle was so strong it made her eyes almost disappear. “That’s amazing. I love it. That’s so much better than our acronym. WCRF just sounds like a bad radio station.”
I grinned. “How’s everything back home? Cold?” To my left on the tiny counter, the coffeemaker started making its death-gasp burble, letting me know the pot was finished brewing. I balanced my phone against the dish rack so I could still see Emily while I reached up to the cupboard above my head for the coffee mugs. Space was at a premium in this little motorhome, so there were only two mugs in there. But we only needed two.
“Very.” Emily gave a mock shudder. “I’m so jealous that you’re down there in Florida in February.”
“It’s pretty great, I’m not going to lie.” I wasn’t just talking about the weather. “It’s nice to be on the road again, too.” I poured milk into the mugs and added sugar to mine before pouring the coffee. I eyed them both before adding more milk to Daniel’s mug. One of these days I’d get the proportions right on the first try.
“Yeah? Did you two get hives staying in one place for so long over the holidays?”
“It wasn’t too bad.” I wasn’t lying. We were just coming off the Kilts’ downtime, which Daniel and I had split between his family and mine. I’d shared a drink with Uncle Morty on New Year’s Eve, and then we’d spent a couple weeks in my garage apartment, which my parents had left available for us whenever we wanted it.
But I didn’t want it. Not much. Life on the road agreed with me, more than I’d ever thought it would. Even though every city was different, the festivals themselves felt like coming home every time, and now the days when I didn’t have to put on a bodice and long skirts felt weird. Throwing on a pair of jeans to go to Starbucks made me feel like I was going out half-dressed.
“Mom still doing okay?” She’d looked great when I’d been home, but that had been a few weeks ago, and worrying about her was my default state. I couldn’t help it. I was glad that I had my bestie there to keep an eye on her, under the guise of book club.
“Oh, yeah,” Emily said. “She’s great. She misses you, though, I think. She’s had Simon and me over for dinner a couple times this month.”
I winced. “I’m sorry. You want me to tell her to knock it off?”
“No, not at all.” Emily shrugged. “It’s actually kind of nice.”
The screen door to the RV squeaked open, and Daniel ducked through the doorway. “Truck’s gassed up, we should . . . Oh, hey, Emily.” He waved at her image on the screen, and she waved back.
“Morning, Daniel! You being good to my girl here?”
“Doing my best.” He stepped all the way inside and curled an arm around my waist before dropping a kiss on top of my head. “But I need to steal her back. It’s about that time.”
“I just finished making coffee,” I said with a huff. “That’s why I called Emily this early. We were going to have coffee together.” He was right, though; my intentions had been good but the timing hadn’t worked out today.
“We did.” Emily hefted her coffee mug with a smile. “And it’s okay. I need to get moving too; the bookstore’s not going to open itself.”
Daniel nodded. “Thanks for the help with the website, by the way. It looks great.”
“Yes!” I said. “Thank you. Did you see that I updated it last week?” I may have been social media savvy, but I was useless when it came to coding. Thank God for Emily; she’d built an actual website for the Dueling Kilts over the winter, so they didn’t have to rely on just a social media page anymore. The group’s reach expanded exponentially as a result, and Daniel had been able to book lots more gigs for the guys between festivals.
“I saw!” Emily said. “I’m very proud of you. You need to send me one of those hoodies.”
I grinned. “It’s already in the mail.” Daniel had given me free rein, and I’d poured everything I’d learned in college about fashion merchandising into running the merchandise side of things for the band. Until now, they’d just been selling a couple CDs and a single T-shirt. It didn’t take me long to add tank tops and hoodies, as well as souvenirs like beer koozies with the band’s logo on them. Then Emily helped me set up the online store, so merchandise could be purchased there as well as at the shows. I rotated the physical merch that we brought with us depending on the location. Hoodies didn’t move too fast in Florida, for example. The whole situation worked out well for all of us. Daniel had never enjoyed running the merch; now he was able to concentrate more on booking the band for more gigs in the downtime between Faire weekends.