“I’ll need to get onto the roof to check out the exhausts and other things once I know what your equipment will entail. Can you send me over detailed information about the ovens, sinks, fridges and anything else you can think of?”
I nodded.
“Now, what were you thinking for this space?” He waved his arm in the emptiness before us. I went over the L-shaped display, the saloon doors, our color scheme, and he reminded me about storage and shelving and other things that would be important.
Once Jasper was done drooling over the apartment, we agreed to go over to Suda Kaye’s to chat privately and check out her apartment.
We told the property manager we were definitely interested and would be in touch. Since the place hadn’t been bitten on in a year, things were looking good. We hoped we could score it and all of the furniture in the apartment for a song.
Now I had a potential business location, a name and a date for Thursday night.
Colorado was turning out to be one of the best decisions I’d ever made.
Nine
“Suda Kaye, I swear to God, you think my booty is the same size as yours! No, Evie’s. She has a tiny bum. Me, I’ve got serious junk in the trunk and it’s not squeezing into this speck of fabric!” I grumbled as I shifted my body left and right as the napkin-size dress clung to my voluptuous tush.
My sister narrowed her gaze with her head tipped to the side and focused purely on my ass. “Huh. They really said one size fits all...” She frowned.
“And you believed it?” I finally pushed the damn dress down my thighs and let it fall to my ankles. There was no way on God’s green earth that I was getting the thing back over my boobs. It had been hard enough shoving it past them the first time. “One size has never in a million years fit all,” I huffed.
“That’s bad advertising. I’m not going to buy from this seller.” She pouted prettily and I shook my head.
I flung the dress onto the bed. A bed that was now mine, in an apartment I was now renting from my half sister that sat above her boutique. I dug through the various items and found a pair of wide-legged, low-waisted black trouser slacks. They had a large cuff on the bottom and screamed sexy sailor business chic.
“Oooh, those are hot.” She moved around the bed and grabbed a shimmery tank in a deep eggplant. “This will look amazing with it.”
“Will it fit these?” I cupped my double Ds. Suda Kaye was stacked. She might be a D-cup herself, but Evie was barely scratching at a B.
She sighed. “Yes, Izzy, I’ve been in this business a while now and I’m very familiar with these brands. I just wanted you to try that one dress on because it looked sexy as all get-out in the catalog and they had a curvy girl in it. False advertisement to the extreme. I’m going to make a complaint.” She flopped onto the messy, clothes-covered bed as I slipped on the trousers.
They fit like a dream. I turned around in the mirror and Suda Kaye whistled. “Your ass looks awesome in those,” she breathed.
I grinned and ran my hands over my tush. “It does, doesn’t it? Woo-hoo! We’ve got a winner.” I glanced at the clock. “Shoot, he’ll be here in twenty.”
“Crapola!” My sister grabbed the top and tossed it at me, and I tugged it over my head. It fell into a cowl neck, framing my cleavage nicely. “Excellent!” She popped up and grabbed a bunch of sparkly bracelets and a pair of matching dangling earrings.
I put them on, yanked out my loose bun and shook my hair. I’d done the full hair treatment today, making sure my waves were well-defined and had it going on. My dark auburn locks fell over my shoulders.
“You are so beautiful, Izzy. Mom would gush over your beauty. She always pointed out redheads when we had our time with her.” She stared off as though she was remembering something. “We’d be at the park and she’d see a mom with red hair and her redheaded daughter and point. ‘Look at those pretty girls. I sure love redheads. So unique,’ she’d say.” Suda Kaye smiled. “Now I know why she was fascinated with redheads,” she murmured sadly.
“Hey, it’s okay, you know. To feel weird about all of this. Me being here. Living in your old apartment. Moving to Colorado and invading your life...”
Suda Kaye jumped up and grabbed my hands. “It’s not weird at all. It’s like getting a new piece of my mom I never had. And then of course there’s Ian...”
I smiled softly at her. “Have you two been talking?” I asked.
She nodded. “It’s a little strained because he wants so badly to know everything about me right now and that’s kind of impossible. Especially from a distance. Though Cam said he’d take me to Chicago so we could get to know him and Casey a little better. Or we could host them here, which I figured would be more fun for you.”
“My papa is love personified. If he commits to you, he’s loyal for life. And from what he told me, you’re this huge mystery that he already loves with his whole heart but doesn’t know how to earn that love in return. It’s hard for him because he was raised in foster care. He never had a family until my dad Casey and me. He wants to pack the last almost twenty-nine years of what he missed of your life into one month. Want my advice?”
She nodded.
“Just give what you can. Be honest with him. Tell him it’s weird for you to try and give him the years he lost but want to look to the future and focus on the years you have ahead of you.”
“That’s good advice,” she whispered. “I mean, it’s not like I don’t want to get to know him. I want that more than anything, but he always seems so eager for any little tidbit of information. Never wants to talk about himself, just learn everything about me. Sometimes I feel like I’m being interviewed for a job.” She laughed.
I chuckled. “He can be intense. Just remember it’s all wrapped around love. And of course, if it gets too much, you talk to me and I’ll get on his case and set him straight.” I grinned.
She smiled and pulled me into her arms. “I’m glad you’re here. It’s so easy being around you. Caring about you. Like we’ve always been sisters.”
My throat dried up and my nose tingled with the anticipation of tears, but I pushed them down and hugged her back. “I’m happy to be here, too.”
There was a knock on my door. “Shit! He’s here.” I dashed around Suda Kaye and into the bathroom to spritz my hair so the curls stayed, then layered on the lip gloss. I also didn’t have my heels on. “Will you get the door?” I hollered.
“On it!” she said from right behind me, her hands stretched out with a pair of my strappy heels. They were amazing. Four-inch platforms with a wide, two-inch strap that ran across the toe, and rounded-off metal studs punched into the leather, making them look not only sexy but dangerous as well.