View Park. Angela Winters

Чтение книги онлайн.

      After graduating from college with a business degree, Avery Jackson, the girl next door, knew opening a hair salon wasn’t what her parents expected, but they had always taught their daughter to find what she loved and the money would come. That advice birthed Essentials in View Park, and three years later, Essentials II in Baldwin Hills; a neighborhood beauty salon where there would be no two-hour wait, and everyone would be in and out on time; even on Saturday. Service was better than the highest-end salons, but at neighborhood salon prices.

      And she was only twenty-six.

      Avery knew she should be the happiest woman in the world. Sometimes she wished she was better at fooling herself, but like most women, she wasn’t able to separate her private life from her business life. Everything melted together, and as she sat in the back office of Essentials going through numbers that didn’t make sense, all she could think of was Alex, her apathetic fiancé, and wondering why she let the phone call she had just hung up on get so out of hand.

      She had tried to hold on to her emotions, because Alex only became defensive when she yelled. What was she supposed to do? He had been canceling their plans week after week, and wouldn’t settle on a wedding date. He preached about the pressures of a salesman, telling her the solution was for her to work less. What was happening to them? She was so easily irritated and he was constantly annoyed. All of those qualities, Avery told herself, weren’t as important as their love three years ago, but were becoming more important now after almost a year of being engaged.

      “You wanted to see me?”

      Avery hadn’t even noticed Craig come into the office, let alone stand at the desk staring down at her with an anxious expression on his face. Craig Moon was a throw-back from the eighties. He was a dead ringer for Phillip Michael Thomas in his Miami Vice days. An expert accountant, after four years he was now a minority owner in the overall business. Avery respected Craig’s talent, but his secretive behavior in the past few months was bothering her.

      “Craig, I was just going over last month’s numbers and I think something is—”

      “Knowing you can’t count past ten.” He laughed, scanning the documents on her desk.

      “I can count, Craig. I have a business degree.”

      “I told you I would do that. That’s why you brought me on. I’ll handle it.”

      “We’ll handle it.” Avery worked hard not to seem so possessive of Essentials, but it was her baby and she wasn’t going to stand for anyone pushing her out. With all of her frustrations with Alex, she ignored Craig’s increasing tendency to push her away from the numbers. She had to regain her focus. “If we don’t increase our profits, we’ll never be able to open Essentials III.”

      Craig grabbed his keys on the hook at the door. “It’ll pick back up.”

      “Where are you going?”

      “I have some errands. Then I’m off to II.”

      Avery let him walk away even though she was angry. She hated coming down hard on Craig—on anyone. That was her problem. She was so preoccupied with keeping peace and making people happy that she was losing control of her business and her relationship. When had she lost her backbone?

      Avery knew she had a temper, a spicy side to her, but she had bottled it down recently because it only seemed to anger Alex, making him push away from her. She preferred to hang up on him than deal with him. The old Avery would have called him back and cussed him out, putting him in his place, before asking him what he would like for dinner later that night. This Avery didn’t want to bother starting something. She couldn’t blame that all on Alex.

      She needed a distraction. She needed out of this office. Tuesday was one of the slowest days of the week for Essentials, but she welcomed whatever distractions were there. Seeing her business—her child—thriving always made her feel better.

      “What’s going on?” Avery sauntered to the front window of the salon where most of the customers were standing, looking out.

      “Outside, girl.” Alexa Duchese licked her lips. “It’s Carter Chase.”

      As she watched Carter Chase step out of his silver Mercedes SL-Class convertible across the street, Avery felt like she had a brick in her stomach. At least it wasn’t Michael. She wasn’t sure she could take another second of that one. Carter was different. He had a smooth way about him, not as abrasive, so she was told. She had never met him, but everyone knew everything about the Chase boys. Carter was the smooth character; laid back. Even the way he walked across the street, ignoring traffic as if he was sure nothing could ever happen to him, seemed to be in slow motion.

      “I can’t believe he’s still single.” Verona Dellis’s hand spread over her heart.

      Calabra Velasquez huffed. “I heard he’s single because he’s a big player.”

      “I could make him stay home.” Lisa Tyson snapped her fingers. “But I like the younger one. Michael.”

      “He’s married to that model thing.” Calabra rolled her eyes.

      “She trapped him,” Lisa said. “Got pregnant and made him marry her.”

      Avery СКАЧАТЬ