As If You Never Left Me Part 14

They spent the evening in the hot tub again, but this time they didn't make love. He sat next to her, watching her feet float, his fingers tangled with hers. Above them the night sky was black and clear, scattered with stars that looked close enough to touch.

"There are so many," he said, his voice barely more than a breath.

"It's the alt.i.tude. The air's thinner. Plus, there aren't any streetlights."

Rey had never seen the Milky Way look so milky. For a moment, the vast starfield overwhelmed him.

Then Joely's fingers moved in his and he was grounded again.

Later, lying in bed next to her, he felt much the same way. Overwhelmed, just for a moment, by the depth of emotion that overtook him at the sight of her sleeping face. Then, as she moved closer to him, one arm falling across his waist, a sudden sense that everything was as it should be.

He folded her in his arms, cradling her warmth against him. This was all he really needed. The rest-where to live, where to work-was nothing compared to this. He couldn't ask for anything more. Except maybe-just maybe-a little more heat in the house.

* * * * * The next morning after breakfast, they went to the shop and spent several hours looking over Joely's computer records. Rey focused on the financial spreadsheets, printing out everything from Joely's opening day to the present. He became so wrapped up in what he was doing that finally she gave up any attempt at recapturing his attention. Instead she went out front to help Perry with the customers.

"What's he doing back there?" Perry asked. The shop was quiet at the moment, and she was replenishing the cash register's supply of pennies. "Looking over my spreadsheets." She unlocked the back of the jewelry case and straightened some turquoise necklaces that weren't quite the way she wanted them. "He wants to see how he can help with the business if he stays here."

Perry's eyebrows rose. "Really? He's thinking about staying?"

"It sounds like it's a possibility."

"So, you guys are really getting back together?" She shook the last few stubborn pennies out of the

paper roll and closed the cash drawer. "I'm happy for you, Joely."

Joely shrugged. "I'm not completely sure it's going to happen yet, but it looks promising." She looked wistfully toward the office door. "Especially if he's willing to stay here. He'd be giving up a lot." "Well, you'd be giving up a lot if you went with him to New York, too." "I know. And I'm not sure I could do that for him. But he says he can do this for me. That's big." "Yes, it is. But that's good, right?"

But Joely frowned, a sudden, unpleasant thought intruding.

"What?" asked Perry.

"It's too big, maybe. Too much, too fast." She crossed her arms tightly across her chest, trying to

squeeze the optimism back into herself. Too late-it had drained away as if someone had pulled the cork

out of the bottom of her psyche.

Perry shook her head, rolling her eyes. "Why are you doing this? Why can't you just be happy, without worrying about everything so much?"

Joely gave her friend a tired smile. "It's just me. Once bitten, twice shy. It's hard for me to trust him again."

"Well, just do it. I think he's ready to take the plunge."

But something still nagged at Joely, some question she couldn't quite put words to, but which she was certain hadn't been sufficiently answered. She sighed, trying to let all her doubts and uncertainties dissipate with the long breath.

"Maybe you're right. He seems genuine."

"He loves you, Joely."

"That was never the question. Unfortunately, that's not quite enough."

Perry looked deflated. "It should be."

Rey surfaced again at lunchtime, offering to fetch takeout for all three of them. When he got back, Joely

and Perry joined him in the office, leaving the door propped open so they could hear any customers who might drop in. He'd brought back Chinese food complete with chopsticks, so the women sat maneuvering the sticks around slippery lo mein noodles while Rey used his utensils mostly for punctuation while he talked.

"You've done almost no advertising, did you know that?" he said to Joely.

"Of course I know that."

"And in spite of that, your business has increased by almost three hundred percent since you opened last

September."

Joely shrugged. "It's mostly word-of-mouth. That's what works best up here."

"Do you realize what you could do if you pumped a little money into your advertising budget? With that

kind of growth from word-of-mouth, you could skyrocket if you took out a few ads." "I don't know that it would make that much difference. I talked to several of the local merchants up here, and they said advertising revenue wasn't always the best way to spend your money."

He started to speak, then stopped. She could tell he was regrouping his thoughts. He took the few moments to snag some lo mein. Perry, Joely noticed, was watching with interest and amus.e.m.e.nt.

"Then we should look into that," Rey finally went on. "Ask around, look at some numbers. There's got to be some way to make an advertising budget work for you."

"Maybe some promotional events, rather than traditional advertising," Perry put in.

Rey pointed his chopsticks at her. "Good idea. We'll keep you."

"I should hope so!" Perry exclaimed, indignant. Rey winked at her.

"Don't tease Perry," said Joely. "Besides, you'd have to walk over my dead body to fire her."

"Which would be quite unpleasant." He attended to his food again, brow creased in a thoughtful frown. "What about this commission thing? Maybe you could pay some of your artisans a flat fee to produce a certain amount of merchandise rather than paying them a percentage per sale."

"Might work, might not. It would take some time to figure out what numbers would work. And I might lose some artisans over it."

"Not if we made it optional." He shook his head. "Just throwing out ideas. I think you've got a great thing going here, Joely."

She smiled. His enthusiasm was not only infectious, but encouraging. If he was this excited about her business, then maybe he really could commit to staying in Colorado. She'd been afraid leaving New York might mean also leaving a job he felt pa.s.sionately about, but there was pa.s.sion here now, as well.

"Here's another idea," he went on. "We could set up a website and you could sell your pieces online. With a couple of people to handle orders-more later, of course-we could get national distribution. International, even."

"You're thinking awfully big there, Rey." She pictured herself making pots twenty-four seven. She liked her work, but too much of anything could get old.

"We have to think big," he countered. "It wouldn't all fall on you, of course. We could sell other people's work, as well, just like you're doing now, and everybody's stuff would be in limited runs to drive up the value. You know, limited edition numbered pieces, that kind of thing. That way we keep the quality up."

Perry nodded. "Great ideas, Rey. When do we talk about Christmas bonuses and stock options, that kind of thing?"

"We have to have stock before we can have stock options," said Rey, then saw Perry's grin. "You're mocking me." His offense was mostly feigned.

"Never," Perry answered. "I just enjoy watching you come up with all these ideas that could eventually make me a lot of money." In the showroom, the bell on the door tinkled. "I'll get that."

Rey watched her go. "I like her. We can definitely keep her."

"Like I said, Perry's not going anywhere."

Rey looked at her, the expression, his eyes changing from mirth to affection. "With any kind of luck, neither am I."

Joely smiled, a soft thrill of arousal moving through her body, combined with affection that made the emotion just short of lethal. But something still nagged. What was the question? The question she hadn't asked, but should have? It was there, lurking around the edges of everything they did and said, but she couldn't quite figure out what it was.

She would though, eventually. When she did, she hoped it didn't ruin everything.

Rey had made a stack of notes during the afternoon, to remind himself of ideas he'd had while going over Joely's files. He could set up some spreadsheets on his own computer, to make projections and see what kinds of things he might recommend. He'd minored in accounting in college, and his work as a corporate lawyer had exposed him to a good number of business types. He thought his ideas would be as valuable as anyone else's.

Not that Joely wouldn't have come up with many of them on her own, given time. But it couldn't hurt to have another brain on the job, and another body to carry out the work.

He had just gotten seriously underway when Joely poked her head into the office. "Could you keep an eye on things for a bit?"

"What's up?"

Joely looked a little sheepish. "I mean, if you don't mind. Tara just got a new shipment of these gorgeous crystal jewelry pieces and she asked if Perry and I would like to bip next door to look at them."

He smiled. "Sure. Go ahead. I'll hold down the fort."

Things were quiet, but he did sell a few items over the next quarter of an hour. One was a large sale-one of Joely's wolf-themed vases. He almost hated to let it go, it was so representative of her work. He'd always liked her work.

Straightening the cash in the drawer, he gave the store a quick scan. A man stood across the room, perusing Joely's other wolf pieces. Rey hadn't seen him come in-he must have been busy ringing up another customer. He closed the cash drawer and settled onto the stool behind the counter.

Five minutes later, the man was still there. Which wasn't a big deal if he was just browsing, but why would a serious browser stand staring at the same two pots for five solid minutes? Warning bells went off in Rey's head. Probably just paranoia inspired by the case Bill had sent him out here to settle, but, in Rey's opinion, you couldn't be too careful. He slid off the stool and came out from behind the counter.

"May I help you?" he asked the man.

The customer jumped, then grinned sheepishly. He looked at Rey over his shoulder. "I'm sorry. You startled me."

Rey took a step closer. The customer had something in his hands, Rey was certain. Otherwise, he would have turned around all the way, instead of holding this awkward pose with his head turned toward Rey and his hands both kept stiffly between his body and the merchandise shelves.

"What are you doing?" Rey asked, though he was fairly sure he knew.

"Just admiring this beautiful work." The man shifted, sliding a hand into his coat pocket.

"What was that?"

"What was what?"

"What did you just put in your pocket?"

The man had the nerve to look affronted. "I don't think that's any of your business."

"And I think it is." He stepped a little closer, looming over the smaller man. "You want to show me?"

"I most certainly do not."

The man's indignation only made Rey angry. "Then how about let's play a little game. I think you just

dropped a camera in your pocket. I think you were taking pictures of the merchandise."

"Why in the world would I do that?"

"You work for Cherokee Ceramics?"

Bingo. The man flushed. Obviously, his boss had picked entirely the wrong person to go on this

particular mission. "I am deeply offended by your behavior, sir. Would you like to speak to my lawyer?"