cleared his throat. “Um, I don’t mean to be a buzzkill, but you guys do know my store has exclusivity within fifty miles, right?”
Carly rolled her eyes at him. “Of course I do. I mean we could sell this stuff at spas and other specialty shops across the country. And maybe keep some extra special stuff just for our favorite boy, so he can market them as exclusive on the website.”
“Oh, I’m liking this. Go on,” Skyler said. The three of them talked about logistics, where they might find a production facility, and how they’d go about running it so that neither Carly nor Gigi had to be there full time.
“Excuse me.” Iris Hartsen, the town’s mayor, stopped to stand between Gigi and Carly. “I hope you don’t mind me butting in, but I overheard you talking about finding a production facility for your wonderful skin care products. If you’re serious about opening one, I know the perfect place just outside of town. It’s currently being used to produce cosmetics, but it’s shutting down next month.”
“Why?” Gigi asked.
“Relocating overseas,” she said with a sigh. “It’s tough to keep jobs at home when corporations don’t care about much other than their stockholders.”
Gigi shared a glance with Carly, who nodded.
“It sounds pretty good,” Gigi said. “We’d love to take a look at it as soon as that’s a possibility.”
“Perfect,” Iris said, adjusting her fitted suit jacket as if she’d just won a prize. It made Gigi chuckle to herself, but she supposed it was a good thing to have a mayor who cared so much about the town that she was always on the lookout for opportunities for new businesses and new jobs.
As Iris and Skyler talked shop about the downtown retail spaces, Gigi scanned the crowd. Sebastian was having a drink with Hope and Lucas, but he wasn’t paying any attention to them. He was watching her. Her entire body warmed from his gaze. As soon as he’d gotten out of the hospital, he’d moved into her house. Since he’d just been renting a place for the summer, it hadn’t been much, but they’d already decided he would be moving to Premonition Pointe permanently. He’d just work remotely and travel to his job when needed.
Gigi was surprised at how easy of a transition it had been. Although the therapist she was seeing hadn’t been surprised at all. She’d said that other than her mom, Sebastian was the only true family Gigi had ever had. It made sense that there wasn’t any awkwardness. They knew each other too well for that.
“Hey, sis. You know, you look pretty silly standing here by yourself, gawking at that gorgeous attorney of yours,” Autumn said, slipping her arm around Gigi’s waist.
Gigi smiled at her sister. Sebastian might have been the only family she’d known, but the one good thing that came out of discovering Emerson Sanders was her father was learning that she and Autumn really were half sisters.
Autumn hadn’t had a clue that they were related. She’d been shocked and confused and really upset that her father hadn’t told her she had a sister. But when the shock faded, she was elated, and it hadn’t taken long for the two of them to become close. So close that they even sometimes did therapy together. When Autumn had suggested it, Gigi didn’t think it was a great idea at first, but when they realized they were both working through a lot of the same stuff, it just made sense. If Gigi was honest, those sessions were the ones where she grew the most.
“I can’t help it. He’s just too pretty,” Gigi said.
Autumn sighed and batted her eyelashes as she made googly eyes in his direction. “You’re right. He’s dreamy.”
Gigi grinned at her antics. “Now go make those eyes at Zoe before she feels slighted.”
Autumn glanced over at her girlfriend, who had been on Pete’s arm most of the evening. The boutique had just been so busy, there hadn’t been time for any of them to spend time with their dates. It was a good problem to have. “She really looks gorgeous, doesn’t she?”
Zoe was dressed in a slim cut velvet suit and had a royal blue silk shirt peeking out of the jacket. Gigi nodded her agreement. “She’s stunning. And smart. Keep her, okay?”
“I’m planning on it.” Autumn winked at Gigi and made a beeline for her girlfriend.
Ever since Emerson had been arrested, Autumn had come out of her shell. She was no longer Skyler’s quiet