“He’s upstairs,” Maddie told her without looking up from her phone. “It says here there are eight different spellings of the name Hailey.”
I raised an eyebrow at her. “Are you my spellchecker now? Because I’ve always thought it would be handy to have one in real life.”
Maddie grinned and put her phone away. “Nope, I’m still the cashier.” People bought their copies of my book from her and then presented them to me to sign. Well, most people did. Some women were clearly only interested in Tonio. He was signing books—and posing for pictures—with people on the second floor.
There was a lull for a while, and it felt good to just sit and talk with Maddie.
“What is this place again?” she asked.
“Tonio’s building,” I said automatically, and then sighed. Now that I’d been inside, I could see why he wanted this place. He could do a lot with it.
Maddie looked confused.
“Sorry. He just rented it for tonight. It’s called the Keller Center. It’s been vacant for a while.”
“It cleaned up nicely.”
“Yeah, it did.” But only because my guys had worked their butts off to make it presentable. They’d rented tables and chairs and hung streamers and strings of lights. I’d nearly cried when I saw how nice everything looked. Of course, I’d been crying a lot lately. Austin and Denver were leaving in a little over 48 hours. I blinked rapidly, willing myself not to start again.
“Are you okay?”
“Yeah, but I think I’d like to stretch my legs a bit. Since no one’s in line right now, do you mind if I take a break?”
“Of course not,” Maddie said. “Take your time. If anyone comes, I’ll just see how well I can forge your signature. After watching you write it forty times, it shouldn’t be too hard.”
“Go for it,” I said with a laugh. As I walked across the wide room, my floral dress swirled around my legs. Ronnie had suggested that I wear it. She said it looked “romance-authory.” And since it had a plunging, ruffled neckline, my guys had seemed to like it, too.
I waved at the women behind the makeshift bar. They were waitresses at the club that the twins had bribed—or possibly just charmed—into helping.
As I was climbing the stairs, I passed two women who were headed down, and I heard one say, “He could sign me anywhere he wanted.” That statement was so astonishing that I almost missed a step and fell. I really didn’t want one of the last nights with all five of us together to take place in the emergency room.
Upstairs there were fewer decorations, but people were crowded around Knox’s makeshift photography studio. Tonio was standing in front of a white screen, posing with a woman who was holding up my book. He put his arm around her, and she smiled from ear to ear. She looked disappointed when Knox told her he was finished.
The next woman stepped up, and I moved over to the table behind Knox, where Ronnie was getting the previous woman’s email address. A bowl with a fair amount of cash in it sat next to her computer.
“You’re taking tips now?”
Ronnie looked up and grinned. “They’re donations. If people don’t give us money, then I just send the pic with them and Tonio. But if they cough up five bucks, I make it look like a real romance cover.” She turned her laptop screen so I could see.
“Hey, that’s not bad. What are you going to do with the money?”
“Donate it to something or other,” she said, apparently unconcerned with the details.
Tonio pushed through the crowd to stand by my side.
“Aren’t you supposed to be out there modeling, Antonio?” Ronnie said.
Tonio shrugged. “Reinforcements arrived.”
I looked over and saw the twins in fireman costumes, evidently ones they’d borrowed from the club.
“They’re not even on the cover of the book,” Tonio said.
Ronnie grinned at her big brother. “Yeah, but they’re Austin and Denver. Haven’t you been complaining about the way they attract every female within a two-mile radius since high school?”
“Yeah, probably.” Tonio turned to me and winked. “How about you, Emma? Surely that kind of thing doesn’t do much for you?”
I bit back a grin as I stared at the twins. They had on helmets, but their thick yellow fireman pants were held up by suspenders that covered their bare chests. “I totally don’t get the appeal.”
“See?” Tonio said. “And if there really were a fire, they’d singe off all their chest hair.”
“If they had any,” I said, and Ronnie snickered.
“All right, I can see I’m fighting a losing battle. I’m going to go get something to drink before returning to my adoring fans.”
“They seem to be adoring someone else,” Ronnie pointed out after he left. But she wasn’t entirely right. Female heads definitely turned when Tonio went past.