Your Captivating Love (The Bennett Family 2)

“Thank you for meeting us on such a short notice, Finn,” Logan says after the introductions are out of the way.

“Anything for you, Logan,” Finn replies. “What are friends for?” Turning to me, he states, “I understand you need a loan large enough to pay back the debt you incurred to buy the inventory that burned, as well as to replace that inventory?”

“That’s correct.”

“I will analyze your financial documents as soon as possible, Nadine. I’m sure we’ll find a way to grant you the loan.”

“It’s a big loan,” I say.

“He’ll find a way,” Logan reassures me, putting his hand over mine. I suspect he’ll all but coerce poor Finn into finding a way. After fighting alone for years, having Logan here with me, supporting me, feels surreal.

I appreciate that he didn’t offer to outright pay my loan, which I wouldn’t accept on principle alone, but letting him help me won’t change anything between us. I hope.

“Thank you,” I say. “To both of you.”

***

The rest of the day is crazy. With Logan’s ban on calling lifted, all the Bennetts call me within half an hour in the morning. Three of the bloggers have already posted about me over the weekend, and I’m over the moon. They have glorious shots of the girls and the address of my shop.

Within the first hour of opening the store, I have three customers. One of them specifically asks to see my designs. Mine. I nearly trip over my own feet trying to impress her.

“I’ll try this one,” she says. “I’m so lucky that Flirty Flo featured you. She’s my go-to blogger.”

I’m the lucky one. I help her put on the dress, which hugs her curves gorgeously, but it needs something more to achieve perfection.

I fetch the magic weapon and, holding it up, I say, “You’d be even more stunning if you put this bra beneath it.”

Smiling, the woman takes it from me. Several minutes later, she steps out of the changing room. “You were right. I’ll buy them both. You have a real knack for this.”

“Thank you.”

“My sister told me to let her know if your stuff is as good as it appeared in the pictures. I’ll tell her it’s even better. Expect her sometime this week.”

I grin as she leaves. This was my dream, to see people leave my shop with smiles on their faces, feeling a little more fulfilled than they did before they walked in. The customer keeps her promise—her sister pops into my store the next day, buying a dress too.

I sell nine of my designs over the course of the week. I won’t take over the world anytime soon, but I’m beyond happy. There are people out there wearing my stuff. People I’ve never met before.

On Friday afternoon, Pippa calls me. “How’s our superstar?”

I chuckle. “I’m hardly a superstar, but I’m doing pretty damn good if I can say so myself.”

“I’ve read every blog post. They loved you.”

“Yeah.” I can still hardly believe it. “How are things on your end? Is the show driving you crazy already?”

“Funny that you’re asking. Things are not so great.”

“How come?”

“I fired the designer who was supposed to dress our models.”

I gasp. “But the show’s one week away. Why did you fire her?”

“He was being a diva and was

driving everyone nuts, trying to boss us around. I wanted to be fair, but I’m not stupid. It’s our show, not his. His dresses are the background drop for our jewels. He was acting as if this was his private show.”

“What are you going to do?”