A Deal to Die For (29 page)

She’d only been at the shop for an hour when, one by one, Claire, Joanne and Ginger
showed up, followed by Max and Bianca, who arrived with a carload of boxes from the
flea market. Bianca wanted to gift the items to Maggie as a thank-you for all of her
help. When Maggie politely refused, Bianca asserted her newly acquired backbone and
insisted.

Max also brought several pizzas from A Slice of Heaven, and they all worked on arranging
Maggie’s inventory on the round clothing racks that had belonged to the previous owner.

Bianca was sorting a box full of blouses, when Maggie stopped beside her. She couldn’t
imagine what Bianca must be feeling with all that had happened to her over the past
week.

“How are you?” Maggie asked.

Bianca glanced up from the box and gave her a small smile.

“Overwhelmed,” she said. “I miss my mother, but for the first time in my life, I also
feel free. Then I feel guilty for feeling that way.”

Maggie nodded.

“And I’m worried about Molly,” Bianca said. “But I’ve promised to look after Jimmy.
Courtney is not taking it well, but even she can’t deny the resemblance between Jimmy
and my fath—Buzz.”

“Did your mother know that Jimmy was Buzz’s?” Maggie asked.

“Yes,” Bianca said. “Molly told me that Jimmy was Vera’s leverage in the end. Apparently,
when Buzz threatened to cut me out, she forced him to keep me in by agreeing that
Jimmy would always be cared for by the estate.”

“And she didn’t hate Molly for her affair with Buzz?”

“How could she?” Bianca asked. “When she’d done the same with Doc. Besides, my mother
knew how charming Buzz could be.”

Bianca was silent for a moment, and then she said, “Dr. Franklin and I have decided
to have a small service for my mother tomorrow. Given the circumstances, I think it’s
for the best.”

“You have a lot to adjust to,” Maggie said.

Bianca glanced up and her gaze lit on Max, who was across the room, trying to put
together a shoe rack. She pushed her glasses up on her nose, but Maggie could still
see the sparkle in her eyes.

“It’s okay,” Bianca said. “I’m not alone anymore.”

Maggie patted her hand and walked back to the counter. Max and Bianca, what a perfect
pair. She was glad they had found each other, although it was too bad that it had
taken a tragedy to get them there. Maggie wondered if Doc and Alice would find their
way back to one another or if they would call it quits. She knew it was none of her
business but she couldn’t help hoping for a happy outcome for her friends, whatever
it might look like.

“Um, Maggie?” Ginger called to her from the front of the shop, where she was setting
up a display of handbags.

“Yes,” Maggie called.

“Are you expecting company?” Ginger asked as she glanced out the front window.

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, there are two men coming this way, and both of them are carrying flowers.
Call it a wild guess, but I’m thinking they’re both for you.”

“Oh!” Joanne and Claire said together as they hurried to the window to gawk beside
Ginger.

“Decisions are going to have to be made,” Claire said.

“Looks like you have to pick between some lovely peach-colored roses or some bright
white calla lilies,” Joanne said. “This will be tough.”

“What are you talking about?” Maggie asked as she stepped forward to glance out the
window.

Ginger pointed in one direction, and there was Pete, carrying a bouquet of peach-colored
roses. Then she pointed in the other direction, and there was Sam, carrying an armful
of calla lilies.

“So, who is it going to be, Maggie?” Ginger asked.

Maggie glanced back out the window and between the two men. She liked them both, there
was no question, but while one was deeply rooted in her past and all that came with
it, the other held the promise of a brand-new beginning.

She knew in her heart which one she wanted to be with—now she just had to tell him.

Now that Maggie is running a consignment shop, she and the Good Buy Girls have some
tips to share about the art of resale.

1. Maggie offers either cash up front, profit-sharing or a store credit option to customers
   bringing items for resale to her shop, My Sister’s Closet. She recommends that if
   you’re planning to consign items, read the contract with the store and see what percentage
   of the profit would be paid back to you upon sale of the item. If it’s high, it might
   be worth waiting to be paid. Or if you like the contents of the shop itself, store
   credit could be the way to go.
   
2. Ginger shops resale for her four growing boys. Because teen boys are all about style,
   she looks for the types of clothing that are popular. If you’re trying resale for
   your older items make sure they are the types of things that haven’t gone out of style.
   
3. Claire sorts through her wardrobe at the beginning of every season to determine what
   she will wear again and what she won’t. When she takes her items to Maggie, she wants
   them to be seasonal, as it is much easier to sell sweaters in the fall than in the
   spring.
   
4. Joanne knows that babies and all of the equipment that they come with are expensive.
   Being a thrifty mom-to-be, she is already scouting the county for specialty baby consignment
   stores, where she can buy gently used furniture, clothes and toys. She plans to take
   good care of it and return the items for profit once the baby has outgrown them.
   
5. As a shop owner, Maggie doesn’t have time to clean the items that are brought to her.
   She recommends to customers just starting out in resale that the items brought in
   have to be clean and in good working condition. The nicer something looks the easier
   it sells.
   

“Mom, you need to get a grip,” Laura Gerber said as they trudged up the sidewalk through
the center of St. Stanley, Virginia. “Summer Phillips is not worth getting an ulcer
over.”

“I’m not getting an ulcer,” Maggie said. She noted that the small town was still quiet
with very few people out in the chilly December morning temperatures.

She glanced at her daughter, home from Penn State for the holidays, who looked remarkably
like Maggie had when she was twenty, with the same wrinkle free face, shoulder length
red hair and upturned nose. Only the eyes were different. Laura had gotten her father’s
chocolate brown eyes.

Maggie felt a pang, wishing her late husband, Charlie, could see their daughter now.
She had grown up to be a smart, confident and beautiful young woman. Maggie couldn’t
be more proud of her.

“Yeah, right, no ulcer,” Laura said. “That’s why you’re popping antacid tablets like
they’re Pez.”

Maggie stuffed the roll of tablets back into her purse. “Let’s just focus on the mission,
shall we?”

“Mission?” Laura asked and laughed. “I think you and the rest of the Good Buy Girls
missed your calling.”

“Meaning?” Maggie asked.

“You should really be military strategists,” she said. “I’ve never seen such an organized
assault for bargains.”

“It’s our gift,” Maggie said with a smile. “Now we have to hurry. We need to get to
the stationery store as soon as they open. Janice Truman is selling last year’s gift
wrap at seventy-five percent off and I want to stock up so we can offer free gift
wrapping at My Sister’s Closet.”

“Yes, yes, I know,” Laura said. “Do you really think customers will go to your resale
shop instead of Summer’s Second Time Around just because of free gift wrap?”

“If they have any taste they will,” Maggie said. “Did you see the hideous window display
she has up? Giant cardboard cutouts of herself dressed in a slutty Santa’s helper
outfit. Honestly, the woman has no sense of decency.”

“Don’t tell me, let me guess,” Ginger Lancaster said as she joined them at the corner.
“We’re talking about Summer’s holiday window display.”

“Revolting,” Joanna Claramotta said as she stepped out from in front of her husband’s
deli, More than Meats, and joined their group. “I saw Tyler Fawkes standing in front
of her store for about twenty minutes yesterday. I swear he would have licked the
glass if he weren’t afraid of being seen.”

“Ew,” the others said in unison.

“See? It isn’t just me,” Maggie said to Laura.

Laura rolled her eyes. “Where’s Claire?”

“She’s meeting us in front of the shop,” Ginger said. “She has to get to the library
as soon as we’re done.”

Claire Freemont was the fourth member of the Good Buy Girls, a self-named club of
bargain hunters, of which Maggie and Ginger were the oldest members. Best friends
since they were toddlers, Maggie and Ginger had grown up in St. Stanley and settled
down to raise their families there. When they began having children of their own,
both had become avid bargain hunters and started the money saving club together.

Write On, Janice’s stationery store, was housed in a large brick building just off
the town square. Maggie and her entourage turned the corner to Janice’s shop just
in time to see Claire Freemont going nose to nose with Summer Phillips.

“Darn it! I knew I should have camped out last night,” Maggie said.

“Mom, seventy-five percent off wrapping paper is no reason to camp on a sidewalk,”
Laura said. “It’s not like tickets to Springsteen.”

“Michael would kill for tickets to Springsteen,” Joanne said.

“Focus, people, focus,” Maggie said. “We’re thinking about wrapping paper, bows, and
tags right now, not hot sixty-year-olds who can still slide across the stage on their
knees.”

“I watched that on YouTube like ten times,” Ginger said. Then she fanned herself with
one hand. “‘Waiting on a Sunny Day,’ indeed.”

Maggie gave her a quelling look. “As I was saying, look out for the cheesy paper that
rips easily; we want the foil or reversible paper. Remember, we’re going for quality
here.”

“Summer, I was here first,” Claire snapped. “You need to quit crowding me.”

“I’m not crowding you.” Summer tossed her long blonde locks. “You’re just fat.”

Ginger hissed out a breath through her teeth. She looked like she was gearing up to
do some damage on Summer,
who was tall and skinny with abnormally large frontal lobes—no, not her brain. Maggie
put her hand on Ginger’s arm.

“Out-shopping her will be the best revenge,” she said.

Ginger adjusted the bright blue knitted cap she wore on her close cropped hair. Her
brown skin was flushed with temper but she gave Maggie a nod.

“Fine. Just stay between me and her,” she said.

“I can do that,” Joanne said with a toss of her long brown ponytail.

She was five months pregnant and had just started to show. It had taken her a long
time to get pregnant, and she had been so excited she had started wearing maternity
clothes the day the stick turned blue. Maggie was pleased to see that they were finally
fitting her gently rounded
belly.

“No, if there is a ruckus, you and the baby skedaddle,” Ginger said. “Maggie and Laura
can run interference.”

En masse they approached the front door where Claire and Summer were jostling elbows.

Claire spotted them and sent them a beaming smile. Maggie knew she must be relieved
to have her posse arrive just in time to save her from the bully.

Summer followed Claire’s gaze and her eyes locked onto Maggie and then shifted to
Laura.

“Oh, god, there’s two of you,” she said.

For some reason this delighted Maggie and she threw her arm around Laura and hugged
her close.

“Double the fun,” she said.

Summer’s lip curled back. “More like a double hernia.”

Laura glanced between them. “Don’t you think you two should get over this? You’re
both women in business, you need to work together not tear each other apart. If women
were more supportive of one another, instead of always shredding each other over their
appearances or a man’s attention, we’d be getting a lot further in the world than
having only three percent of the CEOs in the United States being female.”

Summer and Maggie looked at her and then each other and then they both shook their
heads.

“Normally, sweetie, I would agree with you,” Maggie began but Summer interrupted.

“But the truth is that your mother has never gotten over the fact that I stole her
high school boyfriend. It’s a pity because I really think we could have been friends,
you know, if she wasn’t so jealous of me,” Summer said. Then she turned back to the
glass front door and started examining her reflection.

“Argh,” Maggie growled. She wasn’t aware that she had reached out to grab a fistful
of Summer’s blonde extensions until Ginger smacked her hand away.

“Out-shop her, remember?” she hissed.

Maggie’s growl became a low rumble in her throat. She knew she should let it go, but
somehow, she just couldn’t.