Laces and Lace
Page 148

With Karson.
“Can you fly in on Friday? They want you to speak at a meeting. I totally forgot to tell you, and I thought it was next week.”
“This Friday? As in two days?”
“Yeah, I can get you a flight in, and I’ll pay since it was my fault. I’m sorry,” she apologized as she let out a breath. “I haven’t been feeling well.”
“Yeah, that’s fine. What’s wrong?” she said, even though it wasn’t fine. Karson had a game that weekend. Maybe she could fly in and fly out Friday and be back in time for the game.
“Just sick. I think I’m pregnant again,” she said but she didn’t sound too excited about it.
“Oh. Is this a good thing or not so good?”
“It’s a ‘Shit, why didn’t we wrap it up?’” she said with a laugh.
Lacey smiled. “Oh,” she said with a grin and Rachel laughed.
“Eh, we will see.”
“Let me know,” she said, clicking onto the Puck Bunnies R Us site. She hated this site. With a passion in her heart. Every time she thought of the stupid catchy name, she wished the creators to the fiery pits of hell. She hated seeing her name tagged to such trash, but it wasn’t Lacey’s first time on the site. Nope, Ethan was always on there and they always tagged her, but she never knew about it until after they broke up.
Stupid site.
When it came up, she smiled when she saw that the picture of Karson and that ho had been taken off. Thank you, Karson’s lawyer.
“Hey, can you try to get me an in and out flight for Friday?”
“I tried ’cause I know Karson has a game Saturday, but the earliest I can get you in is Saturday night at nine, so then I figured since you are going to miss the game anyway, you can stay till Sunday.”
“No, do the nine,” she said, annoyed that Rachel had tried to make that decision for her.
“Oh, okay,” she said sounding a bit stunned. “So things are good with you two?”
“Yeah, they are great,” Lacey answered as she shut down her computer. “We are going out to look at places to expand Lacey’s Lace here in Nashville.”
Rachel went silent for a second and then very forcefully asked, “What?”
“What? What’s the problem?”
“You want to open a store in Nashville? That isn’t crazy to you?”
Lacey’s brow came up. “We don’t think so.”
“We? So this is Karson’s idea?”
“No, it’s mine too,” she said, not sure why it mattered. “We think it would be good to expand and have something here for me to maintain. I miss doing that.”
“Then come back! You two haven’t even been married a year, and you want to open a store? What if you guys break up? Divorce or something!”
“We won’t,” Lacey yelled back. “Why are you so upset about this? This is my business. I know what I am doing.”
“Oh, it’s only your store? So I haven’t been here every single step of the way?”
“I didn’t say that,” Lacey said a little less sharply. “I just don’t understand why you are so against it.”
“I am thinking of you; you aren’t. You are letting him blind you into a decision that isn’t good for you.”
“He didn’t blind me into anything. This was my idea; he just supports it.”
But like Lacey hadn’t even said anything, Rachel said, “He’s a hockey player, they move from team to team all the time, so no telling if you’ll be there for another month or year. Plus, you guys’ relationship is still so new, and honestly, it could end at any second. Between him running all over the US with chicks throwing themselves at him, and then the fact that you don’t know him, it’s just stupid to do this. Don’t make a mistake that you can’t come back from.”
“I don’t agree,” Lacey said, shaking her head.
“Have you talked about how long he’ll be there? It’s going to take two years just to get it off the ground and running. Then what? He leaves and you stay there? I just don’t think it’s a good idea.”
She might be a tad bit right, but Lacey wasn’t ready to admit that. “I don’t know. I was talking to his boss, and she wants to do a campaign with all the hockey wives wearing my stuff.”
“That’s a great idea. Let’s do it, but wait on another store. We’ve been doing just fine with one for the last six years.”
Lacey bit her lip. “I don’t know. Don’t you think it’s time for a change?”
“Lacey, it’s been nothing but change since you got with him. Relax a bit. Wait it out. Make sure this is real.”
“But it is,” she said softly. “We are forever.”
“Sure you are,” she said, but Lacey didn’t think she meant that. “But what are you going to do, open a new store wherever he goes? You’re a hockey wife now. You have to do what he wants.”
“And I’m fine with that because what I want, he wants.”
“It doesn’t work that way. You have to be smart about this.”
“I thought I was,” Lacey said, completely annoyed with this. “I mean, all I said was I was going to go look and now we are arguing.”
“Lacey, I am saying all this for you. Don’t get up under something you can’t get out of.”