The Liar

“I stopped for a while. It’s nice of him to go by and see to little things like that for her. They don’t charge her for those little things. I know, ’cause she told me herself. She gives them baked goods, and she knitted them both caps and gloves for Christmas.

“Look how big Jackson is! It wasn’t so long ago he couldn’t get up on that swing unless one of us lifted him onto it.”

And Gilly’s eyes filled.

She waved a hand in the air as Shelby patted her arm. “I’ve still got too many hormones, I guess. But . . . I don’t think I’m going back to work, Shelby, when my maternity leave runs out.”

“I didn’t know you were thinking about that. I know you love your job at the hotel.”

“I do, and I wasn’t thinking about it, not really, until . . .” She reached over, stroked a finger over Beau’s cheek. “I just don’t think I can stand to leave them both. I just want to stay home with them for a while. A year maybe. Clay and I have talked about it. We know things’ll be a little tight, but—”

“It’s hard. It’s hard to choose, it’s hard to have to choose.”

“I love my work, I really do. I’m good at it, too, but I want this year, that’s all. I want this year for myself and my family. One year out of all the rest doesn’t seem like too much, but it would be everything to me.”

“Then you should take it. You’ve worked at the hotel since college. I bet they’d give you like a sabbatical. Maybe they can’t hold your job, I don’t know, but I bet you could go back when you’re ready. And you won’t have any regrets.”

“It’s putting a lot on Clay.”

“He’s got strong shoulders, Gilly.”

“I never thought I’d want to stay home full-time, but I want this year. What about you? What do you want?”

“It feels like I’ve got it.”

“For tomorrow.”

Shelby glanced at the kitchen door. “I was thinking, just thinking. I haven’t told anybody but Emma Kate as yet.”

“I know how to keep quiet.”

“You do. Once I get my head all the way above water, if I can find my own place, and I can find one I can work out of? I was thinking maybe I could start up some kind of decorating business. Designing and coordinating.”

“You’ve always been good at it.”

“I’ve been taking some classes online to get more experience and education. Just a couple to start,” she added. “Ones I’ve been able to fit in.”

“You fit in more than anyone I know—except Granny.”

“Maybe I’m making up for not having enough to do for so long. I thought, well, if I could prove myself, Griff and Matt might use me some, or talk me up to their clients.”

“Sure they would. They have to redo rooms and areas up at the hotel regularly, Shelby. I’d put in a word for you.”

“Oh, I don’t know if—”

“Think big.”

“I guess I might as well. It’s just thinking right now anyway. I know I could run a business—still, I’d take more classes. But I sure know how to juggle money, keep accounts. It’s a ways off, but I’ve started tucking some money away for business classes.”

“Anytime I start toying around with the idea of starting up a cake and pastry business, that’s what stops me dead in my tracks, backs me up and turns me around the other way. The business,” Gilly said with an eye roll. “But you’ve got that MacNee in you. You know what else?”

“What else?”

“I’ve been wanting to give our bedroom a makeover. Between Jackson, then Beau, doing up the nursery fresh and getting Jackson in his big-boy room, our bedroom hasn’t been touched in five years. It shows.”

“Makeover can be a lot of fun, but . . .”

“Yes, there’s the MacNee,” Gilly said with a laugh. “Clay’s the same. Doing it over costs. If I’m going to stay home, I’ll have to be frugal about it, I know that, but God, Shelby, how I’d love to have a grown-up bedroom, a place for me and Clay to be me and Clay now and then. I can be frugal, especially if you’d help me out. You could practice on us.”

Gilly shifted, wrapped a hand around Shelby’s arm for emphasis. “Shelby, we’ve still got that mix of his old bedroom furniture and mine in there, and that awful, ugly lamp my aunt Lucy gave us as a wedding present.”

“That is an awful, ugly lamp.”

“If she didn’t claim it was an heirloom, I’d have accidentally knocked it over and made sure it broke in a dozen pieces. I don’t want fancy. I just want fresh and peaceful. Help me.”

“I’d love to help.”

The lamp had to go, but the furniture . . . refinish or paint, new hardware. It could work.

“And I’ve got plenty of being-frugal-about-it ideas. Sometimes it’s no more than switching things around and repurposing. Using what you’ve already got in a new way, adding some touches. And paint. Paint’ll change a lot for a little.”

“Now I’m getting fired up instead of teary. Do you have any time this week?”

“I could come by tomorrow morning, after I take Callie to Chelsea’s, before I head to the salon. About eight-thirty? Is that too early?”

“Nothing’s too early when you’ve got a toddler and a newborn. I was wondering if I could— Well, hey, Forrest.”

“Hey, Gilly.” He walked out from the kitchen, bent over the baby. “When’s he going to do something besides sleep?”