Soaring (Magdalene #2)(25)
Author: Kristen Ashley

“Decorating an entire house doesn’t happen in a day, Alyssa,” Josie informed her.

“I hear that,” Alyssa returned. “But you go to fifteen shops in three towns over a span of nine hours, you get more than…a bowl.” Then, even though I was wandering to my kitchen dazedly, my eyes still aimed at the bowl, I knew she was addressing me when she stated, “Girl, you got a couch and a bed. You don’t even have a TV. You gotta step this shit up.”

I stopped in the kitchen and took my eyes from that bowl. A beautiful bowl. No, an astonishingly beautiful bowl; big, wide, squat, the outside a rough slate gray, the inside lip a lustrous blue, so blue it was nearly black cascading into a indigo that was so gorgeous, in all honesty, it took my breath away.

Thus I’d bought the bowl, the only thing I’d bought after fifteen shops in three towns.

I moved my gaze to the sun setting over the sea.

It was still light, the hues shading the clouds baby pinks and buttercreams.

But I’d looked out those windows for two and a half weeks. I knew the shades would shift and change. There would be deep peaches, soft lavenders, blazing orange-yellows, startling fuchsias, cobalt blues…all reflected in the sea.

“Amelia, are you all right?”

I heard Josie’s question but I was staring at baby pink and buttercream.

“Babe,” I felt a light touch on the small of my back and Alyssa’s whispered words close to my ear. “You okay?”

“Syrah,” I murmured.

“Say what?” Alyssa asked, not moving from me.

I turned, dislodging her hand and looked between them. “The Syrah glasses from that shop by the cove. All the reds from there. Pinot Noir, Cabernet. I didn’t like their white wine glasses and the champagne flutes were abysmal. But I’m getting their red wine glasses.”

“Uh…is she sayin’ shit you get?” Alyssa muttered to Josie.

“She’s talking about those wineglasses at the Glassery,” Josie told her.

“She’s gonna buy different types of glasses for different types of red wine?” Alyssa asked.

“Shh, Alyssa! I’m sensing an epiphany,” Josie replied, lifting a hand and shaking it at Alyssa.

“That armchair, the beaten leather one with the tacks,” I kept going as if they didn’t speak. “That leather was so supple. Amazing. With the ottoman. Up on the landing.” I lifted my hand and pointed across the space at the large landing opposite the kitchen. “And an eighty inch TV, mounted on the wall. Big, so you can see it from anywhere in the room.”

“Gotcha. Now roll with it, roll with it, babe,” Alyssa encouraged.

I focused on her. “The stoneware from Williams-Sonoma. A mixture of the orange, blue and green with the matching swirling pieces in here and there.”

“Loved that shit, keep goin’,” Alyssa urged.

I looked to Josie. “Those lamps from that lighting warehouse. Terrible displays but that standing one and the matching table one, in iron, looking like they’re made out of loops. The standing one in the sunken area, the one on a table up top. Bringing the two areas together.”

“Those were beautiful, Amelia,” Josie said softly as I felt a hand again at the small of my back, gently pushing me.

“The daybed at your interior designer’s showroom,” I kept at it as Josie backed up and Alyssa pushed me toward the front door. “In fact, that whole area. That cream painted iron side table that looked like tiered flowers. The rug that was all pebbly. The fantastic lamp that had that pearly base that looked like it was made from the inside of shells. I want that in my bedroom on the other side of the fireplace. Oh, and those rugs. The memory foam ones. Three of them for the kitchen, sink, work area, stove.”

“How much time we got?” Alyssa muttered.

“Some of the specialty shops will be closed, but we can still get to the mall,” Josie replied, backing out my front door that she’d opened.

“Toss pillows,” I mumbled. “Pottery Barn. Those huge downy ones with those covers in those deep colors.”

“Beep the locks, bitch, we’re outta here,” Alyssa ordered.

I heard the locks on Josie’s Cayenne beep.

Alyssa shoved me in the front seat and Josie got behind the wheel while Alyssa hauled herself into the back.

And away we went.

It took another four hours and we closed down the mall, but we got my stoneware, the kitchen rugs, the toss pillows and new towels for all the bathrooms. We also got new bed linens that would match the seating area. Further, we found a new set of bed linens for Olympia’s room, a paisley of bright pinks and oranges, her favorite colors.

In fact, the Cayenne was not small, but it was stuffed full by the time we made it home.

And Josie had called her designer, reserved the items I wanted, all I had to do was go in with my credit card and arrange delivery.

The next day, I went out to do that and get the rest (what I could fit in my car, which was a single lamp and the wineglasses) and I ordered what needed to be delivered and set up, including a new TV, DVD player, receiver, Xbox, printer, laptop and desktop PC. I’d even found a table that worked with the chair for the landing, highly distressed wood planks at top and bottom, positioned and cut round, held together by swirling bands of wrought iron.

It was amazing.

The rest of the day I ran load after load in the dishwasher, cleaned and put away the wine glasses, laundered and put away the towels, the same with the linens, making the beds.

The day after that, the deliveries began, the TV mounted, the system set up, the receiver connected to the house’s surround sound system (though all the components had to be put on the floor since I didn’t have a media cabinet), the computer stuff set up, also on the floor in the back room.

I needed a desk.

I went out and bought a pad of paper.

I came home and made a to-do list.

Several of them.

I also spent hours taping paint chips up on the walls, changing them out, rearranging them, standing back and assessing, moving them to another area with different light.

I was off and running.

* * * * *

I was crazy.

Even knowing this, I did a U-turn on the quiet street (my fourth) and drove past the church again.

Definitely crazy.

I kept driving.

Then, like they were someone else’s hands and feet, mine executed another U-turn and this time I didn’t drive past the church.

I parked in front of it.

I looked up at the white building with its stained glass windows and high bell tower.