Page 11 of A Texas Hero

“How can I help you?”

“Zoey, meet my dear friend Ruby.” Lois gestured to the redhead next to her. “She just had a baby girl a few weeks ago and nothing fits like it used to.”

“Sweet baby.” Zoey peeked at the little face framed with red curls, bundled inside the baby carrier. “Are you shopping for a special occasion?”

“A nice dinner with my husband. We were in town a little over a year ago, so we’re making it a yearly tradition.”

“Nothing too fancy, then?” Zoey led them toward the section of the store that carried day dresses and other casual wear.

“Well,” Ruby said, “it is special. We reunited that day, and he dressed up and bought me a dress, too, to wear to dinner at the fancy hotel where we stayed. We’re staying there again, so—”

Zoey slapped a hand over her mouth and lowered it. “Was he the cowboy who came in looking for some ‘fancy duds’? Did he buy you a beautiful pink cocktail dress?”

“Yes, that’s Wyatt. It’s hard to forget him, that’s for sure.” Ruby grinned. “But the dress just doesn’t fit anymore.”

“Say no more!” Zoey led Ruby and Lois to her rack of extra special dresses, from which she’d picked out the pink dress for Ruby a year ago.

“Needs to be kinda fancy,” he’d drawled. “I have to talk her into coming back home with me.”

Now the three of them flipped through Zoey’s designer collection until she came up with three dresses she thought might fit Ruby. Lois helped her unstrap the precious little baby from her chest and held him, while Ruby tried on all three dresses, eventually deciding on the perfect one, in Zoey’s opinion: a powder blue dress with an A-line waist and a flowing skirt.

After they paid and were on their way, the day began to slow. There was always a quiet time in the late afternoon until it picked up again in the early evening. Zoey usually closed at seven, but she had longer hours closer to the holidays. Archer had been standing for hours, the poor man, with nothing better to do than answer questions as to whether or not he’d been in some Giorgio Armani commercial or not. Zoey felt bad for him.

“Sorry,” she said. “Not much excitement around here for you.”

“That is the way I like it.”

“But you must be bored. Actually, I could use your help, since it seems I’m not in mortal danger at the moment.”

He turned. “What can I do for you?”

* * *

The boxes of fall decor were all open by the time nine o’clock rolled around, and Zoey had tasked Archer with taping yellow and orange hearts to the storefront window. The shop had a box window, making it perfect for displays and a mannequin or two. Every holiday she went all out.

“Why orange hearts and not red ones?” Archer reached up to stick a paper heart to the upper part of the window. Despite being so tall, he still required a small stool.

Zoey climbed up on the ledge beside him. She had kicked off her heels and was barefoot. “It’s fall now, and that’s the color scheme.”

“Yes, but it is usually leaves and pumpkins for fall, no?”

“True, and I do have those, too, but I need hearts for Sweetheart Day.” Zoey dug through another box, pulling out some pumpkins, trees and leaves.

“Sweetheart Day?”

Whenever Archer looked perplexed, a deep crease formed between his eyebrows.

“Look.” Zoey cleared her throat. “December has Christmas, November has Thanksgiving, and October has Halloween. What does September have? Nothing. And you don’t know me, but I’m a big fan of love. In all its many forms. That is agape, philia, storge and eros.”

The four types of love: sacrificial, friendship, familial and romantic.

“You are a fan of love?” Archer gave her a look as if she’d just said something incomprehensible.

She sincerely hoped this guy wasn’t one of those “down with love” types. So retro. So overdone.

“What? Is something wrong with that?” Zoey plunked her hands on her hips.

“It’s like saying you’re a fan of oxygen.”