CHAPTER 20
M y jaw unhinges and roots to the ground.
I stare, unblinking at Beau Betty, as we stand next to the registers in the Memories and More scrapbooking shop.
I can’t believe what I’m hearing. But then, I get that pets aren’t for everyone, so I decide not to push it.
Clearly, I’m not leaving Chestnut and Acorn with this man, grieving or not. I’d feel terrible if I did. Chestnut and Acorn would feel terrible. And apparently, Beau would feel terrible, too.
“Now go on and pick out whatever supplies you like,” Beau encourages me with a smile pinned to his face. “I’m talking album, papers, scissors, and whatnot. And get yourself a couple of treats for your friends, too, if you want.”
What’s a little inventory loss at this point? he muses to himself. I’ll be selling the place come the new year anyway. It might be the last piece of Blythe that I’ve got left, but I can’t keep the place on its feet. Heck, she couldn’t keep it on its feet. At least not with me dipping into the kitty.
My lips part as if I’m about to say something.
Did he just admit to dipping into the kitty? As in the savings account?
“Well, thank you,” I tell him. “I’m actually pretty excited to get started on something. I’ll be making an album for a good friend of mine, but I’ve never done anything like this before.”
He shrugs at me. “I’ve never done it either, but apparently, it’s pretty easy. What you want to do is start over there.” He points past me at a table laden with goodies. “Pick out an album, then pick out about as many pretty sheets of paper as you want to fill it with. We’ve got a whole array of backsplashes or whatever they’re called. And go ahead and get yourself a pair of those funny looking scissors, too, so you can trim up your pictures. They add a nice little fringe to them.”
“Will do. Thank you so much,” I say as I head toward the table he was motioning to.
Fish looks up at me. I can’t believe that man, she mewls sharply before looking down at the dogs . Chestnut and Acorn, you deserve better than that. Not only did he hardly even acknowledge you, but he practically gave Bizzy some cash and prizes to make sure you didn’t go home with him.
“No cash, but lots of prizes,” I mutter. “Not that I would have accepted money, but I’ll accept the scrapbooking freebies since I’ll be passing them along to Emmie.”
Both Chestnut and Acorn chitter at the thought and it sounds a lot like laughter.
Mama always did say that man would sell us for a song. Chestnut chortles.
That’s right, Acorn says, looking as perky as ever. He’s never been all that kind, so we would have fallen over if he offered to keep us.
And then we would have run away, Chestnut adds.
“Well, don’t you worry,” I tell them. “You’re safe with me. And you’re not going anywhere. Unless fate steps in and intervenes, you’ll be living right here with us.”
Fish clucks her tongue. Bizzy, have you lost your dog-loving mind?
I give her a quick pat and shoot her a look that says we’ll talk later .
For now, we head over to the table with an entire array of glorious albums laid out, some small, some large. And I grab one of the bigger ones first. It’s at least twelve inches in either direction, a perfect square, and the cover is thick, pillowy, and glossy.
I can’t help but admire all of the designs they have. There’s one with a fall landscape, one with a winter scene, and a lavender one with iridescent blue highlights and a cartoon picture of a dreamy castle on it; another has unicorns, there’s one with a cozy log cabin, and others have pictures of the beach.
It’s so hard to choose which one I want. This is for Emmie and her new baby, so I go with the one with the lavender background with a dreamy castle on the front.
We head to the next station where there are a lot of large creamy papers to choose from, each one with a different colorful pattern. Since we don’t know if she’s having a boy or a girl, I go with a few yellow backgrounds with chicks and ducks on them and a few pale green backgrounds with flowers and woodland creatures printed over them.
I can’t resist picking up a few papers with beach themes, too. I even scoop up a few with Thanksgiving backgrounds as well because I can’t resist a good holiday theme. And, of course, I need one or two with Christmas prints. Then there’s Valentine’s Day, Easter, Fourth of July, and before I know it, I have more than enough papers to fill up just about every sleeve in the album.
We head to the next station where we find entire bins filled with fun stickers and packages of something called die cuts, which are essentially 3D stickers that you have to glue down yourself. I can’t wait to use every single one of these to embellish the pages with.
I scoop up everything that has to do with a baby, a baby shower, or is just plain cute looking. Next, I pick up a few of those funny scissors he was telling me about and a handful of circular pieces of thick cardstock to lay behind my pictures like in some of the examples they have laid out. I pick up a few glue sticks, a pack of pens in a rainbow of colors, and a packet of little tags to go along with it before settling myself at a table near the register.
I get right to work laying out pictures of Emmie and me growing up. I put about three pictures to a page, and soon I have six pages in progress as I cut, paste, and embellish my heart out. The best part is writing little captions underneath each picture like best friends forever , a snapshot of happiness , forever cherished moments , and you never did give that sweater back to me.
Next, I put together pages exclusively for the baby with one page dedicated to the baby’s first day on the planet, baby’s homecoming, baby’s first bath, baby’s first time sleeping through the night—although from what I hear, that last page might not be filled in for eighteen years.
According to my brother, baby Mack still hasn’t slept through the night. Half the time poor Hux walks around looking like a zombie. For as much as Mackenzie loves profiting off her sweet son by way of documenting his every move, it’s my brother who’s in the nitty-gritty of baby rearing.
But I can’t wait for Emmie to be a mom. She’s actually going to be a very good mom. Not that Mackenzie is a bad mom, but she’s definitely not as hands-on as she’d like her YouTube followers to believe. Emmie is basically already far more hands-on. I just know she’ll be the best mom in the whole wide world.
Come to think of it, Emmie mentioned she had an appointment with her OB/GYN this afternoon. I should probably do a page for that, too. She already has an entire slew of pictures from all the ultrasounds she’s had done. That’s practically a dozen pages’ worth as well. Good thing I chose an extra-large scrapbook. But honestly, I think Emmie already has enough to fill one book. She’ll probably need two right off the bat.
The dogs settle around my feet, and every now and again a couple of women come over and give them a few quick pats and scratches. And Fish is certainly getting her fair share of affection this afternoon, too.
Soon, I’m getting into the rhythm of things, putting together my scrapbook like a seasoned pro—or at least a girl who’s figured out how to glue down a few pictures. And boy, is it fun.
Why the heck haven’t I done this sooner?
Regardless, I’ll be doing a whole lot more of it from here on out. Lord knows I’ve got boxes and boxes of old pictures from way back when just waiting to leap onto a memory page, and I can’t wait to embellish the heck out of them.
I’m about to indulge in another page when a shadow looms over the table and I look up to see Beau Betty glaring down at me.
Here we go.