Spencer grabbed his laptop and slid it into his bag, then checked his desk for anything else he was going to need for his weekend in Raleigh.

For a little more than a month, he and Penny had been making it work. After that first night when they talked about it, he had stayed through the following weekend. It wasn’t ideal, and it turned out that she led a very busy life that left him on his own more than he had hoped. But when they got together at the end of the day and the few nights he got to sleep with her in his arms, it was all worth it.

And…he had been thankful that he’d been there on the day she was turned down for her small business loan. The look of utter devastation on her face when she opened the door to him would stay with him for a long time. She’d cried and he did everything he could to listen and be supportive, but she was hurting and there really wasn’t anything he could do to make that better for her.

Apparently, her bosses had offered to be the ones to loan her the money to start her glam squad business, but Penny turned them down. She didn’t want a handout and claimed that she knew the women already had plans for expansion and she didn’t want to take anything away from them financially.

He loved and admired her pride even as it was keeping her from achieving her dream.

Since that day, Penny put on a brave face and claimed that maybe the timing just wasn’t right and she’d revisit the idea eventually. At least, that’s what she said at first. Then she started adding the word “maybe” to the end of that statement.

That’s when he started to worry.

He looked around the office one more time as the alarm on his phone told him it was time to head to the airport. His Uber should be waiting downstairs.

Every time he flew up to be with her after that first week, he made sure to bring more work with him to keep him busy. So far, neither of his bosses minded him working remotely, but they were coming to a point in their current project that he was going to need to be more accessible and physically on site for meetings. It was something he was going to discuss with Penny this weekend.

He’d been afraid to mention it and didn’t want to seem insensitive but maybe now that the plans for her business were temporarily on hold – and he firmly believed that – maybe she would consider coming to Atlanta for a week and seeing how he lived. Her work ethic was such that he knew she wouldn’t want to leave Hailey in a lurch, but with enough advanced notice, she’d consider it.

Something to talk about this week.

The drive to the airport was uneventful and his flight took off on time. Spencer took that as a good sign. He didn’t have to check any bags because he’d been leaving things at Penny’s – and at his parents’ – so he was able to walk right off the plane to where Penny was waiting for him in her car.

Their first night back together was always his favorite. He loved to see the smile on her face when he climbed into the car. Their first kiss was always the sweetest because he missed the taste of her all week long. They’d gotten into the habit of grabbing one form or another of takeout and eating at home and just enjoying the time to talk in person rather than on the phone.

As they walked through her front door with their arms loaded with pizza and a box of baked goods from the coffee shop at Enchanted, Spencer listened as she talked about the plans for the next evening’s fashion show.

“Are you going to come and watch?” she asked. Normally he didn’t go – mainly because it was about four hours of his time when he felt like he was just in the way – but this time…

“Actually, I am,” he said and watched as her eyes lit up.

“Really?”

He nodded as he opened the pizza box. “Remember I told you about my friend Keith and getting invited to be part of his bridal party?”

She nodded.

“Turns out he and his fiancée are going to be at the show tomorrow night and I said I’d meet him there. He’s going specifically to look at tuxedoes and I told him I was kind of a pro at that sort of thing so…”

Penny burst out laughing. “So you’re a pro now?” she asked.

Grabbing a slice of pizza and putting it on Penny’s plate before taking one for himself, he replied, “You know it. I’ve tried on quite a few and – if I do say so myself – I can tell the difference between a quality tux and a not-so-quality tux.” He gave her a lecherous grin before adding, “I’m practically a professional groomsman.”

That just had her laughing again. “I love that! Maybe we can get you a job with Martin on the weeks that you’re in town.”

“Let’s not get carried away…”

“And you do realize that while you’ve tried on quite a few tuxes, you’ve yet to actually be a groomsman, right?”

“Technicalities…”

She laughed some more and it was good to see her finally relaxing a bit.

He took a bite of his dinner and chewed as he realized this was the perfect opening to talk to her about what he needed.

“I was wondering what you thought of maybe staying an extra day or two this time? Maybe we can take a trip to the coast and be beach bums for a couple of days. What do you think?” When he didn’t answer right away, she put her slice down and studied him. “Spencer?”

He let out a sigh. “Okay, here’s the thing…” And then he went on to explain to her all about his current project at work and all of the things that were going to happen from this point on and why he needed to be back in Atlanta more. Not sure what her reaction was going to be, Spencer tried to talk about all of the great things they could do if she came to see him and how he would make the time to show her around.

“Wow,” she said when he was done. “I…I guess I’ve been a little selfish, huh?”

His eyes went wide. “What? Why would you even say that?”

Penny gave him a mild look. “Seriously? You’ve been doing all the traveling, all the compromising so that I’m not inconvenienced. That’s not how it should be in a relationship, Spencer. We should be splitting the travel time fifty-fifty. If this is going to work…”

“It is working,” he quickly corrected.

“But if it’s going to continue to work…the travel has to be on each of us. I’m sorry that you’ve been doing it all. I guess…I guess I just figured you didn’t mind it and that it gave you the opportunity to come home and see your family too. Two birds, one stone and all that.”

And while she did have a point, the only thing he’d been getting out of his visits with his family was how much better they thought his life would be if he just moved home and took over his father’s firm. He hadn’t shared any of that with Penny because…well…

Shit.

He hadn’t shared it because he didn’t want her pressuring him too.

That didn’t say much for how he was viewing this relationship if he was keeping something as important as this from her, did it?

“Okay, I have a confession to make,” he said after a minute, and when she just looked at him with a curious expression, he went on. “I enjoy coming to Raleigh to see you and my family…”

“But…”

“But…seeing my family has kind of not been a good thing.”

Penny immediately reached for his hand and squeezed it. “What’s going on?”

“Remember when I told you about my father wanting me to take over his firm?”

She nodded.

“Well, the more time I spend here…”

“The more he’s pushing for it,” she finished for him.

“Exactly.”

She sighed and reached for her drink and took a long sip. “So what have you been telling him?”

“Basically, I’ve been stalling – talking about the projects I’m already committed to and how I can’t just quit my job.”

“And how has he responded?”

Spencer shrugged. “He understands but then he talks about six months down the road or a year down the road…like if I just let my bosses know what’s coming, they’ll start to phase me out so I’ll be able to leave when my work is done.”

“And you still don’t want that.” It wasn’t a question. And he heard the sadness in her voice.

There was no way he could lie to her. “I…I don’t,” he finally said, his voice thick with emotion. It was the first time he admitted it out loud when he didn’t feel good about it.

Placing her cup down on the coffee table, Penny leaned back against the sofa cushions. It took a minute before she would look at him. “I think we’ve hit that point where we need to re-address where we’re going.”

Dammit.

Not like this. He didn’t want it to be like this or like anything. In his mind, they always found a way to make it work! Of course, in his mind it always involved Penny moving to Atlanta to be with him, but…

She sat up straight and took a steadying breath. “I think I should come to Atlanta and check it out.”

Um…say what?

“Really?”

She nodded. “I think the timing is perfect. Obviously I’m not staring my own business – that’s not going to happen – so there’s nothing keeping me here.”

“What about your family?”

She waved him off. “I told you how not everyone lives here anymore and my parents are plenty busy with their grandkids; they’ll barely miss me.”

He was beginning to notice a pattern here, and he didn’t like it.

“What about your job? You love working for Enchanted,” he argued lightly. “You talk about it all the time and it seems like you’re really an integral part of the team.”

Another wave. “Please, things are a little crazy right now because Ella just had her baby – a little boy, by the way – and I’m taking on more responsibility and all, but…”

Unable to help himself, Spencer reached for both of her hands and held them tightly. “Penny, it’s okay to love your job. I get it. I respect that. I’m not asking you to give all that up.”

Her eyes shone with tears just waiting to fall. “Look, I do love my job with Enchanted, but…it’s just a job. I’ve done all that I can there. It’s never going to be any more than what it is. And do I really want to be a salesgirl for the rest of my life?” She shrugged. “I don’t know. But I can do that anywhere. I don’t have to be here in Raleigh. I’m sure there are bridal shops in Atlanta too.”

But there was no excitement in her words. No joy. And if there’s one thing he always loved about listening to Penny talk, it was how she found joy in everything.

“Let’s not worry about that now,” he said because his mind was spinning in a million different directions and he needed to let all of this new information settle for a bit. “Tell me about tomorrow night’s show and what I can do to help so that I’m not in the way.”

And then she did smile.

And he knew he was in trouble.

* * *

“Penny? Can you fix Lisa’s hair? We just switched out her veil…”

“Penny? When you’re done with that can you help Tori with her makeup?”

“Penny? Do you happen to have any pink nail polish? Jenny has on black polish and…”

On and on it went as Penny ran around in that final hour before the show. She loved it. She loved the pace, the energy and then stepping back and seeing how great everyone looked. The only problem was that with all of her running around making everyone else beautiful, she wasn’t ready.

Becca ran toward her and handed her a bottle of water and a giant cookie and smiled. “It may not be a great dinner, but you earned it tonight. I swear, it was like everyone had a problem with the simplest things!”

Penny readily agreed, took a large bite of the cookie and moaned with pleasure. “Damn, that’s good.”

Becca’s smile grew. “Thanks. You looked like you needed a little something. I just gave one to Spencer too. He’s been helping with the setup. It seems like we’re a little short-handed everywhere tonight. We almost asked him to put on a tux and help out as one of the models.”

Penny choked on the cookie. Becca patted her back until she caught her breath. “Um…what?”

“It turns out we didn’t need to, but for a few minutes, we were down a groomsman. Turns out that Derek Mitchell was running late and forgot to call.” Then she looked around. “We need to get you into your gown next.”

Nodding, she took another bite of the chocolate chip cookie and a swig of water before heading toward her dressing room. Together, she and Becca worked to get her into the gown and secure her headpiece. “We really should think about eliminating the headpieces for the show,” she said.

“How come?”

“For ease of getting the girls changed faster. It’s easier to do a hairstyle that will go with everything than to have to fix and adjust after every dress change. It might make for less confusion. Plus, I think sometimes the veil can distract from the dress and someone might count out a gown because of how it looks with the headpiece.”

Becca considered her for a moment. “I think that makes total sense. We’ll bring that up Monday at the meeting.”

Once she was dressed, she studied her reflection in the mirror and smiled.

This is my dress, she thought and gasped.

“What? What’s the matter? Are you okay?” Becca asked nervously.

“No…no. It’s…it’s nothing. This gown is just…”

“It’s perfect for you,” Becca finished. “You wore a similar one about a month ago that we all talked about because of the silvery blue hue to it. This one has it too and it just…it compliments you in every way.”

She sighed longingly. “If only…”

“Oh, come on. Someday you’ll be wearing it as your own. Things seem like they’re going really well with Spencer.”

“They are,” she agreed, “but…I’m never going to have a big wedding.”

“What?” Becca cried. “Why not?”

“I’m the youngest of nine kids. My parents helped pay for everyone else’s weddings but…they’ve already kind of let me know that the well is dry where that’s concerned. There’s so many grandkids now and they want to retire and…” She shrugged. “I’d be on my own to pay for it.”

“Not completely alone…”

“You know what I mean,” Penny said wearily. “I need to get out of debt and that’s not going to happen if I have to pay for a big wedding.”

“You don’t necessarily need a big wedding to have a fabulous gown,” Becca countered. “Ella and Dylan had a very small and intimate wedding and she wore a fantastic gown – similar to this one – and it was great.”

Another shrug. “Maybe. But…I just don’t see that in my future.”

“Not even for Spencer?”

Ugh…she didn’t want to think about that right now. Things were already heading in a direction that she didn’t love but…she loved him so…

“Penny!” Hailey called out. “We’re almost ready for you! You ready?”

As I’ll ever be…

* * *

Two hours later, Penny was walking around the banquet room talking to potential clients and wearing the gown she had worn on her first round of the show.

Her gown.

“There you are,” Spencer said from behind her and her heart actually kicked hard in her chest.

There was no way he would know how she felt about this dress, and him, and all the scenarios in her mind for how she wished he was seeing her in it. Turning, she smiled. “Here I am!”

He was standing with a couple she assumed to be his friend Keith and his fiancée – which Spencer immediately confirmed as he introduced them. They chatted for a few minutes and Penny almost melted when Spencer came to stand beside her and wrapped his arm around her waist. Then he nuzzled her ear as he whispered, “You look beautiful.”

Um, yeah…it was a good thing he had an arm around her because she was pretty sure her knees were ready to buckle.

“Thank you,” she said softly. “I heard you were quite the hero here tonight.”

He looked at her in confusion.

“Becca mentioned how you helped out just about everywhere.”

“Well,” he said with a hint of bashfulness. “I was just standing around and it seemed like they could use a hand.”

“She also mentioned how they almost asked you to be a groomsman in the show tonight.” She said it lightly and enjoyed the look of mild panic on his face.

“Um…say what now? No one said anything about…” Then he stopped. “Wait, why didn’t they ask me? Because – if you think about it – I’ve tried on enough of those tuxedos that I could totally get up on stage and model one.”

She couldn’t help but laugh. “You did mention how you were practically a pro at it now,” she said with a sassy wink. Before she could say anything more, Hailey was waving her over to show her gown to a prospective client. “I’m sorry but…I need to go. It was nice meeting you both.”

Before she could walk away, Spencer held her hand and faced her. “I know you still have some time to put in here, but do you want to get something to eat when you’re done?”

“I do.”

Oh God…had she just said “I do” while wearing a wedding gown and facing Spencer? Again?’

His knowing smirk told her he caught her Freudian slip. Then he leaned forward and kissed her forehead. “Go and show off your gown…”

“My gown?” she squeaked. “It’s not…I mean…it’s not my gown…per se…I mean…”

Spencer chuckled. “You know what I mean,” he said as he gently turned her in Hailey’s direction. “Go and do your thing and I’ll be waiting for you when you’re done.”

Penny looked at him over her shoulder as she walked away and all she could think of was how much she wanted to be with him – near him. This long-distance thing wasn’t working for her anymore. She knew what she wanted and knew she was going to do whatever it took to have it.

* * *

“Hey, Spencer,” Angie said as she walked over. “Thanks for helping out earlier with the setup.”

“My pleasure.”

“So um…would you mind giving me a hand moving some of these chairs back? We’re still a little short-handed and I hate the thought of leaving all of this out.”

“No problem.” There were a hundred chairs lined up on either side of the runway and he and Angie worked on one side, while the few members of their usual breakdown crew managed the other. “Can I ask you a question?”

“Sure.”

“Why don’t you just leave all of this set up? You do enough of these shows so I would imagine it would save a lot of time to just leave the chairs out.”

She didn’t even blink as she picked up a couple of chairs and went to stack them. “Each show is a little bit different. We like to try new things and it’s easier to come in here and figure out what we want to do if the room is clear.”

He nodded in understanding and went about stacking his own section of chairs.

“How long are you in town for?” she asked.

“Just until Tuesday.” Then he gave a brief rundown of the work waiting for him back in Atlanta. “This will probably be the last show I see for a while.”

“Damn. I know Penny’s going to be disappointed. She was really excited about you being here tonight.”

He was maneuvering a stack of chairs when Becca came over to help. After a quick hello to him, she started talking to Angie. “Have you seen Penny?”

“She’s in the back getting changed. How come?” Angie replied.

“Hailey’s talking with a large bridal party right now that wants to hire Penny to do her whole glam squad treatment on them. I thought she’d want to know.”

“Wow! That’s awesome!” Angie said excitedly. “Now would be the perfect time for her to have a studio. I hate how that didn’t work out. Damn bank.”

“I know,” Becca said. “Oh, and check this out - we were talking earlier, and she had some great ideas on how to make show prep a little easier on everyone and I told her we’d talk about it on Monday but I figured I’d share it with you in case I forget.”

“I swear, I think we’ve all been doing this for so long that we don’t ever think about changing anything. It’s great how Penny sees ways to make improvements that we don’t.”

Spencer didn’t want to chime in, but he was kind of curious about a few things…

Putting the chairs down, he stepped over to the women. “Can I ask you both something?”

“Sure,” they replied.

“Um…if what Penny wants to do is going to be such an asset to this place – to Enchanted,” he specified, “why not pay for it yourselves, set it up and let Penny rent it and run it? You know she has the talent to carry it. Why does she have to own it outright?”

Becca looked a little uncomfortable and Angie looked mildly annoyed.

“I mean no disrespect,” he said quickly. “It just seems that for all that Penny contributes to the business…”

“Penny has been a lifesaver,” Becca said. “Honestly, I don’t know how we could have handled some of the more difficult things without her. She lends a hand wherever she’s needed and honestly, she’s wonderful with the customers. She has great insights and she’s basically like a jack-of-all-trades in the wedding world.”

“I know that,” Spencer replied, happy that others appreciated all of the hard work Penny did. “I just don’t understand why there isn’t anything being done to let her do what she’s most passionate about. Just because the bank turned her down doesn’t mean there aren’t other alternatives.”

Angie was still glaring at him a little and Spencer almost excused himself when she finally spoke. “We offered to lend her the money,” Angie began calmly, “and she turned us down.”

“She knows how you’ve already got expansion plans in the works…”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” Angie interrupted. “That’s what she said to us too and we respect that. Most of our plans aren’t going to go into effect for at least a year or two down the road. All of this?” She motioned to the space around them. “This is all brand-freaking-new. Believe me, we’re not looking to lay out any more money right now, but we would have to help Penny. We can’t force her to take the money.”

He knew that, he really did, but he also knew how much he hated to see her disappointed and upset. Yesterday, she had talked about being okay with walking away from this job and these people, but watching her in action tonight told a completely different story.

“And I don’t see why you’re not over the moon at this whole thing,” Angie said, snapping him out of his thoughts.

“How so?”

“With the business off the table, no doubt she’d be more open to going with you to Atlanta,” she said with just a hint of malice. “If anything, I would think you’d be sending a basket of muffins to the bank as a thank you.”

“Angie…” Becca warned.

“It’s true! He’s got everything to gain here! No more flying back and forth. No more crazy schedules for him to keep up with, and Penny can move and play house with him so he can keep his job and stop being inconvenienced.”

“Hey!” he snapped. “I never said any of those things!”

She leaned in close. “You didn’t have to. Believe it or not, I’ve been in the same spot you and Penny are. My husband used to live up in New York and I was here. His job prevented him from moving and I had to make a choice. I chose him.”

“A little begrudgingly,” Becca mumbled.

“Shut up,” Angie said, but there was no heat behind her words. “Anyway, I left here – the only place I had ever known and all my friends and my job – and moved up to New York.”

“For a few weeks,” Becca said quickly as she looked the other way.

“Oh, for the love of it, Becca! I’m trying to make a point here!”

“Then make it already!” Becca cried. “Sheesh!”

“I moved and I would have stayed – I would have found a way to make it work – but I wasn’t happy. Sean knew it even though I denied it. We got lucky – his job allowed him to make the move and work remotely with a little bit of travel. Once we talked about it and knew that it would only be like that for a short amount of time, we knew the right thing to do was to come back here. Mrs. J – Hailey’s mom and the original owner of Enchanted – she even offered me a job here when she thought I was going to be staying in New York.”

“Why did you move if you really didn’t want to?” Spencer asked. “Wouldn’t telling Sean how miserable you were about the whole thing make a lot more sense?”

She huffed with annoyance. “Actually, I did tell him, and we broke up and he went back to New York and I stayed here. Then I realized that I loved him enough to try to make it work.”

It was on the tip of his tongue to remind her that obviously she didn’t try all that hard since they came back but…he didn’t.

“In the end, we talked more about it and figured out a plan that worked for us both. And now we’re here and we’re both happy.”

There was a bit of an accusatory tone that caught him off guard. What exactly had Penny been sharing with them?

“All I want is for Penny to be happy,” he began cautiously. “And I have not in any way tried to convince her to move to Atlanta with me. I’ve asked her to come and visit – maybe come for a weekend to see how I live just like I’ve been doing by coming here – but she’s been turning me down because of the job. At least…she had been…”

“Oh my God!” Angie said with exasperation. “Are you seriously standing here right now telling us that she’s going to quit?”

“What?! No!” he said defensively. “I didn’t say that at all! I’m just saying that when I got here yesterday she was a little more open to asking for some time off to come see me!”

His heart was racing and he felt a little like he was under the shining light of an interrogation. Where were all these accusations coming from and how did this suddenly become about him?

With a steadying breath, he held up his hands to halt any further comments. “Look, Penny and I are trying to figure things out. As you obviously know, long-distance relationships are not ideal. On top of the stress from that, I hate seeing Penny upset about the business and having her plans fall through. It’s her dream and she’s really good at it and I just was hoping to find a way for her to have it. All I want – all I’ve ever wanted – is for her to be happy.”

“Aww,” Becca said with a small smile. “That is so sweet.”

Angie glared at him. “Mmm…maybe,” she grumbled. “Just remember that when you’re trying to get your way all the way in Atlanta.”

“What about Atlanta?”

They all turned at the sound of Penny’s voice. She had changed back into her casual clothes and her hair was up in a long ponytail. She looked happy and relaxed and…totally in her element.

Before he could say anything, she launched into a conversation with the girls about some of the gowns from the show and who was coming in tomorrow for them and then Becca started talking about the bridal party who was in need of Penny’s glam squad services and Spencer excused himself quietly and went back to moving chairs.

He had a feeling they were going to be talking for a while.