The Bachelor Takes a Bride (Those Engaging Garretts!) by Brenda Harlen

empty-handed.
    “Or we could do that,” she agreed.
    “What about this one?” Marco picked up a display shoe to show it to his niece. It was black with silver flower decorations on the heel.
    Anna immediately wrinkled her nose. “They’re not pink.”
    “But they have pink laces,” he pointed out.
    She folded her arms over her chest and shook her head.
    Jordyn skimmed the boxes on the shelf. “We don’t have her size in that one, anyway.”
    “What other colors do you like?” she asked Anna.
    The little girl pursed her lips, considering. “Yellow and orange.”
    “Okay—” she pulled a display shoe down for Anna to examine “—what do you think of this one?”
    The shoe was bright yellow at the toe, the color fading toward the middle, shifting to a light orange that was neon at the heel. He had never seen a shoe so bright—or so ugly. But Marco bit his tongue as his niece turned the shoe around in her hands, checking it out from all sides and angles, even peering inside.
    “I’ll try them on,” she finally said.
    Jordyn pulled the size-twelve box off the shelf while Marco settled Anna on the padded bench seat and helped her remove her own shoes.
    Her foot slid easily into the soccer cleat, with a little bit of room at the toe when it was laced up. Anna took a few tentative steps, testing the feel. Then she walked to the mirror to see how they looked.
    Jordyn suggested she try running up the aisle to be sure, but she cautioned her to stay on the carpet so the cleats didn’t slip on the floor. Of course Bella wanted to run, too, and the girls raced up and down between the rows for several minutes.
    “Those are some really ugly shoes,” Marco noted.
    “That might be why Rob still has them in stock,” she acknowledged. “But at least Anna seems to like them.”
    He surveyed the assortment of shoes, noted the empty display shelves, the meager inventory. Walking through the store, he’d noticed the same issue with other areas: empty shelves and hangers and bins.
    “How long has your brother-in-law owned this place?” he asked Jordyn.
    “As long as he and Lauryn have been married, so five years.”
    “Your family has a phenomenally successful retail business,” he noted. “You’d think someone could help him figure out why this place is struggling and how to fix it.”
    “He’s had offers,” Jordyn told him. “Truthfully, I’m not sure he wants to fix it. He likes to blame the sporting-goods superstore in Raleigh for his lack of customers, but I’ve always suspected it has more to do with his complete lack of business acumen combined with an unwillingness to actually work hard.”
    “I’m getting the impression you’re not a big fan of your sister’s husband.”
    She shrugged. “I don’t need to be a fan—I’m not married to him.”
    But the casual response was belied by the shadows in her eyes that made him suspect there was something she wasn’t telling him. Not that she should confide in him, but he found himself wishing he could...if not alleviate, at least take her mind off, her concerns.
    Before he could say anything else, though, Anna and Bella were back.
    “I like these ones,” Anna announced. “Can we get them, Uncle Marco? Please?”
    He could never refuse her anything, especially when she looked at him with those big brown eyes pleading. And if he bought the shoes, his shopping was done. “Yes, we can get them.”
    “Thank you.” She threw her arms around him and hugged him tight.
    “Me, too,” Bella demanded.
    He put his arm around her and hugged her, too.
    “No.” She stamped her foot. “Me want soes, too.”
    “But you don’t play soccer,” he reminded her, as he helped Anna onto the bench to change back into her regular shoes.
    Bella ran off again and returned with a pair of sandals with a fat orange flower on the front. “Dese,” she said.
    She usually loved pink as much as her sister, but he suspected that she’d been drawn to the orange sandals