A few days later, Hank asked Ophelia to go with him to the art store again. He needed to pick up some large canvas and would need help loading them. Annsa had said he could use the company van to collect them.

Ophelia agreed. She hadn't left the office since the inventory. It had taken her days to sort out the mess they had made of it. The ride took almost an hour with traffic, and Ophelia was glad once they arrived and could stretch their legs.

"How long is this going to take, and are you going to buy me lunch afterward?" she asked as he followed Hank into the store.

"Nope, I said nothing about lunch, and it's too late to negotiate," he said over his shoulder as he approached the salesclerk to get his custom order.

"Cheapskate!" Ophelia called as she let her attention be drawn to all the vivid paint colors on display. Not for the first time, she wished she had some artistic talent. Hank knew the clerk, and they talked about a few common friends as he paid for his order.

When she saw the canvas's size, she doubted that it would even fit in the van.

"Don't look like that! I measured." Hank insisted.

"At least it's not heavy," Ophelia commented as she picked up the end of it. "Shouldn't we load the other stuff first?"

"No, it will be fine." Hank brushed off her concern.

Twenty minutes later, Ophelia was standing on the sidewalk, watching Hank try to fit everything in the van around the canvas while trying not to laugh.

"We could always pull-"

"It's fine!"

"Just one minor change-"

"I got it!"

Ophelia threw up her hands with a grin and turned to hide it, and as she turned, her eyes encountered a very familiar gaze. His dark eyes were glued to hers, holding her captive. Time stopped, her heart stopped, and she even stopped breathing. Why did seeing Sulivan Richards always cause the same reaction?

He didn't wave or try to approach her, but he did give her an almost tender smile. When his gaze finally did leave hers, it was pulled to the man shouting his triumph behind her.

"I told you I would get it!" Hank cackled.

Ophelia turned to look at his handy work for only an instant, but when she turned back around, Sullivan was gone again. Maybe he was a figment of her imagination.

"Let's go. I'm feeling generous and will buy you lunch after all." Hank grinned as he opened the van door and climbed into the driver's seat. "Come on, let's go!"

Ophelia's eyes scoured the street once more but with little luck. If he had been there, he was long gone.

Why hadn't he said hello?

*******

'I found her.' Sullivan texted his family.

'Where?' Was Reyna's immediate response.

'Here, in New York.'

'How did she look? Was she alright? Did you talk to her?' Shay asked.

'You know, this would have been a lot easier if you had told us where she was, right?' Sawyer wrote.

'I told you I only had a phone number. I had no clue where she was!!!!' Shay responded.

'You couldn't have asked!' Pops chimed into the conversation.

'No! She respected my need to disappear, so I had to respect hers!" Shay was in full-on defense mode.

'It doesn't matter, children. What matters is that we found her. Did you talk to her?' Reyna repeated Shay's earlier question.

'No, she was with a man, shopping,' Sullivan informed them.

'That doesn't mean anything. You know Phee is good at making friends.' Sawyer was quick to state.

'You still want her back, Mama? She seems to be content.' Sullivan's hand shook a little as he wrote the text message.

'Yes, we all need our Ophelia. She's part of us.' Reyna's response was quick.

'What if she won't come back?' Sullivan had to let them know that it might be a possibility.

There was a long pause as everyone thought about that outcome.

'The only way she wouldn't come back is if you screwed it up! Did you screw it up?' Sawyer demanded.

'Probably," Sullivan typed before placing his phone back in his pocket.

There was no response they could give to that one because it was the closest he had ever come to admitting feelings for Ophelia to all of them.

*******

Ophelia and Hank took a long lunch, and Ophelia did her best to carry her end of the conversation. All she could think about was Sullivan. She should have approached him. She should have talked to him and asked him how everyone was doing.

At the same time she had that thought, she cringed. The last time she had talked to him, she had told him that she loved him, and he had told her he couldn't tell her how he felt.

No, it was best to leave well enough alone.

It took them another hour after lunch to make their way back to the store, and then they had to unload everything and carry it upstairs.

By the time they checked in at the store, it was almost closing, and Annsa was flitting from display to display, cleaning everything she could find.

"What did we miss?" Hank asked as she sat on one of the high stools behind the counter.

"OMG! Annsa had a call from a film distributor that found out we specialize in Indy films, and he wants to tour our place to see if it would work for the opening of Sullivan Richard's new film! Ahhhhh!" Uma screamed with excitement.

"I thought you liked the other one, Sawyer?" Hank frowned as he tried to recall the conversation from a few nights earlier.

"No, that was Robin, but I'll take either one at this point! OMG, I forgot to tell Robin!" Uma said, reaching for her phone.

"It's only a tour of the shop. They haven't actually agreed, and it's the distributor coming, not freaking Sullivan Richards," Hank pointed out.

"True, but if they like our place, it means that he, Sawyer Richards, Carson Richards, Reyna Richards, Marc Hausman, and Paloma Clark will all be here in my little store!" Annsa sounded almost giddy.

Ophelia, on the other hand, felt herself break out into a cold sweat. Maybe she could keep a low profile, ask for some time off and go somewhere while it was happening.

"Do you know what kind of pressure comes with that kind of connection to fame, Annsa? It sounds good, but the actual planning and hosting the event would be a nightmare." Ophelia said in an attempt to dissuade her.

"You know about planning such things?" Annsa asked, curious.

That blew up in her face. "A little," Ophelia admitted.

"Wonderful, then you can take care of things on our end! Can you help negotiate the contract too?" Annsa was wise enough to know that she didn't know enough, which put Ophelia in a tight spot. She could deny that she could help with the contract, and no one would be the wiser, but her honest nature would give her up as a liar if mistakes were made. Then the entire staff would hate her, and she would be enemy number one again.

"I can help," Ophelia said in a soft voice.

Annsa's eyes narrowed as she suspected something was up with Ophelia's lack of excitement.

"What's going on? You had better tell us now," Annsa insisted as Robin came rushing through the front door screaming.

Uma quickly hushed her, sensing that some drama was about to unfold.

"You might not want me to help." Ophelia shrugged.

Annsa looked at her before marching over to the door, turning the sign to closed, and locking it. "Tell us!"

"I helped on the movie," Ophelia would keep it simple, but if anyone of them decided to research it online, the in-depth truth wouldn't be hard to find.

"Even better, then you can help sell it. I don't see the problem." Annsa insisted.

"I didn't leave under the best circumstances. I was accused of a few things that were not true." Ophelia realized that stating it the way she was could put her job in jeopardy.

"Like what?" Uma said, sounding more excited than concerned.

"Stuff, I'd rather not say. Nothing illegal," Ophelia promised.

"Of course, it wasn't illegal. You've never broken the law in your life." Annsa insisted. "I can sense these things, and I would have never hired you if you had."

"You can?" Hank asked, sounding very nervous.

"I can," Annsa nodded, eyeing Hank as if she knew all his dirty little secrets.

"I'll handle face to face. You can stay in the background and plan and advise from there. How's that?" Annsa turned her attention back to Ophelia.

"I can do that." Ophelia nodded, not really having a choice and taking what she could get.

"Did you meet Sawyer and Sullivan?" Uma asked with eyes sparkling.

"Yes, I met them all," Ophelia smiled at Uma's excitement.

"Are they as handsome in real life as they are on the big screen?" Robin wanted to know.

"Yes," Ophelia agreed, thinking about Sullivan's smile.

Then she remembered how it felt to be kissed by him, and her tummy filled with butterflies at the memory. "Reyna is particularly gracious," she added because she felt like they wanted more.

"And Sawyer?" Robin was practically drooling.

"He's funny, Paloma is beautiful, Marc is sweet, and Carson is...unique."

"What about the he-man Sullivan Richards," Hank asked with a snort.

"He definitely has a stick pretty far up his backside." Part of Ophelia felt bad about saying it, but a larger part felt justified.

"He's a snob?" Annsa seemed shocked.

"No, he's nice enough, but he is a stickler for details and doesn't laugh as Sawyer does." Ophelia missed his laugh.

"So, he's responsible," Robin nodded as if all her suspicions were true.

"Perhaps that's a better way to say it." Ophelia agreed. "They won't be interested in the store. They will want the gallery space upstairs. If you want to impress, that will be the place."

Her words were all it took to distract them as they all raced upstairs to start cleaning.

Ophelia didn't join them, though. She wandered upstairs and sat at the top of the steps of the second flight, listening to their excited voices as they cleaned below her. Well, the ladies were excited. Hank kept making hmmph noises.

An hour later, there was a knock on the gallery door entrance. The distributor was greeted, and he had a guest with him. Sullivan Richards. There was an awed silence before everyone started talking at once. It made Ophelia smile despite the inability to make her heart calm down at the sound of his familiar voice.

Then she heard it, nails on the wooden floorboards, huffing and sniffing, then whining, then full-on howling. Polly had given up the game, and there was no way she would ignore Polly.

On shaky legs, Ophelia stood. She clenched her eyes shut, took a deep breath to steady herself, then slowly walked down the stairs. She had to take each step very carefully for fear she would fall.

Polly saw her first and yanked at her leash to get to her when she reached the bottom. Sullivan looked down at Polly, frowning, then he looked over and noticed Ophelia.

His eyes met hers but were blank of feeling.

"Hello Sullivan," she greeted, wiping her sweaty hands on her jeans.

"Ophelia," he greeted in return as he let go of Polly, who all but attacked Ophelia with whiney kisses.

Ophelia smothered her with kisses as well, doing her best to hold back her happy tears.

Everyone was watching the reunion, so Ophelia forced herself to end it and stand. Polly leaned against her leg as they both focused their attention on Sullivan.

"Please, don't let me interrupt," Ophelia said calmly.

"A little late for that, Ophelia," Sullivan said with a slow sexy smile.