Love Lifted Me by Sara Evans Page A

Consignment?”
    â€œBoth. I also have private contacts who are aware of clothes and other vintage items not available to the public.”
    â€œOoh, and who might they be?”
    â€œIf I tell you, then I’d have to kill you.” Jade grinned, holding on to the thought for a moment. Sigh . . . let it go, Jade . “Upstairs is the loft. Like I said, it’s used for storage and staging.” Jade pressed her hand lightly to Raven’s back and moved her through the shop. “And here’s my office.”
    â€œWhat do you mean staging? And what’s your hurry? Afraid I’ll discover a secret?”
    â€œStaging is where I pick a theme for the week and set up clothes and jewelry from that era. Like Bobby Soxers or Jackie O Days.”
    â€œFascinating.” Raven headed back to the storeroom. “Eric, did you see those calendars on the back wall? What are those about, Jade? More vintage lore?”
    â€œIt’s the wall of calendars.”
    â€œEric, get a shot of this. Here’s one from 1914 and one from 1920. Jade, are these real? Not reprints.”
    â€œThey’re real. They belonged to the family who owned this space before me. It was a five and dime.” Jade crossed the storeroom to Raven and as she did, she spotted Lillabeth in the alley talking to a man—no one she knew or had seen in the Hollow before. “When I bought the place, the calendars were already on the wall with certain days circled or marked. It seemed like a sign. Vintage shop with vintage calendars. There are significant days circled. See? August twenty-first, 1914. Beginning of the First World War.” Jade moved to the next calendar and flipped to October. “Black Friday, 1929.”
    â€œWhat about this calendar from three years ago?” Raven walked the wall. “Why did you circle December twenty-fourth? What happened that day?” She leaned to examine the dark, thick circle as she might find some hidden clue. “Did you get a great Christmas present? A marriage proposal?”
    â€œWe were already married. I circled it because it was a lovely evening. We had a party here with Max’s colleagues and our friends. Around dusk, it started snowing and we all went for a walk in Laurel Park. It was quite lovely.” Jade smoothed her hand over the slick page, wiping away a thin layer of dust.
    â€œLovely and hopeful.”
    â€œHopeful? Come on, Jade, give it up. What happened on the twenty-fourth?”
    â€œA day I felt redeemed.” She peered at Raven without another word. That day was definitely not her business. It was when she told Max about their honeymoon baby and the residue of aborting a baby at sixteen washed away. She’d found out a week before but had saved the news for Christmas Eve.
    â€œRedeemed? From what? Do tell. Are you a woman of faith?”
    â€œI am a woman of faith. Redeemed but weak.” Jade tapped the calendar. She’d lost that baby six weeks later.
    â€œI don’t see any new calendars. Not last year’s. Or this year.”
    â€œWell, Raven, this year isn’t over yet.”
    â€œWhat’s the criteria to get on the wall?” She held up her recorder.
    â€œSpecial. It just has to be a special year.”
    Raven regarded Jade through narrowed eyes as if she didn’t believe her. “Do I have this right, Jade? Asa is Max’s son but not yours?”
    She’d certainly done her homework. But where? How? “Raven, if you want to talk vintage, I’m all in. But if you want to talk personal, then maybe we should just forget this whole feature.”
    â€œTell me, how did you and Max meet?” She talked into her recorder, linking her arm through Jade’s.
    â€œRight here, in the Blue Umbrella.” This kind of questioning was more like it. Jade led the reporter back into the shop.
    â€œVery romantic. Who saw who first?”
    â€œI saw her first,” Max said from