Sky's the Limit
Copyright© 2026 by aroslav
Chapter 1: This is La Alegria
IMAGINE IF YOU WILL, the boardwalk next to Coast Road in sunny La Alegria’s Old Town. You’re enjoying your favorite seven-dollar coffee in a fully recyclable cup. Fresh ocean breezes gently riffle through your hair. The early morning fog has dispersed and the first beachgoers are staking out their places with huge umbrellas to keep the nasty sunlight from striking their skin.
Coming toward you is a vision: twin angels with golden hair streaming to their waists, white flowing skirts and blouses that you imagine might conceal only matching bikinis for after work. They walk arm-in-arm, chatting and laughing with each other as their day is just beginning.
They are identical in every way, but different as night and day. Pearl is all light and innocence, an angel of the divine. Ruby is darkness and guilt, an angel of the damned. Yet, to all appearances, identical.
And I love them both.
I’m Sky. That’s a name my parents got off some old TV show, not a description. I’ve been at work for an hour already, unboxing and displaying our latest release, The Spring that Never Came. The books arrived just before I left the previous evening. I breathed a sigh of relief since we have the grand release party scheduled for this evening. The author, Dee Wayne, will be here for the signing and reception at six. The twins won’t make it to the beach after work today.
Outside our shop, TBR Books, a suitor with more enthusiasm than good sense met them as I watched through the glass door. He immediately presented a rose to Ruby, who looked at him askance.
“Pearl, I’m so in love with you I can’t eat. I want to hold you in my arms and protect you for all our lives together. Please say you’ll go to the Firehouse Club for the release party of our new author, Leonard Smith. It will be a grand event. I just can’t go unless I know you will be on my arm,” Brent pled.
The girls walked into our store and waved to me before stopping at the display of Dee’s new books.
“Look! A whole new TBR pile for us! Thank you, Sky!” Pearl said to me, picking up one of Dee’s books. She smirked a little and nodded back at Brent, still pestering Ruby to date him.
“Brent, there are three little problems with your proposal. You really need to hire a good editor,” Ruby said to him. “First, as you can see, we are preparing for the release of Dee Wayne’s newest book tonight. I can hardly leave our signing to go to your party. Second, I really don’t like you that much. I’ll leave the flower on the desk for Sky to find a vase and present it to Dee. And third, I’m Ruby, not Pearl. If you can’t tell the difference, how could either of us possibly trust you to be faithful?”
“But wait...” Brent started as the girls set foot on the stairs to the offices above. “It doesn’t make a difference. I love you both! Please let me see you tonight.”
He started to follow them up the stairs, but I stepped between him and the girls, shaking my head.
“Employees only beyond this point,” I said, nodding toward a sign on the newel post.
“But I...” He shook his head and turned his attention to me. “How do you think your paltry little opening will fare when compared to our gala affair this evening? You might live in the same house as Pearl and Ruby, but you can’t even schedule events without stepping on your own dick. I’ll put your little shop out of business in six months. Then the twins will come running to me. Just wait and see.”
“I’m waiting,” I said. “Please leave the store if you aren’t planning to buy a book.”
“Just wait!”
Brent stormed out and I went back to arranging the display.
“He’s right, you know,” Pearl sighed. Her parents had also joined us for a quick lunch break. “We don’t have a ghost of a chance of attracting a crowd this evening when Argosy Books chose to hold a huge event at the same time.”
“Brent only scheduled his event after we’d announced ours,” Pat said.
Pat and Marge had been second parents to me ever since my parents—their business partners—had been killed in a car accident while on a ski trip in Colorado. I’d been twelve years old—almost thirteen. I owed my upbringing to the twins’ parents and I loved them dearly.
“We couldn’t attract a crowd if Pearl and I stood outside in our bikinis, offering free wine and kisses,” Ruby groused. “I’d be willing to try, though.”
“Ruby!” Pearl said. “You’d be willing to parade around in your bikini for anything. Don’t include me in your perverted ideas.”
“What do you think, Sky? Is there anything we can do at the last minute to attract more people this evening?” Marge asked. “Anything that still preserves the girls’ modesty,” she added glaring at Ruby.
“I wouldn’t risk Ruby and Pearl’s modesty for any kind of promotion,” I answered. Not that I ever objected to watching the twins in their bikinis. But this was business. “What does Argosy have for their promotion we don’t? I read Leonard Smith’s last book and he’s nothing special as an author when compared to Dee. We’ll be serving wine and cheese. I suppose Brent will have a full cocktail bar and buffet.”
“He even has a band scheduled, so people can dance,” Pearl sighed.
“Isn’t Leonard going to do a reading?” Marge asked.
“It’s more like an exhibition,” Ruby said. “He’ll stand and shake hands with people who want to meet a celebrity. He’ll sign books and take selfies next to the customers.”
“Yuck!” Pearl gave her opinion.
“We could do a two-for-one deal,” I said. “Buy Dee’s new book and get an autograph plus her prequel at half price. We have enough stock of The Winter in My Heart to fulfill the deal.”
“That’s more like two for one-and-a-half. It might do the trick, though. Can we make the numbers work?” Pat asked.
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