Page 223 of The Way I Hate Him
I love you.
Do great things, Hattie Hoo.
Love hard.
Live freely.
And for me . . . laugh often.
I tilt my head back, closing my eyes as I take deep breaths, silently thanking Cassidy.
I promise I’ll make sure Mac knows and loves you deeply, Cassidy.
That she knows all of our ways.
I promise she’ll love The Almond Store. That if she wishes, it will be her legacy as well.
I promise I’ll make you proud, Cassidy.
I promise.
* * *
“Wow,”Ryland says, shaking his head and looking over the letters Cassidy left, his eyes misty. “I wish she’d have told us. It would have saved a lot of heartache.” He passes the letters back to me.
Maggie is sitting with Mac in the living room, playing with Chewy Charles on the air mattress that Mac has claimed to be hers while I sit at the table with Aubree and Ryland, showing them everything Cassidy left me.
“I’m just relieved I no longer have to worry about the shop. I love that store for what it is, but running it . . . no, thank you.”
“I wonder if this is why her lawyer called me the other day,” Ryland says. “We’ve been playing phone tag, but I’m assuming it has to do with this.”
“He reached out to you?” I ask.
Ryland nods and strokes his jaw. “Yeah, I’ll be honest, it took me a second to call him back because I was worried he had another piece of information that was going to rock us, and I wasn’t sure I was ready for it, but this . . . this could not have come at a better time.”
“Do you think it’s okay that I didn’t finish school?”
“She gave you the deed,” Aubree says. “I don’t think it matters. It might have been a technicality in the will to make sure you tried to finish, but . . . it says effective June 1, you’re the owner. Which means . . . we’re going to have to work hand in hand to make sure the shop’s needs are met.”
I smile at her. “I don’t mind that . . . do you?”
She shakes her head. “As long as you don’t chatter my ear off and make me have awkward dinners.”
“That dinner was awkward because of you, not me.”
Mac comes running into the kitchen, holding her stomach. “I’m hungry. What are we havin’ for dinner?”
“I’m going to go pick up some sandwiches,” Ryland says as he lifts from the table.
“Maggie and I will go get them,” I say, standing as well. “I need some fresh air anyway.”
“That works. I’ll get Mac into a bath, and then we can have dinner together.”
“And then have a jumping party,” Mac says, raising her arms to the sky.
“Or . . . we can watch someSuperKittieswhile the adults process the heavy day we had,” Ryland says.
“Yay!” Mac sprints away and up the stairs.
