Page 129 of Backup Plan

I sigh.

“Benji, can you show me how to play?” Olivia asks.

“No! Mama.” He’s adamant. He won’t be leaving my side.

“Okay,” she says. “Sammy, can you show me?”

Either Liam prepped her or she remembered their names from me yelling up the stairs. Either way, it’s impressive.

Sammy glances at me, and then he nods. “Sure.” He hands her Benji’s blue remote.

“Hey! That’s mine!” Benji says, and he lets go of my leg to grab it. “Give her the pink one because she’s a girl.”

I giggle, and Olivia looks up at me with a smile.

I watch as they settle in, and both Benji and Sammy seem to forget we’re even in the room. After I feel confident that the boys are in capable hands, I clear my throat to get Olivia’s attention.

She turns back to me. Go, she mouths.

Thank you, I mouth back.

We get into Liam’s San Diego truck, the one already parked in his garage here somehow, and he cruises down the hill toward town. Or I’m guessing so, anyway. I don’t know my way around here yet.

We pass by what looks to be a strip mall with a grocery store, but he keeps going.

Maybe he knows of a better one, and I don’t question it. Instead, I’m enjoying the salty sea air and the seventy-five degrees of perfection.

He pulls into a parking lot after about ten minutes in the car, and when I glance around, I don’t see a grocery store. I see the water, and I see some little shops and a few restaurants…but nothing that looks like a place where we can get coffee and fruit and milk all in one stop.

“Where are we?” I ask.

He grins. “I wanted to show you something.”

“Show me what? The water?”

He shakes his head, hiding his smile. “Come here.” He holds out a hand, and I grab it. We stroll toward the shops, and he stops in front of one that looks like it’s vacant.

He pulls a key out of his pocket, and he unlocks the front door.

I tilt my head as I stare at him, and he opens the door.

“What is this place? And why do you have a key?” I ask as he steps in and nods for me to follow him.

I look inside, and it looks like it used to be a bakery or maybe an ice cream shop, but it’s empty now.

“I have a key because I paid the rent on this place for the next year.” He walks over to me, and he grabs my hand. He turns it upward so my palm is facing the ceiling, and he drops the key into my hand.

“What’s this for?”

“The front door.”

I laugh. “I know, but I mean…” I pause and wave my hand around the little shop. “This?”

“You once told me that you always dreamed of owning a little coffee shop near the beach but then you got married and you don’t live by the beach. Well, neither of those things are true anymore. You’re not married, and you live by the beach, and it’s time to give you the key to your dream.” He nods toward the key in my hand, which is still upturned the way it was when he dropped the key into it.

I gasp. “What?”

“I had to give a name when I filled out the paperwork for rent, so I hope you don’t mind. I picked the Lucky Penny Coffee Shop.”