Page 476 of Face Off

“You’re coming to Milwaukee.”

“That is what I want.”

Ryan searches my face. “When?”

“Soon.”

“That sounds vague.”

“It is temporarily vague.”

“Why?”

“I have one more thing to tell you.”

Frustration immediately tightens his expression. “Charm.”

“It isn’t another apology or conversation.”

“You just told me that was everything.”

“That was everything involving emotional accountability.”

“That qualifier is making this worse.”

I reach toward the table beside my bed and retrieve the property folder waiting beneath several fabric samples.

Ryan looks from the folder to me. “What did you do?”

“Aura and I found a storefront fifteen minutes from your apartment.”

His hands stop moving beneath my sweater.

“What?”

“It has exposed brick, enough floor space for a smaller Encanto, a rear shipping area, and an upstairs office I can use as a design studio. The neighborhood has independent restaurants, coffeehouses, vintage shops, and enough foot traffic to support the portion of my business that doesn’t arrive online.”

Ryan takes the folder and opens it.

Photographs of the building fill the first pages, followed by measurements, inspection information, projected expenses, and the twelve lease amendments Aura demanded before allowing me to sign anything.

His eyes move across each page.

“You did this without telling me.”

“I did it without asking you to make the decision for me. I’m telling you now because it’s becoming our decision too.”

“You want a second shop.”

“I want my life in Milwaukee without destroying the one I built here.”

His thumb moves across a photograph of the storefront. “You would work, like, fifteen minutes away.”

“Closer if you continue ignoring traffic laws.”

Ryan lowers the folder. Emotion moves across his face without becoming something he attempts to hide.

“You’re coming home.”