Page 51 of Reckless (Adventures in Love 3)
“Well, I’ll let you go. I need to clean up the house a little before the girl who’s house-sitting for us gets here to go over everything she’ll need to do while we’re away.”
“All right, text me tomorrow when you guys leave. I’ll be at work, but I’ll have my cell phone on me.”
“Okay, honey,” she agrees, then says quietly, “I love you.”
“Love you, too, and I will see you soon. Tell Dad I love him.”
“I will.”
“And Mom,” I call before she can hang up.
“Yeah?”
“Pack for Dad. He loves you.”
“Yeah, yeah,” she says before she hangs up, and I laugh as I pick up my cup of coffee, then take a sip of it as I head to my room to finish getting ready.
An hour later, sitting on the couch in Liam’s living room next to Cybil, I look around the room. On every surface there are photos of Liam and his wife, children, grandkids, and siblings. Along with a few framed black and whites on the wall of the town I now call home before it was even half of what it is now. It’s humbling to see so much history in one space, and I’m honestly amazed that Liam is open to change when so many people fight tooth and nail to keep things the way they have always been. The thing about that is nothing ever stays the same.
“Sorry about the wait,” Liam says, coming into the room with a tall, good-looking man walking in right behind him. “This is my grandson Jason; he wrote up the contract for us,” he says, and Jason looks between Cybil and me.
“It’s nice to meet you both.”
“You too.” I introduce myself and shake his hand, and then Cybil does the same.
“My grandfather explained the situation to me, so I wrote up a pretty simple contract for the three of you to sign.” He pulls out a stack of papers and sets them on the coffee table between the couches we are all seated on.
“If this is a simple contract, I’d hate to see a complicated one,” I say, and his eyes meet mine.
“Don’t be intimidated. I made extra copies so that you could each have a set.”
“Cool,” I mutter, feeling like a dork, and he grins.
“Like I said, this is pretty simple, but I’m going to go over the most important points.” He hands each of us a copy and starts to go over each page one by one. Even as simple as it is, it takes a while for him to get through each page, so an hour has passed by the time he’s handing us pens so that we can sign the documents. As I write my name where my name is printed in black ink, butterflies fill my stomach. I still can’t believe this is happening.
“Well, that’s it.” He takes the papers we signed from us and places them back in his folder. “Congratulations, I think that your store and the coffee shop coming together is going to add something extra special to the town.”
“We think so too,” Cybil tells him, finding my hand where it’s resting on the couch between us. I squeeze her fingers, then stand when Liam and Jason do.
“Now we need to figure out when we can rip down that wall between the store and the coffee shop,” Liam tells us, but his eyes are on Cybil.
“I’ll talk to my husband and see when he thinks he can start.” She accepts a kiss to her cheek from Liam when we stop near the front door, and I accept a hug. “I know that he should have some time this week with our parents coming into town.” She looks at me. “But I’m not sure how much notice you’ll need, since you might have to close the coffee shop for a couple of days while most of the work is done.”
“I’ll work around his schedule. Just have Jade let me know what days he needs me to close the shop,” he tells us, then opens the door, and we step outside.
“We’ll let you know,” I tell him, and we both wave goodbye before heading down the step to my car. When we get inside, I look over at my best friend and feel tears fill my eyes.
“Do not start crying.”
“I’m not going to start crying,” I lie, and she shakes her head while her eyes start to water.
“This is going to be amazing.”
“It is,” I whisper over the lump in my throat.
“I love you.” She leans over and wraps her arms around me, and I hug her back. I honestly do not know what I would do without her, but I’m seriously thankful that I will never have to find out. “Now let’s go back to the house. I need to talk to my husband and probably figure out some kind of payment plan for all the work he’s been doing.”
