Drew looked at me and, fortunately, didn’t play ignorant. “Moving back?”
I nodded. Drew closed his eyes and nodded along with the violin solo. Finally he opened his eyes and met my gaze. My stomach sank as I took in the pained expression.
“Can’t yet, man.” He looked away from me, tapping his knee along to the beat as the record moved on to the second song.
Drew might be my baby brother, but the man was almost thirty. I needed to respect his choices, as hard as that might be. I followed his gaze to the window. “Respect that. Can you promise me that if you aren’t okay, you’ll talk to someone about it? Me, Steph, Mom and Dad, someone professional? I don’t give a fuck who, just someone.”
“You got it, bro.”
I leaned back, my legs stretched out on the other part of the sectional, and I leaned my head back on the cushion, looking toward the ceiling. Dylan’s words filled the room as Drew and I saw there in companionship. As “Mozambique” began, I held my beer out to him. “Good to have you home, baby bro.”
Drew tapped his beer against mine. “Thanks for giving me a spot to land, Jake.”
Yep. Something was going on. Fuck. Quietly, I replied, “Always.”
23
Horizontal Dancing
Ivy
A feeling of being in over my head washed over me as I sat in the midst of my grandmother’s apartment. She’d lived over the space I used as a bookstore for her entire time in Highland Falls. When I’d visit over the years she’d say that one day, when the stairs became too much for her, she’d move to the retirement community in town. Apparently the goddess had different plans.
After she’d passed five years ago, I’d had a local manage the property. At the time, the space the bookstore currently occupied had been a resale shop. The business next door was a real estate agent. And the two other apartments above had all been occupied.
In the past five years, both businesses and rentals had changed hands, but there was enough income from both to allow me to leave Nana’s apartment as is. I’d come in after the funeral and cleaned out anything that needed to be pitched, but otherwise, I’d left it until I decided what to do with it. Coming to Highland this past spring, I’d briefly thought about moving in but quickly decided against it. Addie needed space to run and her own bedroom.
Now, I really needed to deal with it. As Jake pointed out, the income from the rentals up here helped the bookstore make it through the lean months, and one more tenant would be even better. Ditto to finding a tenant for next door, which I thought I secured earlier this week. That agreement led to finding someone for Nana’s place. I’d planned on having a few weeks to clean it out, but it turned out the new tenant could take it as soon as possible.
“Ivy?” A voice called from the front door.
“Come in,” I called, looking toward the door from my spot on the floor in the living room.
Maggie and her pregnant belly led the way, followed quickly by Emma. They both glanced around the space and then gave me big eyes. Yep, you could say it was a lot to take in all at once.
Nana had been in her midseventies when she passed. She was firmly of the generation that celebrated love, peace, and Woodstock. The white walls of her place highlighted the vibrant colors of the tapestry on one wall, her basket collection hanging on another. When she was alive, there were plants all over the apartment, music pouring out of her record player and filling the space with warmth. When she passed, I’d taken both with me. Many of those plants were still around my place, and of course her record collection was too.
And on any flat surface in the apartment, you could find pictures framed. Her life was documented—friends, concerts, and me, from when I was small to the awkward middle school years to high school to college. My grandmother had more pictures of my childhood in this small space than my parents did in their entire enormous house.
“Holy hell, Ivy,” Maggie said, clearly trying to take it all in. “What are you going to do with all this?”
I glanced around the living room and into the dining area and kitchen. It was all one big space with a short hall that had a bathroom and her bedroom. “It really isn’t as bad as it looks. I donated her clothing years ago. I just need to go through her personal stuff and decide what I’m keeping. The new tenant is renting it furnished, so I’m good there.”
Emma lowered onto Nana’s love seat and let out a small moan as she sank in. “This is pretty comfy. Are you sure you want to let it go?”
I looked up from the papers in my hands and smiled. Nana’s love seat was a harvest gold velvet, appropriate for the decade she bought it in, but also still fit the vibe of this place and some current trends. “Yeah, the new tenant up here is Kristine’s new partner in the yoga studio that’s moving in next door. She is coming here and traveling pretty light. Right now she’s crashing on Kristine’s couch. I think Nana would be thrilled that someone else can use all her stuff.”
Maggie slowly lowered herself onto the couch next to Emma. “Are we surprised that Kristine is opening a studio instead of sticking with the nomadic nature of her class?”
I shook my head as I got back to sorting the papers into piles of keep, shred, and trash. Quite frankly, most of this box was trash. I had no idea why Nana had kept half this stuff.
Without looking up, I answered Maggie. “No, not surprised. When the space opened up last month, Kristine came to talk to me about rental, utilities, et cetera, but she was still unsure. I think she will continue to do some stuff out at the park in summer, maybe some pop-up classes here and there, but to build a bigger client list, she needs to be in one place and had been looking for the right location.”
“That makes sense,” Emma said as she helped to put a throw pillow behind Maggie’s back. “So what do you know about your renter who will be working with Kristine?”
“Partnering with,” I murmured as I scanned the document in my hand. It looked like a trash bill from 1990. Why on earth would she have saved this? Shaking my head, I moved it to the trash pile.
“Partnering?” Maggie’s voice rose in surprise. I put the papers down and looked up.
