“There are quotes from contractors in the back of the folder that he had me procure before his passing,” Mr. Henchen said, gesturing toward the folder Verity was now paging though. “With the assets now in your possession, you can easily refurbish the building if you so choose. Or we can keep it on the market. No decision needs to be made today, of course. The will has already been filed with the court and there’s no one to contest, so we have time.” He laid another piece of paper face down on his desk.
“I remember my mom telling me stories about it growing up,” Landon whispered. His heart was tight in his chest and he was suddenly feeling regretful about the loss of a man he’d never really known. What if he’d taken the time to reach out after his parents had died? What if he had only recognized his grandfather was probably hurting too?
“Stop it,” Verity said sharply.
Landon’s attention snapped to his right and focused on Verity, casually sitting in the chair beside him, folder now closed on their lap.
“Don’t start that game of yours,” they warned.
Landon nodded and chewed his lip between his teeth again, looking back to the attorney in front of them.
“Go on,” Landon requested.
Mr. Henchen read through some more legal sounding information about the charity disbursement and how Landon could take possession of the home in Pasadena as well as the church. When he was finished, he handed Landon a copy of the documents he’d read. Landon mindlessly passed them to Verity, who tucked them into the folder about the church.
“How long are you in town for, Landon?”
“Our flight home is in three days.”
“If you have questions between now and then, you can reach me here or on my cell. The number is on one of the papers in the folder. We need to make decisions soon on the church at least, as there’s no point in keeping it on the market if you plan to retain ownership.”
“Right. Okay, then. Thank you.” Landon pushed up out of the chair and extended his hand over the desk. Mr. Henchen shook it, then angled a glance to Verity before he refocused on Landon.
“Here are the keys to the house and the church.” Mr. Henchen passed him an envelope. “You can stay in the house instead of a hotel if you like, obviously. It’s yours now. And I strongly suggest you go see the church before you make any decisions.”
“Right, thank you.” Landon repeated, walking past Verity in a daze.
He managed to make it to the parking lot and into the passenger seat of the rental car before his legs gave out. Verity came around the driver’s side and closed the door behind them. They punched something into their phone, then passed it to Landon.
He looked down at the screen and saw the familiar blue line of a map route. He blinked then glanced over at Verity, who was backing out of the parking lot.
“It’s like he was a person, with a heart,” Landon muttered, tossing the paperwork from the attorney onto the dash.
“People generally have those.” Verity laughed at him and followed the voice navigation from the phone.
They drove in silence until Verity pulled off the main road and directed the car down a bumpy dirt road toward the hillside.
“This place is secluded as fuck,” they observed, parking in a large dirt lot in front of the church.
“It’s been here forever,” Landon told them, “before the city was even here. Well, I mean, the city was here, but it was more of a town then I guess.”
Verity turned the car off and cracked their door open. “Come on. Ooh! Do you think I can start calling you Father Landon?” They laughed and got out of the car.
Landon followed, shaking his head. “That’s a little contrary to our relationship, isn’t it?”
“I said Father, not Daddy. Get your head out of the gutter. Jesus.”
Verity stopped at the bottom of the steps and Landon came alongside them, tucking his body against Verity’s slender ribs.
“Jesus is right. Did you want to go in?” Landon dropped the keys into Verity’s hand and stared at the imposing structure. “Did you see how much to get this place back in decent shape?”
Verity shoved the key into the lock and turned. The large wooden door pushed open with a creak and a groan that was only reserved for buildings that had seen as much history as this one had.
“Around half a mil.” They walked inside and looked up and all around. “It has gorgeous bones.”
“You’ve been watching too much HGTV.” Landon rolled his eyes.
They both moved deeper into the space, Landon dragging his fingertips across the top of dusty pews as they went in. The church had a second story, a sort of loft that wrapped the entire church. Landon assumed it had once been for a choir.
