“You said it’s only one sheet of ice, correct?”
“Yeah. There’s room to change things around inside the building, but we’re limited to only one sheet, which I honestly think was part of the downfall of the rink in the first place.”
“Was it that or the lack of draw to bring in business?” Harrison falls silent for a moment. “What do you think of making it more of a training facility instead of starting an entire organization? We could have clinics, lessons, you name it. Learn to play, learn to skate. I’m sure there’s someone we could bring in for the figure skating side of things. It would be more for development that could really draw in business from outside of town.”
Pulling my cheek between my teeth, I chew on it as I mull over his words. It’s not even an idea that I had thought about, but it would work. It would be a much easier sell and easier to manage instead of a whole organization with teams for different age groups.
“You’re brilliant, Harrison.”
He lets out a low chuckle. “I know, I know. That’s really what I’m here for.”
Rolling my eyes, I let out a laugh. As the laughter dies off, an anxious feeling rolls in the pit of my stomach and my chest tightens. “Are we really gonna do this?”
“What’s holding you back, Miller?”
Sliding my key into the ignition, I turn it over and the truck engine roars to life. “What if it doesn’t work out? What if we invest all this time and money and it doesn’t fucking work?”
“Hm,” he hums. “But what if it does? Honestly, I think I need something more fulfilling. More purposeful.” He pauses for a beat. “If you’re in, I’m in.”
“Yeah?”
“Fuck yeah,” he says loudly. “Let’s do it.”
Rolling my lips between my teeth, I bite down on them, blowing a breath through my nostrils as I shake my head in momentary disbelief. This is a gamble and as much as I love taking risks, this feels like the biggest jump of my life. Bigger than chasing after my dreams of playing professionally.
“I’ll call the realtor,” I say, the words falling from my lips in a rush, like if I don’t get them out now, I may never go through with it.
“And I’ll hand in my resignation letter.”
“Are you sure you want to do this? You know this could be an epic failure.”
“Well, I guess we can’t let it fail then,” he says with a soft laugh. “You and I—we’re not the kind of people who fail. We’re not the kind of people who let things beat us down and not rise above it all. This might be hard or it might not be. Either way, we won’t fail. I know it.”
I run my tongue over my top teeth. “We must have two vastly different ideas of what failure is.”
“Are you calling yourself a failure?” he asks, his voice dipping lower. “Because of your injury and having to retire early? You made it further than a huge percentage of people who play hockey will ever go. If you call yourself a failure, what does that make me? I never played pro.”
The color drains from my face. I can hear the offense lingering in his voice. “That’s not what I meant, Har. Not at all.”
“Then stop talking and thinking like that. Life is what you make it, so make the best of it.” He clears his throat and lets outa deep breath. “I gotta go, but call the realtor and let me know what’s going on, and what you need from me.”
I don’t know that I believe quite like he does, but if I don’t take the chance, what else do I have?
“All right. Let’s do it.”
And at this point, I’m not so sure I have much left to lose.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
WILLOW
With my hands planted on my hips, I slowly turn around and survey the entire space. Jace and I spent the earlier part of the week painting the walls and the trim. The floors have been cleaned and the old check-out counter removed. Jace helped me empty out the entire space so I can look at it as a clean slate to figure out where exactly I want things to go.
And now I’m at the point where it’s time to piece things together with a mess of shelving units I’ve been trying to work on all afternoon by myself.
The Harvest Festival is a little less than a month away and there’s still so much left to do.
Jace helped me figure out how to set up the store, although it still feels like something is missing. I haven’t had the time or the focus to reach out to any companies to collaborate on things. I need to find a designer to come up with a cohesive theme for merchandise. There are still so many things I need to decide on and mentally, it feels like I’m running out of space.
