“I can run the numbers for you if you want,” Meg said.
“Thanks.” Amy sighed. “I mean, if I can’t get financing any other way...”
“You’ll figure something out,” Meg predicted.
I liked listening to them like this, sharing their plans and dreams, a counterpoint to the music in my head. Part of their discussion and yet apart.
The floor beneath the hostess station was littered with tiny leaves and droplets of water. I found a broom and began to sweep up.
“You shouldn’t relocate for a relationship,” Jo said.
“Eric did,” Amy reminded her.
Jo grinned. “I was one factor. There was also a baby. Plus, we were both ready to leave New York. And he saw an opportunity in Bunyan.”
“I thought you moved for me,” Alec said.
Jo patted his arm. “Of course we did. Our entire lives revolve around you and your needs. You and your brothers are the center of our universe.”
There was more truth in that, I thought, than either of them would ever admit. My prickly sister had lost her heart to her boys.
Alec grinned. “Good to know.”
“Come on, Center of the Universe,” the girl beside him said. “Chef wants us to stock the bar fridge.”
“It would be wonderful if we all lived closer,” Meg said wistfully as the teens headed to the kitchen.
Amy nibbled on her thumb. “Yeah. But—”
“There’s always abutwith you,” Jo said.
Amy tossed her head. “Look who’s talking.”
“What’s the problem?” Meg asked.
“There is no problem. Yet,” Amy said. “But Trey—he’s one of us. What if this relationship thing doesn’t work out?”
“What if it does?” Meg asked.
“Either way, it changes things,” I said. Habits were comforting. At least your life was predictable. Even if you were miserable.
“Life is change,” Meg said. “Like Mom and Dad or me and John or Jo and Eric. That doesn’t make the next phase better or worse. Just different.”
Jo rolled her eyes. “Very profound.”
Meg smiled, unoffended. “But true.”
“You and Trey... It does shift the dynamic,” Jo said.
“Exactly,” Amy said. “I don’t want things getting weird. Or awkward. Bad enough if we have to see each other at the holidays. What if we were living in the same town?”
“Things might be weird for a while,” Jo said.Speaking from experience?“But we can deal with awkward. The question is, What do you want? For your business and from Trey.”
“That’s two questions,” Meg, the accountant, said.
Jo elbowed her.
Amy sniffed. “I’m not afraid of risk. But what about Trey? Except for his grandfather, we’re all he has.”
