She squirms in my arms, so I let her down and then make my way to my sister-in-law.
“It’s good to see you,” I say as I give her a quick hug.
“It’s been too long,” she tells me.
“Okay, let go of my girl and give me a hug,” Mason demands.
“But what if I don’t want to?” I tease, making Olivia laugh.
Letting go of her, I move to my brother and hug him back.
“How was your flight?” I ask as I step back.
“Nice and short,” he tells me.
“Are you sure it’s okay if we steal Iris for lunch?” Olivia asks.
“For sure. I actually had Chad clear her schedule. She’s all yours,” I tell her. “She has no idea you are here.”
Olivia smiles. “Awesome, well, if you two don’t need us, we are going to go find her.”
Ari skips over to me and hugs my legs before moving on to her dad. She gives him a hug and a kiss on the cheek.
“Love you, Daddy.”
“Love you too. Be good for Mommy and Aunt Iris today,” he tells her.
“I’m always good,” she says, making us laugh.
“My apologies,” he says with humor in his voice.
He lets go of Ari, and she goes to her mom and takes her hand. They leave us behind and go search for Iris.
Mason rubs his hands together. “All right. Let’s do this.”
“You know you didn’t need to come up here, right?”
Mason looks at me like I’m crazy.
“It’s not every day my younger brother decides he wants to make changes. Of course I’m going to be here. Besides, we need to make sure we plan this out just right, or the board won’t go with it.”
“Do you think they will?” I ask, not worried about hiding my doubts.
Mason waves me over to my couch, and we sit down.
“Look, do I think it will be easy? No, not with the board involved. There is always an asshole or two who never wants to cooperate. With that said, it’s also in our favor that New York is getting more expensive year by year. Shit, this area is something crazy, like, fifty-four percent more expensive than Boston. Ourcompany was also founded in Boston. Between those two reasons, I think we could make it work.”
“They just don’t need to know that neither of those are why we want to do it,” I muse.
Mason nods. “Exactly. You just have to appeal to them. Make sure we have all the numbers and all that shit.”
I look away from Mason and look out the window. When the idea of relocating back to Boston came to me, I didn’t know if it would be possible, but the more I thought about it, the more it took root. Don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing wrong with the city, but it’s got nothing on Boston.
Boston is where our friends and family are. Our home is in Boston, and if Iris and I are going to happen, well, I want it to be there. I want us to be able to go to all of Ari’s dance recitals and anything else that she does. I want to be able to hang out with our friends at a moment’s notice. I want her to never miss a spa day with girls because we live in a different state.
I want it all, and this is the first step.
“Have you mentioned this to Iris?” Mason asks, pulling me out of my thoughts.
