Chapter 23
For all that he thought he was ready for this, Wyatt felt a little shaky when he hugged Dad and Justin goodbye. Twelve weeks suddenly seemed like a long time to be without them, even if they’d only ever be a phone call away. Justin looked like he was having second thoughts too.
“I’ll just—” he began.
“No,” Dad said firmly. “Sam and the team have everything under control. There is nothing you need to check for the hundredth time.”
“Buy me something from every country you go to!” Lettie yelled as Dad finally got Justin into the car.
“That was always going to happen, Lettie!” Dad yelled back, and then they were off, the tires of the SUV crunching on the driveway.
Wyatt let out a breath and squeezed Izzy’s hand. “We’ve got this, right?”
Izzy flashed him his cocky grin. “Course we do, baby, course we do.”
* * * *
It somehow felt easier than it should be to fall into a routine with Izzy. Wyatt was half expecting them to fight at some point, but the first week came and went with barely any tension at all, and Wyatt began to relax a little. He and Izzy were living together and sleeping together, but they weren’t in each other’s pockets all the time. Izzy had work, and he liked to walk the dogs with Lottie, and Dad made sure that Wyatt had enough to keep him busy. He researched small business loans in case he needed more money than Dad and Justin had set aside. He researched local zoning laws. He emailed Paul a few times, and Paul was happy to talk him through a lot of the stuff he didn’t quite understand.
“We gonna drive down to Redlands tomorrow?” Izzy asked him one night. “Kind of a waste if we don’t even check it out.”
“It’s farther away than Yucaipa,” Wyatt murmured and chewed his bottom lip.
“Not by much,” Izzy said. “And it’s bigger too. More customers.”
Wyatt jiggled his leg. “It’s gonna make it allrealthough.”
“Wy, everything you’ve been doing this week is already real,” Izzy pointed out. “Seeing a building isn’t going to change that.”
“That’s one of those things I know logically, but not emotionally.”
“We’ll go down tomorrow,” Izzy said. “We’ll buy some donuts, we’ll look at the building, and if it’s shit, we’ll walk away again, okay?”
Wyatt drew a deep breath. That sounded like a good plan. “Okay,” he said. “Yeah, okay.”
* * * *
From outside, all Wyatt registered was that the building was big. It was an old red brick building with green awnings. The faded signage on the front still saidHooper’s Books. It was on a corner, and it had a parking lot around the back. All of that seemed good, right? He wasn’t really sure. It probably meant really expensive too.
The realtor was a round middle-aged woman in a pastel suit and too much makeup. She met them at the front door of the building with the keys.
“Thanks,” Izzy said and took them off her. “We don’t need the guided tour or anything. We just want to check it out ourselves.”
The woman looked a little surprised. Then she pointed to a coffee shop across the street. “Okay, well, come and see me there when you’re done.”
“Thanks,” Izzy said again.
They stood still for a moment, just looking at the front of the building. Izzy’s hand was on Wyatt’s hip, and he slid a couple of fingers under the waistband of Wyatt’s jeans, stroking the silk and lace underneath. It was comforting, grounding, to have the lingerie under his clothing. It felt good, and it also reminded him that he could be whatever he wanted to be and that his boyfriend loved him no matter what. Izzy moved his hand on Wyatt’s lower back and guided him inside.
It took a moment for Wyatt’s eyes to adjust to the gloom, and then he found himself shaking his head as he looked around at the exposed brick walls and the miles and miles and miles of floor space. “It’s too big,” he said. “It’s way too big.”
“Maybe,” Izzy said. “But what if you put in some walls? Bakery on one side, with a little storefront to the street, and coffee shop on the other side?”
“I don’t know how to run a coffee shop,” Wyatt said. His tongue felt thick. “I don’t even know how to run a bakery!”
“I mean, you don’t have to,” Izzy said, and why did he sound so reasonable? “You can be the owner without being the manager. If you hire the right manager, all you gotta do is make cupcakes.”
Wyatt sucked in a breath and held it until his heart wasn’t pounding quite so much. Okay, yeah, he knew that. He’d discussed that with Paul. Just…it was overwhelming, seeing the building for real. Everything suddenly seemed much harder than it was on paper.
