“We did it,” Rory says, smiling for some reason. “It really is the best case scenario, Lex.”
“Yeah,” my lips say.
“No debt,” she continues, tapping the pages of the agreement on the table to get them in perfect order, the only way she knows how to do things. “Everyone keeps their jobs.”
My ears perk up at that. “Really?”
Her brow twitches. “Haven’t you been listening?”
“I missed that part,” I tell her, but my gut eases.
“Did you also miss the part where they want to keep you on to run the place?”
“You bitch!” If there was heat behind the words, it’s lost in the giggle that breaks out between us. “You didn’t say that part!”
“Okay, maybe I held that back for the grand finale,” she admits.
“Careful, Aurora,” I tease. “You keep smiling that big, you’ll end up with laugh lines around your eyes.”
She pops a shoulder. “Today might be worth it.”
“And tomorrow,” I remind her. She’s only been working toward this moment for three years now.
“That too,” she agrees, grinning even brighter now.
The sensation in my chest should be documented for medical science. “You’re serious though? We’re all staying on?”
“Every one of you,” she confirms, lips pursed to keep that smile under control.
“So who is this mystery investor then? Who’s the new owner?” I ask, the lead ball inside me finally evaporating.
“You’re looking right at him,” comes a voice I know all too well.
A gruff, Brooklyn drawl that belongs to a 6’5” beast of a man.
The whole package comes out from around the corner of the hallway.
My jaw drops, eyes bouncing between my sister and my chef-whose-relationship-status-has-yet-to-be-defined-beyond-“mine.”
“You?” It’s the only word my brain can form.
“You didn’t even skim that contract, did you?” My sister chuckles, tucking her supplies away inside a brown suede tote.
“Who reads the paperwork?” I toss back at her with a scoff.
“I do. It’s literally my job.”
“Exactly, which is why I didn’t need to,” I defend myself with an eye roll for good measure.
Wilder gets two feet closer with every step he takes, until he’s standing above me, and I rise to get closer.
“How?” I ask him.
His mouth tilts at one side, making him look almost boyish instead of as lethal as he usually does. “This seemed like a good place to put that cash I’ve been stashing. Don’t need it if I’m staying here.”
“You didn’t take the job?” It comes out as a whisper.
He shakes his head once. “Nowhere I’d rather be than in the Heights, at this café.”
