“We’ll come back for you, Daddy!” Aria said as she dragged Holly toward the stairs.
“Promise?” I called after them.
“Pinky promise!”
“Your pinky is all the way over there!”
“It’s an invisible pinky promise!” she replied, making me laugh.
“Oh!” Holly paused on the stairs, turning back to me. “I contacted a place for you about an estimate to fix the barn. I used the company email, so it won’t matter which one of us is there when someone comes out.”
“Smart idea,” I said. I had to catch up with consultations after taking time off before moving. While Holly didn’t work for mycompany, I gave her an email address and free rein to set up whatever she needed regarding Aria or the house. Sometimes, she noticed things before I did, or she just wanted to set up some activity with Aria. She never took advantage of the arrangement, and I was sent a copy of everything, so it worked. “Thanks.”
“You’re welcome.”
As they vanished upstairs in a flurry of fast conversation, I took a moment to stare at the house.Really stare at everything.Besides the fact that the house was already put together with furniture and all of our stuff, there was just potential—the potential for a great future, and I was so goddamn excited for it.
CHAPTER 76
maverick
Ed, what the hell are you doing?” I exclaimed as I waltzed through the front door ofSparrow & Sage. Eduardo teetered on the edge of an old stool as he tried to fix an overhead light. And of course, the few customers already in the cafe didn’t lift a finger to help. A man of his age didn’t belong on the stool. I braced my hands on his sides as I ordered, “Get down from there, old man. We’ve talked about this shit. If you needsomething fixed, you call me, and then you pay me in damn good coffee.”
“It’s just a light,” Eduardo dismissed gruffly, even as he climbed off the stool with my help. I was all too aware of the quiet and painful groan he let out with his descent. “I’m fine, I’m fine.”
“Yeah, and I’m taller,” I retorted. “That means I don’t have to stretch so much on this ancient stool.”
“It’s not ancient—”
“This thing is older than I am, Ed,” I interjected. I held out my hand for the screwdriver he had in his hand. As he begrudgingly handed it over, I said, “Go take care of your customers. I’ve got this.”
He muttered something in Spanish, and I caught some backhanded compliment about being too damn tall for my own good. I laughed. With Kathy pregnant all over again, Eduardo was on his own at the café. He needed all the extra help he could get.
“Are you a giant?” a small voice asked. I paused what I was doing to look down. A girl, maybe Carson’s age, stared up at me with big blue eyes. Her blonde curls fell wildly around her shoulders, and the black and purple dress she wore looked like a costume more than a regular outfit. But what I got stuck on was the creepy-as-fuck bear she was casually hugging. The fluffy purple thing looked like some mashed-together Halloween decoration.Who let their kid carry something like that around?Hell, who bought their kid something like that? “You’re very tall.”
“Or maybe you’re just really short,” I countered, teasing her.
“I am,” she said. “The doctor says that I’m short and small for my age, but Daddy says I make up for it in personality.”
“That makes sense,” I replied and went back to fixing the wires.
“If you’re so tall, does that mean you don’t have a personality?”
“Aria!” a woman exclaimed as I burst out laughing.Kids really did say the damnedest things.I glanced down at her mom, giving her a reassuring smile. The two of them couldn’t have been more opposite, with the woman’s miles of tattoos, dark purple and teal hair, and an old band t-shirt. “We don’t say things like that! Please apologize to the nice man.”
“Nah,” I interjected. “She’s right. My personality could use some work.”
“Do they have doctors for that, too?” Aria asked.Well, wasn’t she just a spitfire?
“I am so sorry,” her mom cut in. She took the little girl by the shoulders.
“Don’t be,” I said. “I needed the laugh, so thank you.”
“You’re welcome!” the little girl beamed. “Will you be my friend?”
“Um…”
“We just moved here, and I need friends,” she continued, completely undeterred by the way I faltered.
