“Okay, changing gears, Roger that. Want to pull up apartments in this area? Or you want to look in San Diego instead?”
“No apartment, not yet. I want to just…roam.”
“Roam?”
“Yeah, there’s a Beach Boys residency in Vegas, I want to see it.”
She snorts, “Of course you do! I can’t believe that wasn’t our first stop before Cali.”
“I considered it.”
Janie nods, “Okay, Vegas, then what?”
“I’d like to see some of the Deep South, Savannah, maybe.” I say out loud for maybe the first time. She frowns. “It’s not random, the South is where our general love for butter, sugar, andflour, originated. There are so many cute bakeries, and there are beaches down there too.”
Her eyebrows shoot up but then she stands and gets her laptop, “I love it, let’s make a spreadsheet. Where else?”
“Deep South includes Florida. Maybe the Keys? They seem like my vibe.”
“True, not surfing but definitely eating and wearing palm trees on your clothes.”
I laugh, “Sounds perfect.”
We talk through a few more of my ideas until she asks, “So you do love the beach?”
“I do, but this particular coast is just…really far. Two or three flights every time I want to see my Dad? And don’t saythere’s the jetbecause there isn’tthe jet,there’s your father-in-law’s jet and I’m not using it. Even if I did, it’s still at least a five hour flight.”
“Alright. The California girl has decided California is too far away?”
“I think so,” I nod, “Yes.”
She starts typing, “Good. That’s good. Maybe you don’t know exactly what you want out of life right now but it can be just as helpful to think about what youdon’twant. Sorry California,” she says to the open back patio door, “You’re out!”
We keep working through her spreadsheet for an hour, read side by side in silence, and are too tired to carry on once we hit 9PM.
It’s really been a lovely evening.
I’ll be sad to be alone when she leaves but also…energized. This felt like a vacation but tomorrow, renting a car and driving to Vegas...it feels like starting a journey. Will it lead me back to Juniper Falls? To the bakery?
I kick myself as I’m falling asleep because of course my heart wonders…will the trek somehow lead me back to Aiden? Give me a chance to tell him what I want? I hope so, I do.
But I’d better figure out what that is first.
CHAPTER 40
Aiden
“You can see this one is better suited,” some man tells me. Bob? Bill. “You want this section here, next to this plot.”
Pot.
It’s pot of land now.
I sigh and Bill frowns at me, “You disagree?”
“No, sounds brilliant. Go on,” I say.
I feign interest for another thirty minutes. Then I give Mildred the save me signal so I can leave. Hopefully Philip, next to me, has learned something from this meeting.
