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“If you’re insistent on paying something, you can take over utilities and wifi, but things are mostly paid off here. Gramps paid off the house, and when I took over the business, he wrote the house into the agreement.”
“Is this happening?” she asks incredulously.
“Text Beau,” I say. “He’s probably waiting for you to text him about the property anyway.”
“He’s on a date.” She tries to defer it until later.
“A date he shouldn’t be on. Text him, Josie. For me.”
She hesitates for another long moment, then pulls out her phone. I watch her type up the message and hit send.
“Should we start packing?”
Josie playfully smacks my chest. “No, we have a lot to do before then.”
I catch her hand, pulling her into me. “I’ll just grab something every time I leave your house, and bring it here. We’ll have you moved in no time.”
She laughs. “I’m trying not to get my hopes up about the property…” She pauses. “We haven’t even seen it in person yet.”
“No, but I have a good feeling about it,” I say.
Josie nods into my chest. “I do too.”
“Oh my gosh,” Josie says. “It’s perfect.” Her eyes are wide as she takes in the space. It’s small, but not crowded. It’s perfect.
The walls in the front of the shop are all exposed brick, with shelving already installed. My mind is whirring with all the potential things we can do to the space to turn it into her dream shop. In the far corner, built into a wall, there is an L shaped desk, and Josie smooths her hand over the textured surface. I don’t say anything, but I’m already thinking about ripping it out and replacing it with something I create for her.
However, if she likes this desk, I’m more than happy to fix it up for her.
Josie doesn’t say anything else as we explore the property. Her mouth is slightly agape the whole time, and I can practically see the ideas rolling around in her brain.
The back is neatly updated, with gray walls and metal counters. It looks like the previous owners might have used this as a restaurant, or attempted to at least. Tucked into a corner is a small empty office, the bathrooms on the opposite wall.
I catch Josie’s eye as she glances around the office. I raise my brows, and waggle them at her. Of course, she catches on to what I’m insinuating immediately. Her mouth drops open in shock. “Andrew, no,” she gasps. “We couldn’t do that here.”
“You also said that about my shop last week, but you weren’t complaining when I fu-”
“Andrew!” Josie stands on her tiptoes, covering my mouth with her hand. I laugh into her palm. Beau is standing on the other side of the room, biting his knuckle to hold back his laughter.
She glares at me, though it isn’t much of a glare with how cute she is, and takes her palm from my mouth. Her eyes narrow as she silently dares me to say something else. I won’t, but it’s fun to mess with her.
Beau pipes in from across the room. “Anyway, they even have a commercial fridge back here. From the sounds of it, the owners were going to open a coffee shop, but the husband began to have some health issues, so they decided to put it on the market.”
Josie sighs. “That’s too bad. I can’t imagine how hard it must have been for them to shelve their dream.”
Beau nods. “What are you thinking? Do you want to put an offer in?”
Josie bites that plump bottom lip of hers in contemplation. She looks up at me as if searching for the answer on my face. I step back, leaning against the wall and holding my hands up. “Don’t look at me, petals. This is all your decision. I’m your cheerleader, that’s all.”
She nods as I remind her of what I’ve been saying for the last week ever since I suggested she sell her house. I didn’t pressure her. I let her take the lead, and while she didn’t give me an official answer about selling her place and moving in, I don’t need one to know that she’s who I’m supposed to be with. I need her to know that while I would love her to sell her place, buy this, and move in with me, it’s not something that she has to do. This is all her choice, her future. Sure, I’m a part of her future, but it’s her dreams that have given us the opportunity to meet and start new, so who am I to tell her what to do?
“Yeah, let’s put an offer in,” Josie says. She steps over to my side, taking my hand in hers. She squeezes my hand, and even though this is the first step to having her wake up next to me every morning for the rest of our lives, I can’t help but feel content and sure.
“Great,” Beau says. He starts typing up the offer on his phone, asking her a few more questions before submitting it. Josie and Beau met a few times in the last week, going over her budget, plans for potentially selling her house, and everything in between, so they have a plan in place. “I’ll let you know what they say.”
45
JOSIE
