River placed a hand on Kennedy’s cheek and said, “We haven’t been together that long, Ken. Are you sure you want to come out with me on your arm already?”
Kennedy nodded and replied, “I’m sure about you.” She smiled. “And I’ll have to go back to LA at some point. I call it a mom movie, and I was resisting it. Then, they didn’t want me anymore, but they do now because Cam and me are done. It’s all so ridiculous, but I might do it, and if I do, I’ll be in LA. You’d be here. I’ll go back and forth whenever I can – whatever we need to do to see each other, since I know you can’t just take a bunch of days off here – but I was thinking about the future.”
“How far in the future?”
“Why? Scared?” she teased.
“No. I’m curious.”
“Well, I had this idea, assuming you don’t get sick of me, that you could maybe spend more time in LA and open another shop just like this one.”
“I could, huh?”
“Yes. And you could spend some days here, some days there, and maybe in that future time period, you’d be moving in with me and have someone else run this location day-to-day while you transition to making candy full-time or maybe not full-time, but you get the idea.”
“You’re planning out my entire career?” River laughed.
“It’syourcareer, River. You can do whatever you want. I’m thinking out loud and trying to make sure you and I can both get what we want.”
River wrapped her arms around Kennedy and asked, “What doyouwant?”
“You.”
“And?”
“To make movies and maybe do another TV show one day.”
“In LA?”
“Primarily, yes. But I’m not opposed to buying something here and just going up there when I need to. I wake up early already, and the studio will send a car, so it’s not that big of a deal.”
“Okay. How about this idea?”
“Go on.”
“While you do this movie, we go back and forth however we need to. You can lose the rental and stay with me, but we don’t come out just yet because once that happens, everyone will know you’re here, and it’ll be a mess.”
“So, tell no one untilafterthe movie?”
“For now, yeah.”
“Okay. Keep going.”
“Well, since I can’t afford to lease another shop, stock them both daily, and hire enough people right now – I’m not asking for you to pay for that, either, so don’t get any ideas, Ken – if you’re really considering buying something down here or somewhere between here and LA by that time, and we want to move in together, we can.”
“Move in together?” she asked with a smile.
“Not tomorrow,” River replied. “But that will give me time to plan the business and figure out what I want. If I want another store, or if I want to run my own homemade candy place to supply my shops and let someone else run them. I have never been able to really plan what I want, only dream about it.”
“You’d really consider moving out of your apartment?”
“Yes,” River said with a little laugh.
“Into a house with me where there’s maybe a pool?”
“Oh, the pool would be a requirement,” River joked. “To me, the important thing isn’t that we have a definitive plan yet, but that we want one.”
“You know I’m better in the black and white.”
