Page 114 of You Know You Wanna

“So did I.” I got my phone out of my pocket and pulled up the link, opening it so Birdie could take a look at the pictures. Gracie came around our side of the table while I talked them through it. “I think it’s a perfect family home. The kitchen’s got space for a massive table. It’s double volume on the top story, which is where the master is. There’s a rooftop garden, two terraces, a rec room and⁠—”

“Is that the price?” Gracie screeched, her eyes wide. “You people pay upward of fifteen million dollars for houses over there?”

Birdie suddenly handed the phone back, her head shaking as she blinked a few times too many. “Yeah. I’m not looking at that anymore. If you like it and it’s an investment thing, then fine, but I can’t fathom that amount of money.”

“We’re viewing it on Tuesday,” I told her, grinning. “Besides, in that area, it’s always an investment and you’ll never lose money. It’s only that price because it’s just been renovated. No one has been in the tubs, the showers, or the pool. The kitchen has never been cooked in. It’ll be years before we have to put any money into it.”

Birdie simply stared at me, but my phone rang before I could ask her if she didn’t like the place. When I looked at the screen, my heart jumped into my throat. “It’s Juilliard.”

Gracie and Birdie seemed to forget about the brownstone’s price tag as they waited for me to take the call. My mouth was as dry as the Sahara when I picked up, and the only words I managed to utter as I listened were, “Yes, yes, yes, and okay. Yes.”

When I hung up, I closed my eyes, having to work to drag air into my lungs before I broke the news. “She got in! Lulu’s officially got a place in the youth program.”

Birdie threw her arms around me, cheering loudly. Declan and Gracie joined our embrace. The four of us celebrated until much later into the night than anyone had planned. When we were finally on our last drink for the evening, I looked over at Birdie and felt like everything was falling into place.

She was the part of me that I’d been missing all my life. I just hadn’t realized it until recently. Birdie was my soulmate, the partner I wanted to grow old with—even if I would have to work at getting her to accept the price of the house I wanted to do it in.

On the other hand, I would have lived in a hovel with her. It didn’t really matter. All that was important was that she and I were together, with Laurene, and that we were all safe and happy. I refused to get as hung up on the money aspect as I had been before.

Meeting Birdie had reminded me there were, in fact, things worth valuing more than money. Like our family. The time we spent together and the lifetime worth of memories were about to make.

EPILOGUE

BIRDIE

Nine Months Later

I loved New York City. I hadn’t expected to take to it so quickly, but it was everything I’d ever dreamed of and more. I loved the noise and the hustle, the constant traffic and the jam-packed sidewalks in the peak rush. I loved the scent of food and coffee in the air, even if it wafted to my nostrils combined with the faint smell of garbage and exhaust.

I never thought I would even like any of those things, but in the nine months I’d been here, I’d grown to adore every aspect of the chaos. It felt like home now, even if I knew it was probably only because Remington and Lulu felt like home to me.

Whatever it was, not a day had gone by that I hadn’t been grateful that things had worked out this way. As I unlocked the door to my very own studio, fancy coffee in hand, I tipped my head back to the overcast sky and said a little prayer of thanks.

Sure, I wasn’t breathing fresh mountain air and I certainly hadn’t felt the sun the way it was back at Blue Pines in almost a year, but my ritual remained and so did my gratitude. I was alive. I was here. I had a new studio that was flourishing and I didn’t take any of that for granted.

I walked in, leaving the door unlocked but closed behind me, and breathed in the scent of jasmine and eucalyptus, a nod to the Nordic Spa back at the resort. Smiling as I headed further inside, I switched on the lights and prepared myself for a busy morning ahead.

Dating a billionaire had its perks and I rarely let him dote on me, but the studio was one of the only exceptions I’d made to that rule. About a month or so after I’d moved here, Remington had invested in my business idea and we were doing well.

God only knew how it’d happened, but word had spread of the oasis I’d created in the big city, and my yoga sessions were becoming increasingly popular. My clients could step off the hectic sidewalk and into my little slice of heaven, forgetting their troubles and working on their energy, their health, and their minds.

The best part of all was that when the day was done, I got to go back home to Remington and Laurene, laughing around the dinner table before we checked her homework and tucked her in for the night. It was incredible. Unbelievable. A dream come true.

In the space of a summer, I’d become a serious, live-in girlfriend and not-so-stepmom to a preteen. Eleven months after they’d arrived in Bluebell Hollow, everything in my life looked different. From my physical surroundings to my emotional state of being, nothing had remained the same. While it should’ve scared me, it just didn’t.

After switching on the lights and readying the studio, we were officially open for business. I strode back to the door, welcoming my regulars and introducing myself to the newcomers. I ushered them all into the main room, then got started on warmups and stretches.

The morning raced by, as it always did, and I poured my entire being into every session, making sure people got their money’s worth while also checking in on my own well-being. I was happy, though. I was doing well. From head and all the way down to my toes, there wasn’t a fiber of me that wasn’t filled with joy.

The morning sessions were always busier than the afternoon, but the afternoon crowd was a touch more relaxed. I laughed and joked with the people I’d come to know. Then I passed the torch to the evening instructors. At first, I hadn’t wanted to be open at night and I hadn’t wanted to hire anyone to work for me either, but Remington and I had taken a look at some of the other studios in the city and I’d learned that around here, people didn’t just close their doors at five.

It wasn’t called the city that never sleeps for nothing, and it turned out that if the city didn’t sleep, the people who lived in it wanted to be able to be productive while they were awake. Which meant that service businesses like mine had to stay open late.

I’d only employed two other instructors so far, but I was going to have to look at getting more soon. Our sessions were filling up fast. At this rate, I was going to have to think of getting some more space. For now, my day was done and I headed over to Juilliard to get Laurene.

Shutting out everything else, I waited for her to finish class. By the time she emerged, my mind was quiet and she was my sole focus. “Hey, Lulu. How was your day?”

She ran up to me, producing a letter from her backpack as tears glistened in her eyes. I frowned. “What’s that?”