Page 27 of Meet Me in Ivy Falls

‘Have you told Piper about any of this? Are you sure she wants to come back here?’

‘It’s, well…’ He hesitated. Drummed his fingers nervously on the table. ‘It’s kind of a surprise. I know she’ll love it once she sees it.’

‘That’s a big risk, Beck. What if she wants no part of it? Refuses to come back. What will you do with the house? Will you move here from Nashville? Sell it?’

The way he refused to meet my eyes warned again that he’d not thought any of this through.

‘She’ll want to be here,’ he finally breathed out. ‘The house meant a lot to her and my parents. I know this is the right thing to do.’

So many questions were on the tip of my tongue. I wanted to know what happened to his parents. What had him so shaken up about Piper. But a part of me didn’t want to crack open that wound. To hear why it’d been so easy for him to walk away from me.

‘Let’s get back to the terms. I know you work in Nashville, but you’ll need to make yourself available to us any time if we have questions.’

A thin smile pulled at his lips. ‘Have you been googling me?’

I rolled my eyes and bulldozed forward, refusing to answer because I may have done a lot of sleuthing after he outbid me.

‘On the weekends you’ll need to come down and look at the work but know that once we get going it’s hard to change things unless you want to spend more money. None of this is going to be easy. Or cheap.’

I meant for my words to be sharp. Caustic. He needed to understand this wasn’t a game or some weekend hobby he could mess around with for years.

‘Please don’t sugarcoat it for my benefit,’ he joked.

‘Huckleberry Lane is going to take everything we have to restore it properly. I’m not going to wait around while you decide whether or not you have the stomach for this kind of project. If it’s all too much, you can sell it to Manny and me right now. Walk away free and clear.’

‘No,’ he bit out too quickly. ‘I’ll follow all your rules.’

‘All right. I’ll talk to Manny and we’ll see what happens next.’

‘Thank you, Torran. I promise you won’t regret this.’ He gave me a slow smile which when I was younger would have melted me to the core.

‘Just so we’re clear,’ I said roughly. ‘I’m not going to allow you to turn every interaction into a walk down memory lane. You and me’ – I wiggled a finger between us – ‘totally, one hundred percent professional.’

‘Deal.’

He popped out his hand and I pressed my palm to his. An ache dead center in my chest warned that I couldn’t let my heart rule any of this decision. This agreement could be life-changing for Manny and me and I wouldn’t let anything – my fears, or my past with Beck – overshadow what could finally make things right for me in Ivy Falls.

Chapter Thirteen

BECK

It’s A Kitchen For Fuck’s Sake.

Torran made me sweat for three full days before she called to say Manny had agreed to the terms she’d set out. Now as we all walked the house a week later, I felt like a third wheel as they swapped a series of nods and grumbles, communicating in a language all their own. Manny would point a muscled arm to a wall, comment about whether it was load-bearing, and Torran would practically finish his sentence like they shared a brain.

Or were a couple.

Since the day I’d sent that horrible email to Torran ten years ago, I’d tried everything I could to get her out of my head. My focus had to be on my own recuperation and looking after Piper. More than once Piper tried to talk me into getting in touch with her again, but my mind was too messed up. Grief had stripped away the elements of my life that I’d relied on to stay grounded. My parents. My sister. My body. All of it was gone. I’d become a shell of my former self and that was a person I was convinced Torran couldn’t love anymore.

‘Nope. Don’t even think about it,’ Manny barked out in a deep voice, shaking me from my thoughts.

‘Come on, I’d be saving us a ton of money if you let me refinish the original cabinets,’ Torran argued.

Manny propped his mitt-sized fists on his hips. His deep black hair, muscles and six-foot-four frame reminded me of some being who’d sit on Mount Olympus.

For at least three full heartbeats, he and Torran stared each other down. She looked like Jack compared to the Giant from one of my favorite fairy tales. When I couldn’t handle the tension anymore, I said, ‘Do you mind telling me what the problem is?’

They both turned on me like I was breaking up some important moment.