Page 99 of Love Walks In


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Mrs. Higgins flung her arms around him so hard that Hunter almost stumbled back a step.

“Thank you so much.” Tears choked her words. “You have no idea what this means to me.”

Aria couldn’t stop smiling. Hunter hugged the older woman and grinned at Aria over the top of her head. Mrs. Higgins fumbled for a tissue in her handbag.

“This is the most wonderful surprise I’ve had in ages.” She dabbed at her eyes. “I do hope you’ll both join me for tea.”

“We were just waiting for you to ask.” Hunter bent to start collecting the gardening tools. “Did you make those seven-layer bars with the butterscotch and chocolate chips?”

Mrs. Higgins beamed. “A whole pan, just for you.”

“Excellent.” Hunter patted his flat stomach and rumbled a noise of appreciation.

“And I finally had this made for you, my dear.” Mrs. Higgins dug into her bag again and extended a bright red ribbon to Aria. An old-fashioned key dangled from a loop at the end.

Aria took the key with faint bafflement. “What’s this for?”

“I thought you might want your own key.” Mrs. Higgins winked at Hunter. “So you can stop climbing in the window of the Rosebud Room.”

Aria’s face heated. She opened her mouth to respond, but nothing came out.

Hunter chuckled. “So much for subterfuge.”

“Oh, Hank and I climbed through a few windows in our day, too.” Eyes twinkling, Mrs. Higgins started toward the front door. “I’ll go get the tea started. Come in whenever you’re ready. And thank you, Hunter. Hank would have liked you a great deal.”

Aria suspected the older woman couldn’t have paid Hunter a greater compliment. She slipped the key around her neck and helped Hunter clean up the walkway before they joined Mrs. Higgins for tea. Hunter drank three cups of Earl Gray and ate about five seven-layer bars and a dozen cookies while Mrs. Higgins waxed rhapsodic about Hank’s love for gingerbread.

After returning to Mariposa Street, they fed the cats and cleaned up the lounge. Aria wrote out her Sugar Joy order for the following day while Hunter sprawled on the sofa with his laptop. Fang leapt up from underneath the table, prodding at Hunter’s thigh before stretching out beside him.

Unlike the other cats, Fang wasn’t a snuggler, but ten days after Hunter had officially adopted him, the old cat was increasingly less fearful and nervous. He was starting to eat with the others, and though he still preferred to crouch under the sofa, he always ventured out when Hunter was nearby.

His gaze on the screen, Hunter absently reached over to rub Fang’s head. The cat half closed his single eye in pleasure.

“Does that work for you, too?” Aria ran her hand through Hunter’s hair.

“Oh, yeah.” He closed his eyes, his chest rumbling with the deep tiger purr that sank deep into Aria’s blood.

She bent to kiss his forehead before settling on the other side of him. “How’s the research going?”

“Not bad. The plan is underway.”

“Uh oh.”

He pinched her thigh gently before clicking to a lengthy spreadsheet.

“Even if we get denied federal funding, we’ve got commitments from several investors who want to support historical preservation,” he said. “We also got a sizeable donation from the VP of the Intellix Corporation up in San Francisco. Juliette is sending in her proposal next week, and I have a meeting with a firm up in San Francisco called Studio Twenty-Five. They’re a group of designers and architects who specialize in historic architecture.”

“That’s fantastic.”

“It’s a start.” He leaned over to set his laptop on the table. “I used to have an idea of starting my own company one day, but when I was moving up the Imperial ladder, it got pushed into the background. Especially when the CEO position was within reach. I never thought I’d start a property development company that specializes in urban restoration and revitalization.”

“First time for everything.” Aria nudged him in the arm, her heart swelling with pride as it always did when Hunter talked about Monarch Properties.

Though still very much a fledgling company, Monarch had a strong foundation with support from Hunter’s wide network of friends, colleagues and property developers—many of whom had offered him lucrative positions with their own teams after discovering that he’d left Imperial. Though he’d turned down all offers, his excellent reputation preceded him, and he’d been fielding frequent calls from colleagues wanting to work with him and support his company.

Mariposa Street would be his first project—a complete overhaul and restoration of the old district, starting with the basics of graffiti clean-up, inspections, assessments, and repairs. Hunter had been studying countless guidelines and standards for rehabilitating historic buildings, and he’d become a veritable encyclopedia about Mariposa’s history and architecture.

His goal with Monarch was to maintain the historical context of the district while also opening it up for appropriate modernizations and turning it into an asset for the entire town.

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