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My heart stuttered at the sight. The hardwood floor and open floor plan and modern fixtures. A sign was up on the front with the name of the company renting the place and a number.
“Oh my God,” I whispered.
My fingers shook as I called the number and spoke to the agent. It was still available. I could get in to see it after five. I made an appointment to do just that and hung up, feeling hope blossom back in my stomach for the first time since I’d arrived in Charleston.
“Your suitcase is packed,” Ash said when he entered Mom’s house.
“Yes. I’m going home with you.”
His eyebrows shot up. “What? Since when?”
“Since a couple days ago. I wanted it to be a surprise.”
“You’re coming home? But I thought you were still looking for a place.”
“I am,” I said. “Actually, I’m looking at one tonight. Go with me?”
“Of course. I’m still confused.”
I reached on my tiptoes and kissed him full on the lips. “I was running. I might have been trying to find myself again, but I was scared about all of it. I wanted that escape, even when I knew I never needed one from you. I wanted you here and me here and everything here.”
“Well … we could be here sometimes,” he offered.
“Maybe. But on the day I got here, I realized that it’s not home. Savannah is home.” I paused and looked up at him tentatively. “You’re home.”
He swept me up into his arms and swung me in a circle. “Say it again.”
“You’re home,” I told him as I slid down his body and kissed him again. “And I want to come home with you.”
“Move in with me.”
I laughed. “Okay.”
“Okay? Really?”
“Yeah. I want that. We’ll sell my townhouse.”
He snorted. “No, we will not. You’ll rent it. What do you think I do for a living?”
I couldn’t stop grinning. “All right, fine. We’ll rent it. But I can move in with you?”
“I want nothing more. We’ll convert a guest bedroom into an office for you. Then, you can manage the business from home too. You don’t have to go in every day if you don’t want to.”
“I can practically walk from your house to the shop,” I countered.
“On days when it’s too hot to walk then.”
“I can’t believe this. We’re really moving in together.”
“We really are,” he said, twirling me in place and then drawing me into him.
I kissed him again and then took his hand. “Come on. My appointment is soon. We can go out to eat downtown afterward.”
Ash drove us to the shop on a side street off of King Street, parallel parking nearby. His eyes lit up when he saw the place. “Is this it?”
“Yep. I was shopping and stumbled upon it. It’s not being managed by any of the main real estate companies. I never would have found it.”
“It has a lot of potential.”
“I thought so too.”
The real estate agent appeared then, opening the front door and letting us inside. My whole body tingled as soon as I entered. As if a spark of electricity had whipped down my spine. The place had an energy that I couldn’t even begin to explain. It was … perfect.
Ash assessed it with an eye for real estate. He was a professional after all. And I let him ask all the questions of the agent that seemed pertinent while I wandered through the place and imagined racks of clothing, a cash register at the back, and table displays. I walked into the back and saw the storage space and office. Very similar to what I had in Savannah.
“How much again?” I asked the agent.
She told me what the people were asking. Which was utterly shocking. It was less than what Nolan had been offering on the coast. And off King Street, it had to be a steal. Ash asked more questions, trying to determine if that was a standard price or if it was cheaper for a reason.
But I was already sold.
This was it.
This was the place.
“Can you send the contract over for me to look at? I’ll get back to you next week.”
The agent nodded. “I’d be happy to. A place like this doesn’t stay on the market for long. It’s only been listed for a few days.”
“I understand,” I said.
But there was something else I needed to do first.
I opened the door into Ballentine Law and walked straight to the back. The assistant looked up and smiled at the sight of me.
“Well, aren’t you a pleasant surprise?”
I brightened for her, and she told me to go right in.
I opened the door to my dad’s office and said, “Knock, knock.”
Dad looked up from his desk and then startled at my appearance. “Amelia? Is everything all right?”
“Actually, it is.”
“Well, come in.”
I stepped into the well-lit interior of my father’s office. It was the same as it always had been with large, dark bookshelves on either side and his enormous desk at the center of the room in front of a large window that looked over the river beyond. He had two overstuffed chairs before his desk and two more on either side of the door to use if he had to meet with more than a few clients.
