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We got out of the car, and William leaned back in his chair. “Welcome back, kids.”
Charlotte fixed the mess of her hair. “What are you doing here?”
He patted the envelope. “Needed to give this to the big grump who drove you back.”
I rolled my eyes while Charlotte laughed.
William grinned. “Plus, the tile guy will be here early tomorrow morning. Thought we could go over a couple of things so you don’t have to be over here before seven if you don’t want to.”
“He’s starting tomorrow?” I asked.
“I thought he wasn’t due until next week,” Charlotte said. Her eyes cut over to mine.
I glanced back to William, who nodded easily. “Yeah, he had a cancellation, so he’s starting here early.”
“Great,” Charlotte said, but there was a slightly forced quality to it. “One less week.”
The distinct lack of excitement had William’s brows rising slowly, his gaze bouncing between us. “Interesting,” he drawled.
I held his gaze unflinchingly. Since when did that asshole have the ability to read the subtext in all our conversations?
“So,” he said, “this was awkward, and I’m going to change the subject now.”
Without fanfare, he pulled the envelope out from underneath the laptop and handed it to me. I accepted it with a nod.
Charlotte dug her keys out of her purse. “William, let me show you something while you’re here. It’s for one of my virtual clients, but I’m curious about your thoughts.”
As I gripped it in my hand, the envelope seemed to weigh about a million pounds. “I’ll get the bags,” I told her.
She gave me a secret little grin, and I felt it like a dart in between my ribs.
The two of them disappeared into the carriage house, and I stood in the yard for a solid minute, staring over at the Campbell House.
I’d been gone for ten days, and the change in the house absolutely knocked the wind out of me. In my absence, they’d completed the paint job, and it was ... incredible.
This house was alive. It was fresh and bright. Nothing looked its age. There were newly built shutters and warm window frames. The white siding was crisp and inviting among a backdrop of trees. And the blue front door was an understated sort of exclamation point.
Would Chris even recognize it if he saw it now?
Did it look the way he’d wanted it to all those years ago, when he felt like such a failure?
I tightened my grip on the envelope and thought about what might be inside. How it might affect all the biggest question marks in my life.
The house.
Charlotte.
What I wanted out of my future.
I just wanted one fucking minute to be able to breathe. Pulling open the envelope, I saw that there was another, smaller envelope inside.Folded against the second envelope was a piece of paper stamped with the lawyer’s letterhead.
I tugged it out, surprised to find a handwritten note. When I saw the first line, my heart stopped.
Burke,
I think this letter from Chris might give you the clarity you’re searching for. Amie’s best friend found a key to a storage unit not far from their house, and this was inside one of the boxes from Chris’s office. No one has read it; she saw your name and sent it directly to me. The contents of the letter are yours to disclose as you see fit. I hope this brings you some peace as you near the end of the renovation and have decisions to make.
My hand was trembling when I saw the battered edge at the top of the second envelope. I hesitated just long enough, my throat desperately dry, my lungs aching as I tried to pull in a full breath.
