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5
Viv still feltlike she was dreaming as she pulled up into the driveway of Nonna’s house. Scratch that, her house.
How was this her life? She was a homeowner and a business owner twice over. Not only was she part-owner of Brewed Awakenings she also owned Broken Nail Events and PR. If her rebellious teenage self could see her now, she wouldn’t believe it.
A buzz sounded and she pulled out her phone and saw that it was a text from Grace.
Grace: New tenant will be at the property in fifteen. Did you want me to meet him?
Him.
So, her new tenant was going to be a man, huh?
That could be fun. Maybe her dry streak was going to be coming to an end. A girl could dream. It had been well over a year since she’d hooked up with anyone. The last guy she’d been with was the guy she’d dated for a month before getting a call from his pregnant wife.
It had soured her on having sex for a while.
But maybe it was time to get back on the horse. Or maybe she should listen to Big and Rich’s advice, save the horse and ride the cowboy. Oooh, maybe her new tenant would be a cowboy. That could be fun.
Or wait, was it ethical for a landlord to hook up with a tenant? Was that the same as an employee/employer situation?
Viv had no idea, but she didn’t waste any more brain power thinking about it. Especially since the odds of her new tenant being straight, single, and attractive were about the same as her winning the lottery. She wasn’t that lucky.
She texted back.
Viv: Thanks, but I got it.
Her sister thumbs-upped her message.
Viv smiled as she put her phone in her purse. She was not only a homeowner and multiple business owner; she was also a landlord. At least for the next three months. Although, if it went well, she didn’t see why she wouldn’t rent out the back house. It was another income stream.
She was diversifying.
So much had happened in the past few months. She’d finally told Audrey that she wanted more than just co-owning the coffee shop, a conversation that she’d been putting off for a couple of years. She’d organized three very profitable and successful large-scale events for the town, the first being a week-long single’s event that culminated on Valentine’s Day. And she’d just bid on the annual Hometown Heroes Ball that raised money for the city.
Her personal life might be collecting cobwebs, but she was killing it professionally.
She got out of her Jeep and went up to open the front door so she could start bringing her stuff inside. She’d thought about spending the night here since the house was furnished with things she’d picked out. She’d thought she’d been staging but it turned out she was decorating her own home.
But after dropping Nonna back at Golden Years it just felt wrong to come back here. She was only living in the house because Nonna couldn’t anymore. The guilt of that and the enormity of getting a house as a gift was weighing on her conscience. So, she’d gone home with the plan to crash but then Nonna sent her a text asking for a picture of her in the house, and when she told her she didn’t go back Nonna was not pleased. So she’d started packing even though she had to be up at three that morning to open up Brewed.
Her lease wasn’t up for another month, but Grace texted her last night and told her that she had already found a renter to take it over and spoken to her landlord, Viv could vacate as soon as she was ready with no penalty for breaking her lease. Her sister truly was a boss bitch.
Once she’d found that out and with Nonna making it clear she wanted her in the house, she decided there was no time like the present, went to the storage she’d rented for Broken Nail and grabbed all of her empty bins. Unlike Audrey who had to plan everything, have her ducks in a row, cross every T and dot every i before taking any action, Viv was more of a fly by the seat of her pants kinda gal. She’d stayed up all night and packed up her entire house, then once the morning rush was over she’d left Manny at the shop, driven home and put all the bins in her Jeep and the trailer she’d bought to haul decorations, tables, and other things she needed for Broken Nail events.
Her new business needs were coming in clutch in this situation.
She’d thought about waiting until her sisters and their men could help her, but Josh, who she was closest to, out of all her new brothers, was out of town with Audrey. Ava was presenting a training program to help teens deal with the stresses of social media at a conference. Her husband Asher was a cop who was working doubles until the weekend. Grace had offered but Viv knew that she and her fiancé Easton were finishing up a house that they were flipping and were behind schedule.
She could have waited until someone was free, but Viv was more of a doer than a waiter. It had taken her a couple of hours to pack everything into the Jeep and trailer which had been like a big Jenga game, but she’d done it. She was an independent woman. Or maybe she was just an impatient woman, but either way, she got shit done.
The first few trips she made taking bins into the house were a little, no a lot, surreal. Viv still couldn’t quite believe that this modern farmhouse style cottage was hers. It actually was the house of her dreams, and it was hers. After she would set a bin down, she found herself just wandering through the house.
Which was exactly what she was doing when she looked out the front window and she saw an SUV pull up her driveway. When she saw the driver her heart managed to plunge down to the ground and lodge in her throat simultaneously.
Before her brain processed the information her eyes were seeing, her body responded. In the blink of an eye, her palms dampened, her pulse sped like she was a criminal in a high-speed chase, her knees went weaker than the TLC song, and her mouth watered like it was a popped fire hydrant.
Glenn Maguire had pulled into her driveway and parked next to her Jeep.
