Page 124 of Empty Net

“Oh. Duh.” She clicks the next slide, and I can’t believe what I’m seeing on the screen: a business proposal.

Auden clears her throat, then sits up high, and I instantly recognize this version of her—the badass CEO whowillget what she wants.

“Good morning, Sharks,” she says, and I laugh, remembering all the time we spent in our dorm room watchingShark Tanktogether, Auden promising she’d have a killer business idea like one of them one day. She did, but she never needed the show to make her dream happen.

Just like she doesn’t need me now. No, shewantsme now. And I’m not sure why.

“I’m here today to submit a proposal that you, Lilah Maddison, buy into Maddison Sinclair Designs, a company that specializes in not only building your dream home but decorating it too. You would get fifty-one percent ownership of the company in exchange for a quarter million dollars for startup.”

Next to Auden telling me she’s pregnant, this is the absolute last thing I expected to happen today. Yet…it’s exactly what I want.

I’ve been trying to figure out what I want for over a year now, and now that it’s sitting in front of me, I can’t believe I didn’t see it before—I want to work with my best friend again. It was my favorite part of working for Sinclair Properties. She’s smart, has great business sense, and isn’t afraid to take risks. Watching her over the years was magical. Running a business with her is a no-brainer, especially when it perfectly combines her love of building things and my passion for planning and decorating. It’s genius.

Wait. Did she say…

“Fifty-one percent?” I ask. “But that would mean…I’d be majority owner?”

“Yep. Not to brag or anything, but I kind of already had my fun running an empire.”

She did, and damn did she do it well. But I don’t know what to say to this. Literally no words come to mind. It’s all mush.

Auden closes her laptop, folding her hands together and leaning forward. “Look, I know it’s a lot, but I’ve been thinking about this for a while, since Hutch and I built our house last summer. It wassofun, and you spent so much time over there helping me do it.”

“Do you remember those terrible cabinets the contractors tried to put in?”

She laughs. “You threw a fit, and you have no idea how happy I am that you did. It’s what you used to do at Sinclair Properties too. You were always there to help steer me in the right direction when it came to decorating, and we both know you held that company together with your organization. This would be that, but in a different way, and we could do it on our own terms, at our own pace.Wedecide the clients we take on.Wedecide the pace. No shareholders. No boardroom meetings. Just us taking on the world. Besides, don’t you think it’s time for the world to see just how badass Lilah Jane Maddison truly is?”

She has no idea what her words mean to me. All the times my parents have put me down. All the times they told me I was wasting my potential. Every damn time they told me I wasn’t good enough.

They were wrong.

I am.

And Auden—the smartest, most business-savvy woman I know—betting on me proves that. I want to bet on me too.

“Okay.”

“Come on, Lilah, I—wait, did you say okay?”

I nod. “Okay. Let’s do this.”

“Really?”

“Really.”

“Ahhh!” she screams, as if we haven’t already been enough of a disturbance in this coffee shop. She claps giddily. “Oh my god, oh my god! We’re starting a business together! And I’m pregnant and you’re in love and oh my god!”

Her excitement is palpable, and I bounce a little in my own chair. That weight I’ve been carrying for over a year now as I’ve tried to figure out what I want to do with my life fades away like it was never there, and I know without a doubt I’ve just made the right decision. I reach for my phone, eager to tell Fox, but I stop at the last minute.

“Call him.”

I look up at Auden, who is watching me with a grin that slips as she continues to stare at me.

“I can’t.”

“Why?”

“Because if I call him, I’m going to tell him I love him, and I really think I should do that in person, don’t you?”

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