Page 95 of Your Place or Mine

No wonder he was fighting so hard to keep things the same. It wasn’t just about the bar.

It was about the people he lost.

The memories that lived in the creaking floorboards and the low hum of the jukebox.

Every loose nail and sticky drawer was a tether to someone who wasn’t there anymore.

I felt like an intruder.

No—worse. I felt like a wrecking ball disguised as a landlord.

“What am I doing?” I whispered. “Coming in here like I have any right to change things. Like I’m supposed to fix something that’s not broken. No wonder he’s been pissed since day one.”

“You’re not a wrecking ball,” Riley said firmly, nudging me with her foot. “You’re trying tobuild, not tear down.”

“Am I?”

“Yes.” She gave me a look. “Lydia, no one else has cared this much. Not even the Ludlowes. They were sweet, sure, but they were hands-off. You’re already here. You’re alreadyin it.You’re showing up for people, the building, and this town. And you’re doing it while carrying your own grief.”

I didn’t know what to say.

So I just sat there, my heart cracked open like a raw nerve.

“I just don’t want to screw it up,” I said finally.

Riley smiled. “Then don’t. And start by giving yourself some grace. You’ve been through hell too, you know.”

It was the first time someone had said it so plainly.

That I wasn’t justnewhere, orambitious, orthe landlord.That I was a person who had lost something big and hadn’t known how to carry it until now.

“Thank you,” I whispered, eyes burning again. “For… telling me all of this. Even if it hurts to hear.”

“You deserved to know. Callum might be a brick wall sometimes, but under all that broody alpha male stuff is a man who’s been wounded more than once and still shows up daily to keep a bar running for a town that doesn’t even realize how much it leans on him.”

“And now I’m the woman trying to change his world.”

“Maybe,” she said with a shrug. “Or maybe you’re the one person strong enough to changewithit.”

I stared at her, stunned.

But she just smiled again, like she hadn’t just casually turned my world on its axis.

“You’re scary good at pep talks,” I muttered, brushing a tear off my cheek.

“I know,” she said, grabbing the remote. “It’s my second most valuable skill after caffeinating the masses.”

I laughed softly, finally sipping the drink I’d forgotten, and leaned back against the couch.

Maybe I didn’t know what would happen next.

Maybe I’d still screw things up with Callum Benedict and wind up heartbroken and overwhelmed.

But at least now… I understood.

And maybe, just maybe, that was the first step to not walking away.

Chapter Twenty-Three

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