Page 41 of Just A Bet

I leave his office, feeling lighter than I have in years. Maybe I was wrong to assume I wasn’t a part of the family. Maybe I always have been.

Five hours later, I’m even more convinced of this. Mark managed to get us and an inspector into the house, where we discovered the settling was no longer an issue, and I fell even more in love with the house. He then got on the phone with the realtor and by the end of the work day we’d submitted an offer.

I don’t hear anything back until the next day.

“Grant!” Mark hollers from the front of the shop.

I drop what I’m doing and run inside. “Yeah, boss?” I feel like a kid on Christmas. Please tell me Santa delivered.

His face breaks into a smile. “You got the house.”

“What?”

“You did it, son.” He wraps me in a hug and this time I do cry. I have a house. Well, not for thirty days.

“Now, let’s address the money issue. I’d like to offer you a low-interest loan.”

My jaw drops and my legs turn to jelly. I drop into a chair and stare at him.

He’s done so much for me. Welcoming me into his house, helping me find my own, and now this? It’s too much.

“I can’t take your money.”

He laughs. “You do every two weeks. This wouldn’t be much different.”

He’s got a point there. “How much are we talking?” I never wanted to be indebted to someone, but who better to be indebted to than a Bentley?

We discuss how much I’ve saved, and what the loan would entail for the next hour, and Mark turns everyone away to focus on me. He runs a tight ship in the shop, but he is also the most giving man I’ve ever met.

I want to be just like him.

“Thank you, Mark,” I say, finally standing from my chair.

“There’s nothing I love more than seeing my kids happy.” He pats me on the shoulder. “And something tells me you’re going to be very happy in that house.”

An image of Lennox floats to mind. “I think I am too.”

Chapter 16

Lennox

I barely saw Grant at work today, and when I did, he seemed distracted. He was in and out of my dad’s office all day yesterday, and when I asked my dad about it, he just shrugged and said I’d find out.

I’ve been waiting for Grant to get home ever since. It’s six now. My parents are out on their weekly date and I can’t take the silence anymore. I sit down on my favorite spot on the couch, flip on a Korean drama, and pull out my book.

One of these days, I’ll actually watch the show, but for now, all I need is the steady hum of the TV, so I can drift effortlessly into a fictional world. I used to think I could write my own stories, but then I nearly failed all of my high school English classes and I gave up on that idea. I aced digital art class though, and that’s when my love for graphic design began. In May, I’ll graduate and I’ll start my own business to illustrate the stories other people can dream up. Which I can do whenever and wherever I want as soon as I find customers.

I flip open my new romance novel to the first page and am fully invested by page thirty and can’t stop reading. I’m a princess of some obscure European country, preparing to take the throne, but first I must find love. All goes well, as well as any true romance can go, until I get locked in the vault with the Crown Jewels. Traitors of the throne are here to steal everything valuable in the castle, me included. There’s a loud bang against the vault door, then—

Boom!

“Ahhh!” I scream and throw my book across the room.

Grant watches with amusement from the opposite couch.

When did he get here?

“What just happened?” I shout at him, still trying to calm my racing heart after nearly being kidnapped and killed by fictional bad guys. Where’s my book boyfriend when I need him?

---