Page 27 of Will Bark for Pizza
“I am.”
“I don’t have a price yet,” he admitted. “Waiting to hear back from the appraiser. Might be a couple days, but could be early next week.”
“You’re skipping a realtor, then?”
“I already talked to Owen,” he said of Aspen’s husband. “It’s an expense I’d rather not add to the list. He understands. But if you want to utilize him, I’m not opposed.”
I’d only purchased one other commercial property to date, with Owen’s help. Nana might smack me upside the head for it, but I could figure this one out on my own. The end result would be a better, stronger relationship with afamily that meant a great deal to me. It would firm those roots I so badly wanted to put down.
“You sure you want to sell it?” The entire family was pretty tight-lipped about the whole thing. I couldn’t begin to guess what prompted this decision, and I didn’t ask. It wasn’t any of my business. But the weary expression on Joe’s face suggested finances were at play.
“Want to? No.” Joe shook his head. “Don’t exactly have a choice, though. So, if you want it, I’m offering you first right of refusal.”
“Why me?”
“I know you’ll do a good job with what needs fixing up. You’ll do itright.”
“There’s no one else in the family who wants it?” I was pushing here, and I knew it. This felt like the same conversation I had with Luke yesterday about the cabin. I just didn’t understand how no one seemed to care about keeping family things in the family. If I had the kind of tight-knit family they did, I’d hold on tight to them. Maybe Joe sensed that about me. Trusted I’d take care of the bookstore as though it were a family heirloom, regardless of what it became once I leased it to a new tenant.
“It’s too far gone to burden anyone with now.”
I waited, giving Joe the chance to decide whether he wanted to fill me in or not. I wouldn’t push any more than I already had.
“I have a daughter who’s an author. Did you know that?”
“I didn’t know she was an author,” I admitted, trying to place her name but failing. Kayla? Kendra? Something with a K. I always thought of her as snake-girl.
“She isn’t interested in coming back here, though,” Joe said, his expression hardening a little more. “She made that pretty clear last time I saw her.”
Another thing the family was tight-lipped about.
“Well, if you’re sure, I’m definitely interested in seeing the place.”
“We can do a walk-through this week, with the appraiser.”
“I look forward to it.”
“You just have to promise me you won’t lease it to any of those fucking gift shoppers with their cheap-ass trinkets. Those money-hungry city slickers are only interested in exploiting tourists. Brenda wouldn’t have wanted that.”
“You have my word.”
“You’re one of us now, so I’m holding you to it.”
One of us.
I made the decision to move to Bluebell Springs just over three months ago.
I’d been visiting my Army buddies after that disaster with Amy—aka the last redhead I inadvertently got tangled up with. Though to be fair, I did my best to steer clear of her from day one. My troubles with her were all because Iwouldn’tgo out with my boss’s daughter. Rejection activated a special kind of vengeance in her toward me. But not like any of that fucking mattered now. She left me no choice but to walk away from a life I considered quite comfortable.
Another reason I should know better than to ask another redhead for her phone number. What the hell had I been thinking this morning? It didn’t matter that Reddidn’t give it up. She’d been flirting with me, and I liked it. Too damn much.
I shook away the thought as I finished securing the drywall.
What was supposed to be a long weekend away earlier this spring turned into the decision to relocate to the small lakeside Colorado community near friends I considered family.Realfamily. The kind of family who had your back, no matter what.
I was no stranger to collecting income properties. I had a few in Richmond, and a handful more in Fayetteville, outside the base. But this would be different. I wasn’t buying some random house in a city too large for anyone to care. Each transaction could be taken personally, in a town that boasted a population just shy of a thousand. This was more than just business.
“Let Connor know I can put that tile order in whenever he’s ready to get started on that bathroom remodel,” Joe said, closing the tailgate after I hopped down.
