Page 7 of Into the Mountains
“The house is yours if you want it.”
I raise my eyebrows. “Really?” I hesitate though. They were originally offering the house to Charlotte and part of me feels like I’m stealing the house from her. As much as we might dislike each other for the past, I don’t want to make her feel like I’m not going to respect her now. “Are you sure?” I ask her.
“Really sure,” she says without even looking up. She’s distancing herself from the conversation. Purposefully distracting herself with the fake-examination of the pink nail polish on her middle finger that I’m sure she wants to use for a very different purpose.
“Then it’s a deal?” My words come out as more of a question, because this is the last thing I would have expected from today. I grasp Jacob’s hand and we shake on it.
I risk a side glance at Charlotte who has turned her back to go to the couch—there’s been a lot of unexpected things lately. And I have a feeling there’s going to be a lot more.
CHAPTER FOUR
ELIAS
“We can work out the details for everything later, but it is ready, so technically, you could go home and start moving your stuff today if you really wanted to. We don’t even have to wait for an official closing.”
My head is spinning. I thought I had a lot to do this morning with figuring out this project and now add a move to the mix? Whenever I expect to get a little bit of a break, even the tiniest bit, there’s always something. At least this one is a good something.
“Okay, yeah, I’ll let you know when I talk to Ethan about it. I think he will be excited about it, but sometimes I don’t know what to expect from him.”
Everyone turns towards Ethan, and finds him with the kitten nipping at his ear as he giggles and pets her back. The look on his face is enough to make another unexpected decision and I can feel my face soften. There are a lot of things I wish could have gone a little bit different in my life, but my son has never been one of them.
“Alright, so what’s the plan here then?” I ask, pointing toward the blueprints and bringing the conversation back to what we all came here for.
Charlotte stands with the kitten on her shoulder now, clinging to her sweater. “Yes, what exactly isthis grand scheme of yours?” she asks, an accusatory finger pointing between the two of them.
“We want you two to work together.”
“Yeah, we figured that much out on our own, thanks.” Charlotte’s voice is low, like she wasn’t sure she wanted them to hear her, but I don’t think she actually cares that they did.
“As one interconnected unit,” Jacob explains
“Exactly.”
I look at Sky, waiting for her to continue, going into any details on what they mean. I risk a glance at Charlotte who looks like she wants to let out a frustrated groan but can’t because of the creature on her shoulder.
“Can you just explain what exactly that means?” she asks between clenched teeth.
“Interior designer, that’s you.” Sky points to Charlotte. “Architect, that’s you.” She moves her finger to me. “Work together to make sure the building design and the interior design are completely cohesive.”
“If you design the space at the end, Charlotte, I don’t think it’ll have as much impact as I want it to. I know this is just a clinic or just a shelter to some people, but to a lot of the animals, it’s their home and I want to make the expansion for them just as much as I want to make it for the clients. There’s so much potential here and I know we all see it. And I really think if you two work together on it, it’ll be the best it can be.”
I knew Jacob could give some killer puppy dog eyes, but I’ve never actually seen them until now and I’m pretty sure he’d be able to get me to agree to just about anything with those eyes. Lord help me if he teaches Ethan how to do that.
“Alright,” Charlotte finally says. Her eyes are firmly on the kitten who moved to being held in her arms—eyes closed to enjoy the head scratches.
“Really?” Jacob’s voice is filled with surprise like he didn’t think what he said would work on our friend’s stubbornness. I don’t know if I can consider Charlotte a friend, however it seems right now we might need to form some sort of a truce.
“Really.” She throws a glare my way and suddenly I wish I had the kitten in my arms just so my hands had something to do. Anything other than sit idle at my sides.
“Fine,” I agree, meeting her glare. If she’s in, then so am I.
“Fine.”
From the corner of my eye, I can see Jacob and Sky exchange nervous glances, but I don’t break mine from Charlotte. It’s a battle on who will break first. The one who was hurt all those years ago or the one who did the hurting.
I feel a small tug on my sleeve and the one who did the hurting breaks the glare first. “Dad, do you think we could take Sable home with us?”
Furrowing my brows, I ask, “Who’s Sable?” He looks away from me, shyly, but not ashamed. I see a small grin appear on his face. “Ethaaaan,” I draw out. “Did you name that cat?”
