Page 68 of Rumors in Bayberry
“Mom!Dad!”She paused and listened.
“Out here,” her mother said.
Sadie followed the voice to the back porch.Her mother was smiling and crying what Sadie hoped were happy tears.
Sadie walked straight to her.“Hey.You’re happy to see me again, aren’t you?”
“Of course.”Her mother swiped away the tears.“It’s just been a very emotional day.”
“And we’re not done yet,” Sadie said.
Her mother’s brows scrunched up.“What are you talking about?”
“You’ll see.”Sadie’s gaze moved to Reed, who was standing by the doorway.
“I should go,” he said.“We can talk later.”
“You aren’t going anywhere.”Sadie approached him and then took his hand.She led him to a chair.“Sit.You’re involved in this too.”
“I am?”He looked totally confused.
“Well, now that we’re officially a couple…”
“You are?”Her mother’s voice rose with excitement.
Sadie glanced over her shoulder, grinned, and nodded.
“Oh.”Her mother’s face filled with a great big smile.“This is working out better than I could have imagined.”
Sadie turned her attention back to Reed.“With all of your business trips and being situated in Chicago, I want to see you more than once a quarter.”
He nodded.“That would be nice, but you know it’s not going to be easy.I have a full schedule.”
She nodded.“I understand.Just give my idea a chance.”
“Okay.If you can make our schedules work, I’m all for it.”He leaned back in the chair as though he were prepared to hear her out.
Now that she had everyone’s attention, she turned to her father.“Do you want to rebuild the newspaper?”
Her father hesitated.“I don’t think it’s possible.”
“That isn’t what I asked you.If you didn’t have to invest any of your time or effort, would you want to rebuild the paper?”
This time, there was no hesitation in his answer.“Of course.”His bushy brows drew together.“But I don’t know how you’re going to do it.Everything burned down.”
“Well, I would have thought of this sooner, but the shock of the fire and then the scare of having Reed in the hospital, well, I wasn’t thinking clearly.”
“It was a lot,” her mother said.“We’re all still recovering from the shock of it all.”
Sadie looked at her father.“You know all of the work I did to modernize the business?”When her father nodded, she continued.“It will save the business.”
“How so?”Her father genuinely looked curious.
“Well, I saved everything to the cloud.”
“The cloud?”Her father’s brows once more scrunched together.“What’s that?”
“It’s storage for digital files—the backbone of our business.With those vital files, we can rebuild the business.”
