Page 83 of Sweet Heat at Bayside
“Nothinghappened. Greg and I have been talking about it since Ginny was born. I want more time with her, Serena. I don’t want to be a part-time mom.”
“But how did I notknowthis?” She looked at Drake and said, “Did you know Justine was selling Shift?”
Drake shook his head.
“Who are you talking to?” Justine asked.
“Drake,” Serena said. “Sorry. Tell me what’s going on.”
“We got an offer from this guy who owns a few small interior design shops in Plymouth and New Bedford. We’ve been negotiating for two weeks, and we’re close to finalizing. I should have papers to review Tuesday morning. I had planned on handing Donovan over to the new buyers, but I obviously can’t do that. If you’re too busy, it’s okay. I can figure something else out.”
“I’m never too busy for you. But…” She had so many questions, she didn’t know where to start. “How much are you asking for Shift?”
“Not much. Fifty thousand. It’s the equivalent of the profit I earn in one year of part-time work. At least it’s something, and it’ll allow me to have time with Ginny.”
“I wish you had told me. I could have thought about scraping the money together or something.” Her thoughts whirled with possibilities.
“I’m sorry. By the time we decided to do it, you had started your new job, and I didn’t want to mess that up for you. I can take Donovan’s job to someone else if you want. It’s just that I trust you, and you referred him to me.”
“Don’t give it to anyone else. I hardly have time to breathe right now, and I could only work on it on the weekends and in the evenings. Although lately I’ve had to work for KHB some weekends. But I’ll make it work.”
They talked for a few more minutes, but Serena couldn’t process much beyond the questions swimming in her mind. She sank down to the couch beside Drake after she ended the call, still in shock. “She’s selling Shift. I can’t believe it. She wants to spend more time with Ginny.”
Drake put a hand on her leg and said, “And…?”
She closed her eyes for a beat, feeling all tangled up inside. “I don’t know. I’m sort of wishing I had known. What if I wanted to buy it?”
“Would you? You’ve always said you wanted to work in a large company. Isn’t Shift small-time compared to where you are now?”
She groaned and stared up at the ceiling. “I don’t knowwhatI want, or how I could even entertain the possibility. She’s asking fifty thousand, and she’s close to finalizing a deal. I’d have to get a loan for some of the money.”
“I’llgiveyou the money if that’s what you want to do with your career.”
“No.” She pushed to her feet and said, “I’mnotmy mother. What we have is too good to mix business with pleasure.”
“Serena, don’t be stubborn.” He went to her. “If this is what you really want, you can have it all. I’ll lend you the money—not give it to you—if you’d like. But just make sure you’re not thinking about buying it because of me.”
She paced, then flopped back down on the couch. “I don’t know what I want. I love so many things about my job. But I also really resent some aspects of it. And I hate being away from you and our friends.” She jumped up again, too jittery to sit still, and paced the floor. “But I’m not going backward, and I’m not making a career decision based onus.”
“Hey, I’m not asking you to,” Drake said sharply.
Her heart sank. “I didn’t mean that. I didn’t even mean tosayit.”
“But you thought it.” He wrapped his arms around her, his expression softening.
She couldn’t deny it, because she had thought it.Viscerally.
“Serena, you could never be your mother. All I meant was I know you’re not going to make any rash decisions based on us, which is why you need to know what I’ve been thinking about. I’ve looked into apartments in the area. I even talked to the owner of the vintage guitar store that’s going out of business about buying him out. But after doing some due diligence, I realized it’s not a smart investment, so I’m not going to do it. But you need to know that I am more than willing to move here to be with you if this is where you want to stay. There’s absolutely no pressure for you to come back to the Cape. You won’t be without me for long if you stay in Boston. It’s just a matter of choosing a place to live.”
Her eyes filled with tears. “You would do that for me?”
“Of course. For us. I love you. I know how hard it is to go back and forth, and this is just the tip of the iceberg. The more well-known you become in the industry, the more in demand your time will become. I want to make things easier for you, not harder. And selfishly, I want every second of the time you’re willing to share in between building your career and making a name for yourself.”
“This would be so much easier if I were more like my mother,” she said as she blinked tears away. “Then I could just be happy working as a waitress somewhere until you came to rescue me.”
He cocked a grin. “You have a hard time withoneboss. Imagine having to cater to every Tom, Dick, and Harriet that came into a restaurant. I have a feeling you’d last about a day before someone griped about you getting an order wrong and you told them to either get in the kitchen and cook their own frigging food or gave them a diatribe about the trials and tribulations of life as a waitress and demanded an apology on behalf of all waitresses everywhere.”
She tipped her head back, marveling at how well he knew her. She was so confused. Was Shift even worth thinking about? Was she being impetuous, blinded by how much she missed Drake and her friends?
