Page 231 of Story of My Life
Levi:What the hell is that?
50
HAPPILY EVER AFTER STARTS HERE
HAZEL
The driver pulledinto my driveway, and I blew out a sigh of relief. It had been good to be back in New York. But after three days of publishing meetings, interviews, and networking, I was ready to come home.
Zoey and I had parted ways last night. She was staying behind for an extra day to rub our success in the faces of her old colleagues and undo whatever damage her cousin had done this month to her apartment. But I was more than happy to be home. Heart House gleamed like a beacon of welcome before me.
It took me a full beat to realize there were no construction vehicles parked on the street. No dumpster in the driveway. But there were baskets of ferns and mums hanging jauntily from my front porch rafters. Exactly the kind I had wanted.
“What the hell?” I murmured to myself.
The driver pulled up to the garage, which, if my eyes weren’t playing tricks, looked cleaner and pinker than when I’d left. The doors had lost their peeling dingy paint and now gleamed white. But the biggest surprise was the fact that the deck and ramp were finished.
I hastily tipped the driver and took possession of my bags before dialing Cam. But there was no answer. We’d exchangeda few texts since he’d climbed through my library window smelling like fish, and he’d promised to celebrate my new publishing contract with me as soon as he officially won me back.
On a whim, I called his sister.
“Yo,” Laura answered.
“Hey, do you want to come over and be my first guest to try out my ramp? I don’t think I have any food in the house, but we could order something.”
“Got it covered. I’ll be there in forty-seven seconds,” she said.
“That sounds like Levi might have to arrest you for speeding.”
“Levi’s out of town with the rest of them. I was just in the neighborhood,” she said before disconnecting the call.
True to her word, she rolled into the driveway less than a minute later.
“Grab the wine out of the back, would ya?” she called to me.
“When did they get all this done?” I asked, pulling the general store tote from the back seat as she reassembled her chair on the ground.
“Let’s just say Cam was highly motivated to finish.”
A ball of worry lodged itself in my digestive system. Was he highly motivated to finish because he was over us? Because he’d reconsidered and decided we were better off mortal enemies? At this point, it was our only relationship option because there was no way I was going to be his friend. I wasn’t mature enough for that.
“They started the ramp at the store, and we’ll be closed all next week so they can redo the register layout and the bathroom,” Laura said, transferring neatly to her chair.
She had a laughing crying emoji Band-Aid on her forehead from her fall, but she sounded excited, almost cheerful.
“Does this mean you’re going back to work?”
Laura’s grin put the sun to shame. “Finally! I took a page out of your book and filled an entire notebook with plans and product ideas. Next year is going to be big for us. All of us. I can feel it,” she said.
“That’s great.” I wanted to be part ofall of us.Desperately. “Come on, let’s see how far they got inside.”
I went up the ramp ahead of Laura and onto the deck.
“I didn’t order furniture,” I said, eyeing the teak dining table and chairs, the cushioned swivel chairs circling a low table. There were more flowers in pots. Mums of every color. The manly grill gleamed in the corner.
“Must have been the patio furniture fairies,” she mused innocently.
I opened the back door and held it for her.
