Total pages in book: 38
Estimated words: 35305 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 177(@200wpm)___ 141(@250wpm)___ 118(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 35305 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 177(@200wpm)___ 141(@250wpm)___ 118(@300wpm)
"You could have helped last night," I tease, just because I know she was dying to meet Cassia, but couldn't because they had a wedding happening here.
"Don't remind me," she groans. "I'm so jealous you got to meet her, and I didn't. The wedding was a shitshow. I'm pretty sure the bride and the best man were having sex behind the winery."
"Seriously?" My eyes widen.
She just nods and then giggles. "The groom was halfway through his vows when she called it off. He actually looked relieved. I'm not entirely sure what happened when they went to the dressing room to discuss, but they came out about half an hour later and announced that the wedding was off, but the party was on."
"That's wild."
"Right?"
"I'm never getting married," I mutter.
"You will," she says, with so much confidence in her voice I almost break out in a sweat. "Just wait."
"No, thank you."
She just shakes her head at me, smiling. "Fine, then tell me all about Cassia."
"She's great, really down-to-earth and funny. She and her husband even stayed afterward to help us clean up. Her husband couldn't keep his hands off her." I smile at the memory. "They're as disgustingly in love as you and Oliver."
"Good for her!" Lucy says, and then pauses when a waiter strides out of the kitchen, juggling our breakfast in each hand. He's not even halfway to us when the aroma hits me, and my stomach growls.
We chat with him for a few minutes as he places heaping plates of bacon, eggs, and waffles in front of us, and then he disappears to the back, leaving us alone again.
"Why didn't Jazz come for breakfast?"
"She's on a mission to buy stock in sex toys," I mutter around a bite of eggs.
"Sex toys?"
"We're going to start selling them with some of the books. Maybe in boxes. I'm not sure yet. We haven't worked out the details. We've had other things to do." I pause, glancing over at her. "Would Oliver or his brothers and cousins object to us adding them to the wine and book boxes?"
"Pfft. No." She waves me off. "You can do whatever you want. They won't care."
I exhale a relieved breath. I kind of figured that would be the case, but the last thing I want to do is damage that relationship.
"What else have you been working on? I feel like I haven't heard from you all week."
"You've heard from me," I protest.
"Barely." She pouts at me. "You've been lame and busy."
She's not entirely wrong. She hasn't heard a lot from me this week, mostly because I didn't want to tell her about Lincoln buying the building. She has a habit of meddling, and this is one time when I really, really don't need her getting involved. But…we don't keep secrets from each other, either. "Maybe I was avoiding you a little bit," I admit.
She points her fork at me, her eyes narrowed like she knows I'm hiding something big. "Spill, Lilah."
"Lincoln Hanover came into the shop the other day," I say, laying out the facts. "He owns Hanover Group, the real estate firm."
"I know who he is. They always order a bunch of wine for the holidays. Why was he in your store?"
"He came to inform me that he put in a bid on my building. Two and a half million dollars."
"Holy shit," she breathes, her eyes wide. "That's almost double what you were going to buy it for."
"Yeah." I frown at the reminder, my appetite rapidly disappearing. "I have thirty days to make a counteroffer, or the building is his."
"Obviously you're going to make a counteroffer," she says, and then frowns when I don't immediately answer. "Right, Lilah?"
"I can't afford it."
"What do you mean?"
"I used most of my trust fund opening the store. We had to buy stock, renovate, and build the café. I had to hire help." I tick off the expenses. "And then I bought my house so I wouldn't be paying twice the cost of a mortgage in rent every month. There's not enough left over to put in an offer, and the bank won't give me that kind of loan on a building worth half that amount. I already checked with Tina."
Lincoln was smart, putting in the bid he did. It's high enough to guarantee no one else even tries to make a play for the building, without being so high that he won't recoup the expense once he's finished tearing it down to build whatever he wants to build in its place. Until he found out about my dad, he was probably confident that I didn't have a chance of outbidding him.
Part of me is glad he's sweating in his expensive loafers right now. It serves him right for being arrogant.
"So…call Dad and tell him what's going on," Lucy says, like she doesn't understand the problem. "You know he'll help ensure you don't lose the store."