Chapter Forty-Three
Ava
One Month Later
“Is that it?” I asked Jules as we set down the hundredth box of houseplants. Okay, maybe it hadn’t been quite a full hundred, but it sure had felt like it as we’d made countless trips back and forth from my house to the B&B. “Where are you going to put all these?”
“It’s not like we’re short on space,” she smiled, looking around the cavernous foyer of the Van Kamp house.
Or, rather, our house.
Jules and Riley had only signed a month-long lease to hold them over while they figured things out. The three of us were going to stay in the house together while we remodeled it, and Gianna and Viv would come visit every few weeks from Indy. It was convenient because it was so close to The Rolling Scone that I could walk to work. I kept my parents’ house, with the intention of moving back in after we officially opened the B&B.
Maybe even with Ben, if things kept going the way they were.
I was still holding out hope that we’d win over Gianna and Viv and convince them to move back, but I wasn’t going to complain about getting to see my friends all the time. They were here for the weekend to help us move in and to celebrate our first official night in Rosemore Cottage Bed & Breakfast.
After Viv and Jules agreed to lean into the cottage chic tone for our business, we sat down and brainstormed every cutesy name known to man. Jules was the one who came up with Rosemore Cottage—an homage to the proliferation of rose bushes sprinkled across the property. Several of the vintage stained glass windows even showcased what had clearly been some previous owner’s favorite flower.
“Congratulations, ladies!” Ben called cheerily as he let himself in after us. “I come bearing housewarming gifts.” He pulled a handful of antique-looking keys out of his pocket and handed one each to Riley and Jules and three to me.
They had small teeth for such an old style, more like modern keys instead of the blocky squared teeth on older ones. The other end was a rose.
“They should work for the door even though they look like antiques,” he added.
I planted a giant kiss on his lips, smiling against them when Jules pretended to gag. “Thank you,” I told him.
Riley and Jules echoed my sentiments while they unpacked the houseplants. Jules might make a show of it, but she’d been very cool with Ben coming around all the time and helping us out with the moving process. I’d worried that even though she said we should go for it, living it would be harder for her than she realized. So far, though, everything seemed good.
That night, after an exhausting day of moving, we sat on the pier with way too many boxes of takeout from A Taste of Tokyo. It was quickly becoming everyone’s favorite restaurant instead of just mine. Jules and Viv could both eat there, since rice is gluten-free and there were a ton of meatless options.
All of mom’s old picnic blankets covered the weathered wood, a collage of every color and pattern imaginable. We brought a lawn chair for Mrs. Beatty, who’d come out to congratulate us on the house when she saw us gathering down by the lake. Travis followed her, earning him a murderous look from Gianna. I’d have to ask her what he’d done to get a look like that. But not tonight.
Tonight was for making my next best day ever.
We sat in a circle at the end of the pier, dipping our toes in the water. I’d found the most comfortable spot, snuggled on Ben’s lap with his arms wrapped around me.
Surrounded by my friends.