Chapter Twenty-Three
Rowan
“Rowie? Are you okay?” Raina’s voice came through, worried over the phone.
I’d called her when I returned to my hotel from Milo’s place and had spiralled in my head. I do not panic. I calculate, analyze, and find solutions. But this time I was lost.
“I’m not injured. But I feel like I’m dying.” I plopped down at the edge of the bed.
“Okay, you’re being a dramatic little shit. What did you do?” Only an older sister could call a seven foot hairy bigfoot that and be completely in the right.
“It’s about what I didn’t do, I think.”
“Is it about Milo?”
“How do you know?”
“I saw the way you looked at him at my wedding. And how he watched your every move as if you hung the moon. So what’s your plan?”
“I’m going back to Chicago soon.”
“Are you really?” The weight of that sarcasm was so immense it smacked me in the forehead even over the phone.
“What else am I supposed to do?” I massaged my sternum. Fuck, it hurt.
“Did you ask him to come with you?”
“I won’t. He has a life here in a way that is interconnected with who he is, his great aunt, and the cafe. But I can’t stay, I have—?”
“A job you hate?” she interrupted.
I flopped my free hand. “Why does everyone keep saying that?”
“Because it’s true. Don’t try denying it. Troy is suffocating in that soulless company too.”
“It’s different from when we started.” I sighed. “Did he tell you?”
“That you discussed a potential partnership? Yeah. Like he could keep anything from me.” She opened a cabinet, rummaged, and opened a box; the sounds so clear I could imagine her in the kitchen.
“Fair. What do you think about it?” I stood up and paced the room, my feet silent on the fluffy carpet.
“Follow your heart. You’re both good at what you do.” A microwave door closed, a beeping sounded, and popping noise reached my ears.
“But you just got married; you need stability.” I waved my free hand as if driving my point with gestures would help when she couldn’t see me.
“Oh? Am I a fair maiden who needs her man to bring bread? I earn enough to keep us both comfortable if your idea goes tits up. And I want Troy to be happy too. If quitting his job, risking all his savings on a new business would have him loving going to work, then I’m all for it. ” The microwave beeped again.
“You make it sound so easy.”
“It isn’t, but it’s not impossible.”
“Did you make popcorn?”
“Yeah,” she said, crunching. “Your drama needs snacks, and I gotta see you. Now turn your camera on and tell me about the event you’re organizing for him.”
“It’s for the cafe.” I clicked the video option.
Raina’s face greeted me. She was sitting on the couch with her hair up in a messy bun.
“That he owns.”
“Yes. I have it all planned out and contacted all the people and establishments in town that I need to help me pull it off. You’d love all the planning that is going into this.”
“Relay it all for me bit by bit, and I’ll tell you if you have any holes.”
“Okay, so—” I talked for an hour, and Raina gave me suggestions for improvement.
Then I propped my phone on the table and ordered takeaway that grew cold when I was taking notes on my laptop.
“Once you implement the changes, it should work. Good thing you have all the permits ready to go. Will you now tell Milo that you’ll stay?”
“I need to make sure the idea we came up with Troy is viable. Organizing this event can prove it has legs. So when that’s successful, I can tell Milo I’m moving to Wendigo Hills permanently.”
“Is it safe to assume you already have an eye on a house?” She raised one eyebrow.
Guilty. “Sort of. But it’s a surprise.”
“Go get him, Rowie.”
I snorted at the childhood nickname. “Goodnight.”
The next three days, I spent finalizing my idea with the help of Troy and several crucial people.
The big day has come, and the nerves twisted my stomach when I knocked on Milo’s door at nine on a Saturday.
“Come in. I’ll be ready in a minute.” He greeted me with a soft kiss on the cheek and whirled around, grabbing his phone and necessities.
We’d agreed to spend the day together, but I didn’t tell him about my plans for it. We got to my car in silence. Was I wrong about not telling him about what I had organized? I’d find out soon.
“So this is our goodbye day, right?” Milo was looking through the window when he said it.
Fuck. I was sweating.
“For now, can we think about today only?” Milo, my coffee bean, my heart, please bear with me. “We’re almost there.” I stopped in an empty parking lot and turned off the engine.
“We’re going to the town community center?” He frowned.
“Yes. Keep an open mind.” I walked around the car and took his hand.
“I will,” he said and didn’t hesitate to squeeze my fingers.
We climbed the old steps into the colonial building and toward the main hall. In the vastness of the empty space sat one table with promotional materials on it and a banner stretched overhead.
“I’ll explain everything.” I handed him a leaflet. “Let’s sit.”
“A Great-Grand-Parent Bake-Off?” He read and skimmed the bullet point details. “What is this?”
“Hear me out please. Everyone loves your cafe, but it needs a bit of a boost, right?”
“Yeah. And you left me all the instructions on how to apply for a grant and do all that.”
“Yes, but I wanted to see if something could be done sooner. The Happy Life Senior Home will have a baking workshop sponsored by local brands and supervised by bakers from the area. The seniors are excited to donate their skills and time to produce cakes, pies, and cupcakes, or other creations they come up with, and take part in the competition that will be hosted in this space.” I waved at the banner overhead.
“Everyone is invited to come over, buy the goods, then vote for the best ones. All proceeds will go toward renovating the cafe roof and updating the kitchen, plus whatever else needs doing. Ethel was in on this, of course, and so was Sophia. They both loved the idea. Troy helped me with the sponsorship and Raina with organizational touches and social media promo ideas. It’s ready to go, but I need your approval first.” I held my breath, heart pounding.
Milo would never ask for help, but the community jumped at the opportunity when I presented it.
Milo looked down at the leaflet, and a tear dropped on it.
I froze. Oh gods, I fucked up again.
He lifted his head and met my gaze with his watery eyes. “Why are you doing this?”
“I’m sorry if I overstepped. Everything is cancelable, no problem. It was a stupid idea. You can do all this by yourself, I know it. I was trying something out.” I shot to my feet and shoved the promotional material into a tote bag that matched the banner.
“Stop.” Milo grabbed my wrist and forced me to face him. “Just tell me why.”
I cupped his cheek, my stomach flip-flopping, my heart beating out of my chest. I could deflect and tell him that he deserved this help from a community that loved him and his cafe, or that it would make Ethel happy. But I was done with excuses.
“Because I love you.” I searched his face, getting ready for a reaction, whatever it may be.
“You do?” Surprise overtook his expression.
It shouldn’t. That meant that I hadn’t shown him my heart and what he means to me.
“So much.”
“Okay.” Milo plopped down on the chair and scanned the banner above our heads.
I knelt in front of him, questioning every move I’d ever made since I’d met him, and beating myself up for all the things I should have said a lot earlier.
Milo smoothed my hair back and tilted his head. “But you’re leaving.”
A nervous chuckle tore out of me. “I’m not. I’m moving into Wendigo Hills. We don’t need to decide anything now, there is no pressure. I’m staying whether you’ll have me or not. But it would be nice if you did. Want me that is.”
“We set boundaries, and I was sticking to them. I didn’t want to be clingy and desperate. But it’s good that you’re staying,” he said calmly and traced his fingertips down my cheek and beard. “Because I love you too.”
Tears sprang to my eyes, and I didn’t even try to keep them from falling freely. “Oh thank fuck.”
He pulled my face to kiss me briefly on the lips, then my nose, both my cheeks, and back to my lips where he stayed, tasting my tears as I did his.
“I thought you had to go. You have a job and a life.”
“Fuck my job.” I took his hands in mine. “You’re my life.”
Milo snorted through tears. “Who’s dramatic now? You don’t mean it.”
“I do.”
“It’s not fair.” He chewed on his bottom lip, his face scrunched in that cute way reminiscent of when he was analyzing math problems. “I’m not sacrificing anything for this relationship, and you uproot your entire life.”
“You know who you are and what’s important to you.
I started figuring it out for myself when I met you.
Now I have a better idea, and it does not involve me moving away from this town or being far from you.
Yes, it’s you. But I also like it here and I want a job I won’t feel sick about going to every morning. ”
“What will you do?”
“Organizing the bake-off gave Troy and me an opportunity to test some waters. We’ll be opening a company together that would focus on securing sponsorships and loans for small businesses, including the local ones who are struggling.
We use our expertise and years of experience but help communities instead.
I will have my office in Wendigo Hills, and Troy will work from Chicago. ”
“That sounds fantastic. Several family-owned places in the area went bankrupt over the past year, and more are on their way out. But…but you love the city.”
“We can go on trips together sometime. You said it yourself that I was unhappy at work. It made me miserable. The city is a bunch of buildings if it’s not a home. And Milo, you are my home.”
Milo sniffled and wiped his face with his hand. “Will you move in with me? Unless you want your own space.”
This conversation was moving on quickly. And I was ready for it.
“I don’t. I put my condo in Chicago up for sale, and I was planning to get something small here, but if we live at your house, I’ll go forward with the offer I made for the lake cabin.”
Milo’s eyes lit up. “The one we went to?”
“Yup. You liked it, right?”
“I loved it. Fuck, Rowan.” Milo buried his face in his hand and released a sob.
“Then it will be ours. You can decorate it however you want.”
“It was perfect the way it was. And for the rest, I’d rather ask Raina, we both suck at decorating.” He laughed through tears.
“That works.” I put my head on his lap and wrapped my arms around his waist.
“We just repainted our future in one conversation. We have so much to do now.”
“But we’ll do it together. I love you. I will say it all the time now.”
“Good. I want to hear it. I love you too.”
Author’s notes:
I’m not crying. You are.