A friendly woman with red hair, dressed in a sundress and sandals, beams at me. She holds a large covered basket. It’s weird and uncomfortable.
“Hi, I’m Mandi, the owner of the SunBay Inn.” She kind of peeks her head in but I step over to obstruct her view. “I brought you guys some breakfast. Nothing too big. You’re welcome to come down to breakfast if you’d prefer, but my grandma told me to deliver you something to keep your energy up.” She rolls her eyes while trying to remain professional.
“Thank you, Mandi.” I take the basket from her. “Who’s yer grandma?”
I’m fairly sure Dori doesn’t have any more grandkids. Sedona’s dad was an only child. But I guess you never know.
“Ethel Greene. She and…” She moves to peek in the room again. “Sedona, right?” She points toward the bed.
I nod.
“Sedona’s Grandma Dori cooked up this whole thing. I do apologize. Usually I’m not one to help with my grandma’s crazy schemes and I’m sure you guys don’t remember me, but our schools played one another back in the day. You were Lake Starlight’s soccer star. After everything…”
Seriously? She’s not going to remind me of all this now, is she?
“Anyway, I have a soft spot for a true love story and couldn’t resist helping them. I do hope you enjoyed your stay, and no worries, you’re on the late checkout list.” She smiles brightly and waves goodbye.
“Life is never dull with Dori around,” I mumble, shutting the door.
Sedona is awake and sitting up. She’s slipped on my dress shirt and is buttoning it.
“Hey now, no one said you could get dressed.” I put the basket of goodies on the bed and curl up next to her, nuzzling her neck.
“Who was that?”
I blow out a breath. “Yer never going to believe who owns this inn—Ethel’s granddaughter, Mandi. She’s our age and I guess she loves a good love story, so she helped them out.” I open up the basket. “No complaints here though.”
“Me either.” She sits closer to examine the basket. “This is so cute.”
There are muffins, jams, fruit shapes on skewers, cups of granola—anything anyone would want for a continental breakfast. I take a blueberry muffin, unwrap it, and hold it up to her mouth. She takes a bite, then I do.
“It’s so good.” Sedona snatches the rest of it from me.
I stare at her and she looks at me like what.
“Guess we’re over that whole first date thing?” I chuckle.
She rolls her eyes. “Did you think it’d continue to be like we just started dating?”
I shake my head. “I hoped not. Speaking of which, you should know that I’m looking for something more permanent in Lake Starlight.”
I’m still mulling over Kingston’s idea to open an indoor youth sports complex in the vacant industrial building just outside of town. I wasn’t going to bring up any of my plans to her this morning, but I didn’t expect to spend the night having sex with her either.
“I have an appointment to look at a few houses this afternoon. I’d cancel, but this is the only opening the realtor had and Glacier Point is digging into my bank account.”
She puts the muffin down on the wrapper in the basket. “We can go. Let me get my dress on so I can do the walk of shame. You can drop me off on your way.”
I glance at the clock on the side table. We have two hours before I’m due to meet the realtor. “That’s not why I’m telling you.”
She turns back to me, holding the blanket to her chest.
“I know this is super early, but I want to know if things between us… is it too early to be looking for a place for all of us?” I ask. Now it’s out there. I can’t take it back. I just have to wait for her reaction.
She looks into her lap, and her silence kills me. Way to ruin the morning, Jamison. I guess we’ll be saving that last condom.
“I don’t know what to say.”
Well, that’s not a no. “I shouldn’t have asked. I’ll just rent a place for now. I don’t have to buy right away.”
She crawls forward on the bed and sits back on her legs, taking my hand. “It’s not that I don’t want to share a place with you. But after everything went down with us, I realized how much I relied on you. You were pretty much my sugar daddy.”
“Sedona, please never say that again.”
She giggles. “I mean you paid for everything for me, and it’s not like we were married, or I was a stay-at-home mom. I was young and had a degree. Now I have a travel blog I’m working on. I’m freelancing regularly for magazines. If I were to move in with you, I’d want it to be fifty-fifty.”
“Why? We have Palmer now, and you could stay home with her if you want. I’m not sure what I’m going to do, but I have a few things I’m considering.” Kingston’s offer comes to mind again. Although I have to put up capital for that. But I’m going to sell my condo in New York. That should pay for my house here and then some. I run my hand down the side of her face, tucking a strand of her dark, shiny hair behind her ear. “I like taking care of you.”
She nods. “I know you do, but I can’t be that girl anymore. The one thing I was sure of before Palmer came into this world was that I wanted to be able to support her on my own. I wanted her to see her mom as a strong, independent woman. I think that’s one of the reasons why the postpartum depression made me feel so guilty.”
“But—”
She shakes her head. “This isn’t up for argument. I’m sure if we never would’ve broken up, I’d have allowed myself to put my dreams on hold, but I don’t want to do that now. I think I’m fortunate to have family to help me. Now I have you, and we can do it together.”
“So you want me to rent?”
“I don’t want to make that decision for you. If you want to buy, I understand, but for me to move in with you, I want to own half.”
I sulk because buying her a house is a dream of mine. I want to get her and Palmer out of that apartment. Give Palmer a huge back yard to run around in, buy her a dog she can play with. The news disappoints me, but at the same time, Sedona’s talking about a future between the two of us. That’s more than I hoped for and probably more than I deserve. I always thought of Sedona as independent, regardless of whether I was footing the bill for her. None of that ever mattered to me. But I see what it means to her.
“Then I’ll rent, and I’ll wait for you.”
She nods. “I know you’re upset, and I’m sorry.”
I lean forward and kiss her. “I’m not going to lie, I wish you’d allow me to buy my girls a house, but I understand. We’ll work around it.”
She locks me to her, holding my cheeks. “Thanks for understanding. I’ll still go with you to look at the places though.”
I nod. “Want to get Palmer first?”
She smiles. “Definitely. And then we’re trading in the man van for an SUV.”
“If I can’t buy a house, I’m buying a car. We have a big day today.”
She laughs and I get her on her back, kissing her.
“I have one more thing we should cross off my list now.”