Page 18 of Someone You Deserve

Tears well in her eyes again. “Then that makes my heart happy.”

I kiss the top of her head and release her. “I need to get this finished so I can get everything done today that I need to.”

She nods and takes a few steps back. “Okay. When you see Astrid, tell her that I’ll be by tomorrow for the order for the gardening club. I’m in charge of bringing the muffins this week.”

“I will. Although, something tells me she already knows.”

“That girl makes the best blueberry muffins this side of the Mississippi.”

“Yeah, she does.”

I turn back to the leaves, but don’t miss my mother’s final comment. “That’s not all that she’s good at, though. She has a lot to offer to the world…I just hope she finds someone who cansee that.”

***

Grady slams the hood on my truck, wiping the sweat from his brow. “There. You’re good to go.”

“Thanks, man. I appreciate you fitting me in this morning.”

“No problem. If you’d have waited any longer though, your engine would have been smoking.”

My truck was way past due for an oil change, but I’ve been so damn busy that I’ve kept putting it off. “Pays to know the owner of the garage then, doesn’t it?”

Grady is Astrid’s older brother, so I’ve known him just as long as Astrid and Brandon. When Grady was drafted to an MLB team in California right after high school, we still kept in contact even though his schedule was sporadic and crazy. But when an injury ended his career, he moved back home to Carrington Cove and took over the automotive repair garage from the previous owner whom he worked for throughout high school. Grady’s Garage, as it’s named now, is his pride and joy after he lost the first love of his life, baseball.

But I know there are still days when he misses it.

“It does.” Grady wipes his hands on the towel he pulls from his back pocket. “So, what’s on the agenda for the rest of the day?”

“I’m headed to the bakery, actually. Astrid wants me to do some renovations and give the place a face lift.”

“I heard you two talking about it last weekend at her going away party.”

“She seems to be excited about it.”

Grady scoffs. “Dude, you have no idea. She’s waited years for this. It wasn’t exactly an option for her when Brandon was still alive.”

That little tidbit of information has my brows lifting. “What do you mean?”

He shakes his head, drifting his gaze to another part of the garage as his thoughts consume him. It takes a minute before he finally replies, “Nothing. I’m just happy for her.”

“Yeah, me too.” I want to press further about his comment, but he dodges the topic.

“But renovating sounds like a good business move. It will make the place feel new and more like hers.”

“Yeah, and I’m gonna help out by cutting her some slack on labor costs.”

He scowls at me. “You don’t have to do that, Penn. You deserve to be paid for your work.”

“I know, but I don’t want her sinking herself in debt even more right in the beginning, you know?”

“Overhead costs are part of owning a business, man.” He pats me on the shoulder. “Although, I suppose that isn’t something you’d have any experience with, is it?”

His words cut deep, and the smirk on his face tells me he knows exactly what button he just pushed.

While Dallas likes to give me shit about my personal life, Grady is the king of pushing me in my professional life. When he came home three years ago and saw that I was still picking up odd jobs around town, he wanted to know why I didn’t establish my own contracting business and do that full time. I told him that owning my own company wasn’t what I wanted because that was easier than admitting the truth—I was scared.

In a small town like ours, there’s a limit to how much success you can have. Sure, Dallas’s restaurant can thrive on tourism, and hell, even Hazel benefits from visiting families for her photography business. Parker is the vet, so there’s never a shortage of animals that need tending to. But fixing someone’s deck? Unclogging a pipe or cleaningout gutters? Building a chicken coop or mending fences? There’s only so many people in Carrington Cove to help with those things. Most people here would rather take care of those projects themselves.

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