Page 67 of My First Time Fling

Jesse laughed. “Not that revenge isn’t delightful, but I believe we have more important matters to discuss. Namely, this surprise of yours. Because it turns out, I have one too.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, but you go first. What is it? Is it a bulldog? Is it five bulldogs? Is it a trip to a farm full of bulldogs and nothing but bulldogs as far as the eye can see?”

I snorted. “Sadly, no, though now I’m thinking I shouldn’t have told you about the surprise in advance at all. I’m not sure the actual surprise can live up to the hype.”

“I am positive I’ll still love it, whatever it is. And we can always go to a bulldog farm later.”

“We’d have tofinda bulldog farm first,” I said. “Do they even have those?”

“I think we’re getting sidetracked,” he said with a giggle. “Come on, just tell me, so that I can tell you mine.”

“Okay, well, here goes.” I took a deep breath. “Yesterday, when I was finishing things up at Gigi’s house, she told me something kind of insane. You know how her plan was to sell her house and go live in Arizona?”

“Yeah?”

“Well, she still says she’s going to do that. But she’s already decided on a buyer for her house.”

“Wait, really? Who?”

“Me.” I smiled, still not quite able to believe it. “She wants to sell it to me. For a dollar.”

“What?” Jesse looked as stunned as I’d felt when Gigi had first told me.

“I know. That’s whatIsaid. But she’s serious, apparently. She says she doesn’t need the money, and she wants me to be happy—well, she actually said she wantsusto be happy—and I tried to tell her that was crazy, but she’s insistent.”

“Thatiscrazy.” Jesse smiled. “Like, seriously crazy. But also awesome. You’ll have a permanent place in Savannah now.”

“Well, so, actually, that’s the second part of the surprise. Or, I guess this part isn’t technically a surprise, because it’s not a done deal. But, the thing is, I was thinking that maybe it could benotso permanent?”

“How do you mean?”

“I was thinking that I might sell Gigi’s house, too. I already asked her if that would bother her, and she said no, that she figured that was what I would do. Because I could get considerably more than a dollar for it, if what the realtor I spoke to this morning said is true.”

“Oh.” Jesse’s smile slipped for a second before he plastered it back in place. “Well, that’s great. I didn’t, um, realize you had plans to move. But that’s still exciting. Where, uh, where were you planning to go?”

“I’mnot going to go anywhere,” I said, a grin spreading across my face. “But I’m very much hoping thatweare going to go somewhere together.”

“What?”

“I want to sell Gigi’s house, Jess. And I just talked to a realtor, and with the money I'd get from the sale, I’d have enough cash to get the Sea Glass fixed up and operational.”

“You want to—” Jesse shook his head like he couldn’t believe what I was saying. “You want to buy the Sea Glass from me?”

“No, I want to buy itwithyou. Or not even buy it with you, but help you get it up and running, after you buy it. However you want to do it, I’m in. I want us to be partners.” I laughed, hearing the double meaning. “Business partners, that is. But the other kind too.”

He stared at me, incredulous. “I just heard from Cam half an hour ago. That was my surprise. He accepted my offer.”

“That’s amazing.”

“No,you’reamazing,” Jesse said. “You really want to be partners?”

“If you’ll have me.”

He arched an eyebrow. “What if I want to get a bulldog?”

“Then we’ll get a bulldog. Hell, we’ll get ten. We’ll be the world’s first bed and breakfast slash bulldog farm. Every guest gets complementary slobber on their pillows. I still think they’re ugly as sin, but if that’s what you want, I’ll do it. As long as you’ll do it with me.”

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