Page 79 of Right Place, Right Time (Second Chances)
“Take as long as you need. I don’t have any place to be until my shift starts, and I’ll be taking the cruiser anyway.”
I look over to Kate who is still picking at her muffin. “When do you want to go, babe?”
Kate looks up and smiles, a genuine smile. “Whenever you’re ready.” See? My girl is resilient.
“Let me go wash up, and I’ll be right down. You might want to change your shirt,” I laugh, pointing to her new stains.
Suddenly remembering the grease, she looks down at her shirt and scowls. “Dammit, Jason!”
“Ohh damn, she just full-named you. Better watch out,” Mac laughs, then quickly straightens up when Kate glares at him. “You shouldn’t get grease on your girlfriend’s clothes,” he then says to me in his cop voice, earning a smirk from Kate.
“Kiss ass,” I mutter as I leave the room. I hear the two of them joking around and laughing together as I make my way to my bedroom, and the sound makes me smile.
I know we won’t stay here forever, but it sure is nice having the people I care about most all under one roof.
***
The following morning, Mac, Kate, and I pile into her newish Honda Civic and drive downtown to the office of the attorney handling Sean’s estate. Today is the reading of the will, and Julia has asked us to be present. I would have rather gone anywhere but there, but as Mac reminded me, we need to be supportive of Julia for Sean. That’s what Sean would have wanted. And damn if he hadn’t been right.
“We’re all here to read the will of Sean Reilly,” the attorney, Warren Perry, says as he takes a seat at the head of the table. His assistant—or whoever she is—walks around the table handing out thick packets of paper to Julia, Mac, and me. Sean’s parents are long gone, and he didn’t have any siblings, so it’s just us three who had been closest to him.
Kate’s hand is resting on my thigh under the table, and she squeezes her support as the lawyer drones on about legal stuff I barely understand. Then he says my name and Kate squeezes harder.
“In the matter of his business, Reilly’s Bikes, Mr. Reilly leaves proprietorship to his wife, Julia McKinley Reilly, and to Mac Charles Spencer and Jason Frances Spencer.”
“Excuse me?” I hear Mac say.
“Frances?” Kate whispers.
“Ownership will be split in the following way,” Perry continues, as if Mac hadn’t spoken. “Fifty-two percent to Mrs. Reilly, and twenty-four percent each, to Mac and Jason Spencer.”
“Did you know about this?” Mac asks Julia.
“I suspected it when Mr. Perry asked me to have you both be here today,” Julia says quietly. She’s holding herself together quite well, but I can tell she wants to bolt as badly as I do.
“Are you okay with this?” Mac asks, more softly this time.
Julia gives him a small smile. “Of course. It’s what Sean wanted. I can’t run that shop by myself anyway. I don’t know a thing about motorcycles.” Her voice breaks on that last word, a painful reminder of how we’d lost Sean. I’m not sure Julia could stand to look at a motorcycle, let alone run a motorcycle shop.
“We’ll take care of it,” I assure her, and she nods her appreciation.
“Thank you. Sean really loved the two of you.” Julie sniffles and a tear spills from her right eye, and damn if it doesn’t make me want to cry, too.
What was Sean thinking leaving his business to me? Even just part of it. I don’t know how to run a business. I look to Kate who is quietly sitting beside me. What does this mean for us? If I’m part owner of Reilly’s Bikes, that means I have to be here…in Columbia…to run the shop. What if she wants to go back to California? What if she wants to go to school somewhere else?
What if I lose her again?
