Page 154 of The One I Hate
“Interesting,” Simon says as he leans closer to me. “Please tell me more about this brilliant idea.”
The weight immediately lifts off my shoulders. “While I love Baby Bug having a nest egg, if I keep contributing to that, she’s going to have more money than me before she’s two.”
“Agreed.”
“But I don’t want to take that from her either.”
“I can invest it wisely, and with that her college will be covered.”
“I like that,” I say. “But going forward, I’ll continue paying my same amount of rent, only now we work on a deal where I eventually buy Mona’s. I know you own the whole building, and you can do whatever you want with the apartment and the space next door, but if I were working to buy Mona’s, I’d…I’d really like that.”
“Yeah?”
I can’t help but smile, thinking about actually owning the space. “I never thought I’d be able to own anything, but I alwaysdreamed of it. And if you’re about making dreams come true, this is one you could help me with. And we could do it, together.”
Simon claps his hands. “Well then, Miss Bennett, I think we have a deal.” He takes my hand and pulls me over so I’m now sitting on his lap. “And I don’t know how you’ve done other deals in the past, but I like to seal deals with a kiss instead of a handshake.”
“Really? You do that with all your clients?”
He gently brushes his nose over mine. “Only the ones I’m in love with.”
Chapter 37
Simon
“Are you going to tell me what is going on?”
“What do you mean?”
I look over to Shane, who is keeping his eyes suspiciously on the road. “You never want to go golfing. Ever.”
“That’s not true.”
“Tell me the latest time we went golfing.”
“It was…I don’t keep track of that shit.”
“You can’t keep track of shit that’s never happened.”
“Just shut up. We’ll be there in five minutes and then you can talk all you want.”
“Fine,” I say, grabbing my phone from my pocket. “I need to check in with Charlie anyway.”
“She’s fine,” Shane groans. “She isn’t having the baby today.”
“And how do you know that? Are you Dr. Shane now?”
He shakes his head. “Because I wouldn’t be that lucky to get out of this shit…”
I ignore Shane’s comment to text Bug. She all but kicked me out of the house today when she heard Shane ask me to go golfing. She claimed that she was going to nest today. She had the diner covered and there were some things she wanted to get done with the baby’s due date being two weeks away.
I told her to rest. She told me to go golfing and to get the hell out of the house.
Simon: How are you feeling?
Bug: Pregnant. Uncomfortable. Did I mention pregnant?
Simon: Do you want me to come home?
