Page 41 of When You Got a Good Thing (Misfit Inn 1)

Kennedy turned to find Ari in the doorway. “Hey. How was school?”

The girl jerked her too thin shoulders. “Was okay, I guess. What are you doing up here?” she asked again.

“Dreaming big.”

A spark of interest lit those big, brown eyes. “Yeah? What about?”

Kennedy hesitated. Maggie had deliberately kept Ari out of the loop of the finance discussion. She hadn’t wanted to worry the girl unnecessarily, especially with Ari’s own fate up in the air. Kennedy understood that. But she also understood how frustrating and upsetting it was to be kept ignorant of details that could absolutely impact your life. Especially as it was likely she knew more than they were aware of. Mom had often said, “Little bunnies have big ears.”

Kennedy sat on the bed and patted the mattress beside her. “Come sit for a bit.”

Ari’s eyes shuttered, that careful blanking of expression Kennedy had, herself, perfected at an early age. Never show vulnerability. Especially when shit was about to hit the fan. But she sat curling her feet up beneath her. “Is something wrong?”

“Not exactly. Can you keep a secret?”

“Sure.”

“So you know we’ve been dealing with all the details of Mom’s estate. The four of us are equal owners of the house, the property, and all that.”

Ari’s eyes widened. “Do Athena and Maggie want to sell?”

“No! No, no. Nothing like that. But maintaining a property this size is expensive. Most of the costs used to be covered by a trust, but for a lot of complicated reasons, that’s not an option right now, so we have to find a way to pay for stuff like property taxes and upkeep. And that’s what I’m dreaming about. A way to make the house pay for itself.”

The girl frowned. “How?”

“I think we could turn it into an inn.” She felt a snap of excitement in her blood just saying it aloud.

“Like a hotel?”

“Much smaller than that. A bed and breakfast. We’ve got all this space that no one’s using, all these bedrooms. The house would need a bit of spiffing up, but we could rent out some of the rooms to tourists, provide them a meal or two. What do you think? How would you feel about having strangers in the house?”

Unlike a lot of her predecessors, Ari hadn’t had a constantly rotating parade of other fosters going through the house during her time here. Mom had been dialing back for the last couple of years, as she’d gotten older. But Kennedy liked people, liked the idea of the house still being used.

“I think,” Ari said slowly, “that Joan would’ve liked the idea.”

“Did you know she used to call this place The Misfit Inn? Where misfits of all ages and types could find a home.”

“She was good at that. At making us feel at home. If we could do something like that for other people, even on a temporary basis, it feels like maybe that would be a way to kind of keep her here with us.”

“Yes.” Kennedy hugged Ari. “Yes, that’s it exactly. But would you be okay with it?”

“Does it matter what I think? Joan’s gone, so this isn’t really my home anymore.”

Kennedy felt her heart crack in two. “This is your home. You are a Reynolds. That’s what Mom wanted. We just have to finish sorting out all the legal crap. And, yeah, it might get messy because this is an unusual situation, but all four of us will fight for you. You’re family.”

&nb

sp; Ari’s chin wobbled and her eyes went a bit glassy. “Okay then.” She rubbed an impatient hand over her face and looked around the room. “What kind of changes would it take?”

“I’m still working on all that. I don’t want to present it to my sisters until I have all the details worked out for how it could work, so let’s keep this between us for now. Our little secret.”

“I can do that.”

“Great.” Kennedy stood. “Want to go play in the hay loft to see what kind of treasures we could repurpose from up there?”

A slow smile spread across Ari’s face. “That sounds like fun.”

~*~

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