Page 10 of Reuniting with Lucy

Lucy inched closer, trying to hear what Jack was saying. After another pause, Adam said, “I’ll be right over.”

He hung up and turned to Lucy. “A water pipe broke at the site. Luckily, the water’s turned off, but there was still enough in the pipes to cause some damage. I’m gonna head over there. You wanna go?”

“Yeah,” Lucy said. “Let’s go.”

“What?” Curtis said. “Why do you have to go?” It came out sort of whiny and rubbed Lucy the wrong way. She’d given some thought to what her sisters had said but was still on the fence about whether or not to break up with Curtis. He didn’t realize it, but everything he did and said was factoring into her decision.

“It’s my store,” she said. “Well, my future store. Of course I want to see what happened.”

“I’m coming,” Kate said.

“Let’s all go,” Lizzie chimed in. “I haven’t been there in a while and want to check it out again anyway.”

Ultimately, the entire family piled into several cars and headed over. All Lucy could think was, poor Jack.

Sure enough, the look on Jack’s face was priceless when the whole brood tumbled out of multiple vehicles, everyone talking at once. Adam and Lucy got to him first.

“Sorry, man,” Adam said. “This turned into a family field trip.”

“Well, hello, handsome,” Nana said, sidling up to Jack and putting her hand on his arm. “I don’t believe we’ve had the pleasure.”

Jack shot Adam a look of panic, and Adam laughed. “Nana, go easy on him, okay? Jack, this is Audrey Parker. Audrey, behave.” He turned to Jack and stage whispered, “This family should probably come with a warning label.”

“No worries,” Jack said with a smile. “It’s nice to meet you, Audrey.”

Nana linked her arm in his and gazed up at him, batting her eyelashes like a lovestruck teenager. Jack took it all in stride and crooked his arm to accommodate Nana.

“Looks like a pipe in the ceiling burst,” Jack said. “There’ll be clean up and re-piping to do. It’ll set us back a week or two, depending on when I can get someone to do it. We should also check the piping for the rest of the structure. If there’s a problem here, there may be more.”

“Yep. I agree,” Adam said. “I should have known this wouldn’t go smoothly. Flipping never does.”

“Is this going to cost me money?” Lucy asked. Emma had worked out the financial details of this venture, and Lucy could afford it, but barely.

Jack slapped Adam on the back. “Well, it’s gonna cost your landlord plenty for sure. Whether he passes the cost on to you is up to him.”

Lucy looked expectantly at Adam.

“It’s the cost of doing business,” he said. “Our deal stays the same.”

Lucy smiled and breathed a sigh of relief.

While her family was there, Lucy explained the plan and her ideas for how the new place would look. In the last week, Jack’s team had punched a hole in the wall for the drive-thru window, stripped the floors, and removed all the old sheetrock, so it took some imagination to see the potential of what was now studs and dust.

They peppered her with questions and suggestions. Curtis didn’t seem all that interested and hung back, giving Jack the side eye. Lucy ignored it. Jealousy wasn’t a good look on anyone.

“We heading back for dessert?” Lizzie asked. That was met with a chorus of “hell, yeahs.”

As everyone returned to their cars, Jack cornered Lucy. “Can we schedule a time to meet?” he asked. “We need to talk about flooring, tiles, light fixtures, countertops, all that stuff. We should get everything ordered as soon as possible, so we’ll have it when we’re ready.”

“When?” Lucy asked.

“Sooner the better. We probably should have done it last week.”

“Okay,” she said. “How about the coffee shop tomorrow morning?”

“It’d be better if you came here,” he said, waving to the skinny mobile home that was serving as an on-site office. “There are a lot of catalogs to look through. I emailed you some links so you can research online too, but seeing and feeling real samples is always best. Daytime is pretty busy, especially with this pipe issue to deal with. Could we do it after six?”

Adam came over to say goodbye. “We’ll talk tomorrow?”

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