Years old now.
Jacob obviously heard it too. He froze. His hands were fisted at his sides, and he was almost shaking from reined-in tension. Anger. Resentment. Frustration. And who knew what else.
It took a minute, but he finally controlled himself enough to speak. “I’m not taking the easy way out. I told you I haven’t made any decisions yet. But I have no good options here.”
She was about to cry. She could feel the tears burning behind her eyes. But there was no way in hell she was going to let them fall in front of Jacob.
She straightened up to her full height and met his gaze. “Well, start looking for more options. Because a decent man would never throw out like garbage a town that did nothing but love him.”
She’d said too much. Too much had come out with her words. But at least she hadn’t cried.
She turned and gave Belinda a pleading look.
Belinda didn’t let her down. “Oh, Ria, I forgot to tell you that Missy Grady wanted to talk to you about the flowers for her daughter’s wedding this afternoon. If you want to run over and see if she’s home, I can finish up with Jacob.”
“That sounds good. Thanks.” Ria took off her apron and grabbed her purse before she turned back to Jacob. She opened her mouth to say something. Anything.
Nothing came out.
So she gave up trying and just walked away.
Three
“SO WHAT DO YOU THINK we should do?” Ria asked, having just laid out the building situation for the third or fourth time that day to Skye and Madeline.
They were eating dinner together in Madeline’s cute little kitchen in a loft apartment over an empty storefront in downtown Azalea that three different people had tried unsuccessfully to turn into a coffee shop. She rented the apartment from old Mr. Worth just like everyone else on the block.
“Okay,” Skye said, after swallowing a bite of the chili Madeline had made in her slow cooker. “Worst-case scenario. Jacob sells the block to a developer and they turn it into a big box store or a row of expensive town houses or something. We’re making plenty of money to lease or buy a different site for the shop.”
“Yeah,” Ria said rather woefully. “But that would be terrible. My parents were there for—”
“I know. I know.” Skye frowned at her. “I was just saying the worst-case scenario. It wouldn’t be good, but it wouldn’t be the end of the world.”
“I guess, but it would feel like a betrayal of my folks. I can’t believe Jacob is even thinking about doing it.”
“Let’s take Jacob out of the equation for a minute.” When Ria was about to object, Madeline went on quietly, “Just for a minute. We can’t control what he does. We can only control what we do. So let’s take him out of the equation for just a minute and consider our options. One option would be what Skye said. We don’t want it to happen, but it might, and we could still make it work. Right?”
Ria nodded, pushing down the emotion so she could think reasonably. “Yes. We could make it work if we had to. I’m not sure anywhere else in town would work for a business like this, but we could get a place in a bigger town nearby. Stafford or somewhere.”
“Yes,” Madeline said while Skye nodded solemnly. “So that’s one option, if we really don’t have any other choice. But there might be other options. We don’t know what Jacob will do next. He might not end up selling.”
“He will.” Ria knew this for sure. “You didn’t see his face. He’s going to sell it. The whole thing is painful to him, and we all know what he does when something’s too hard or hurts too much. He runs away.”
“So maybe we can buy the buildings on the block,” Madeline continued, evidently knowing there was no good in arguing with Ria about the earlier point.
“What? How?” Skye demanded.
“We can’t afford all that,” Ria said at exactly the same time.
“Hold on. You haven’t let me finish. I’m not saying we should fund it out of our own pocket. But what if we put together a plan to revitalize the whole block with some cute loft condos and a real coffee shop and maybe a couple of antique shops or craft stores or something appealing and small townish. The location here is really good. We’re less than an hour from the beach and less than an hour from both Norfolk and Richmond, and we’re less than three hours from DC. This town has potential. Our business can be the starting place. Maybe we can find some investors or at least some folks to buy the other buildings. There are some other options other than hoping Jacob won’t sell.”
Ria had never for a moment considered any of that, although she’d dreamed of someone else doing something similar for years now. But Madeline was right. Why should she sit around and hope for someone to save her when maybe she and her friends could save themselves? “So what do you think we should do?”
“Start thinking about it. See if we can put together a few different plans. I’ll talk to Matthew and see if he’ll help.” Madeline gave Skye a significant side-eye as she said that last comment.
Matthew Jenkins was Madeline’s older brother, and Skye had had a crush on him all through her childhood until he had gone to college and then moved to Richmond to work for a successful architecture firm.
Skye rolled her big blue eyes. “Don’t give me that look. I’m not still goo-goo about him. If you can get him to help, that would be great.” Then she paused. “Oh! I almost forgot. I can’t believe I forgot to tell you!”
Ria shook her head at her friend’s characteristically quicksilver change in topic. “Forgot to tell me what?”
“Billy Perkins.”
“What about him?”
“He’s going to ask you out!”
Ria blinked. “What are you talking about?”
“He’s going to ask you out. Tim told me.” Tim was one of Skye’s older brothers. “He’s interested in you, so he’s going to ask you out.”
“But he just got divorced a few weeks ago,” Ria wailed. Billy had been two grades above her all through her school years. She knew him pretty well, and they’d always been friendly, but he’d gotten married at eighteen, so he’d never been on her romantic radar in any way.
“It’s been at least three months,” Madeline murmured, her peaceful demeanor calming Ria’s rising nerves, as it always did. “And you don’t have to say yes when he asks you.”
“I know that. But I’ve never even thought about him like that. It would be weird. I still think about him as married. Taken. And even if I didn’t, I’m not sure I...” She sighed. “He doesn’t give me flutters or anything.”
“So tell him no,” Skye said. “I just wanted to give you warning so you’d be prepared.”
Ria groaned. “It feels so awkward. Why do the only guys who ask me out have to be the ones I’m not interested in? I just want someone to give me a few flutters now and then. Is that so much to ask for?”
“No. It’s not. If Billy doesn’t give you flutters, then tell him no and wait until someone comes along who does give you flutters. It’s as easy as that.”