“Holy shit, this place is awesome,” I said.
“I knew that one would catch your eye. And the price is great. We could put thirty thousand down, take out a loan for the rest, and use our remaining one hundred thousand to fix up the place and get the equipment we’ll need,” Lindy said.
“That’s not a bad idea. If we could get approved for the other one-twenty, we’d be set. From the looks of it, it shouldn’t take more than about sixty thousand to do what we need to do inside, which would leave us forty for inventory, and I found a place we can get stuff wholesale for pretty cheap.”
“And you could put some of that into the loft upstairs so you’d have your own place.”
“No, no, no. Outfitting the loft is going to be with my own money. The business money isn’t gonna touch that place,” I said.
“But you need a place to stay. It has plumbing and wiring for electricity, but it has nothing else. You’d need to put up walls and get shit for a kitchen. It’ll take some money up front for you to move into a place like that.”
“It looks like the main area already has a bathroom. Sort of. It will when we renovate. I can use that to clean up until I can find the money to—”
“Emma.”
“Lindy, I’m not fighting with you on this. That’s my home, and the business money isn’t gonna fix up my new home. End of story,” I said.
“Fine. I take it this is the place you want to put an offer on?”
“I mean I want to go check it out tomorrow with you but, if all goes well, then yeah. I think it’s pretty damn perfect.”
“Well, pick one to have on the back burner in case this one falls through. You know, so we aren’t starting at square one,” she said.
“Well, considering that it’s been boarded up for four years, I don’t think the bank is going to turn us down.”
I could feel my dreams getting closer. Lindy was already on her phone setting up an appointment to go see the place tomorrow on our day off. We ordered our food and got to talking about how we would want to fix the place up, but my phone ringing interrupted our conversation.
And I groaned when I saw it was my mother.
“Fuck. Hold on,” I said. “Hey, Mom.”
“Did you leave the damn door open?” she asked.
“Did you tell everyone you fucked where our spare key is?” I asked.
“That’s none of your damn business. Lock the fucking door. You trying to get me killed?” she asked.
“Do you really want me to answer that question?”
“You’re not funny. Anyway, that’s not why I’m calling.”
“Shocker. Some dude steal your panties again?” I asked.
“Drop the attitude. I’m calling about the Grove Brothers.”
“Who?” I asked.
“Don’t play stupid with me. The Grove Brothers. You know. Black hair. Blue eyes. Tall. Muscular. Tattoos. Wear the navy-blue leather jackets.”
“Navy blue? That’s a shit color for leather,” I said.
“They were in the damn bar last night talking to you,” she said.
“How do you know who the hell was talking to me in the bar last night?” I asked.
“So, you do know them,” she said.
“No, I don’t. What the fuck are you talking about?”