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“Theo, will you be my best man?” he asked with the enthusiasm of someone asking for the salt.
“No, brother,” I said, slapping his back. “But I’ll help you make Rowan a kick-ass gift. Who knows, maybe you’ll like it and smelt your own wedding rings.”
“That’s a hard no.”
“You underestimate yourself.”
His eyes looked sad as he nodded and said, “Same, brother. Same.”
Chapter fifteen
Poppy
“Can you see it,Poppy?” Rowan asked, pressing her hands together and spinning in a circle. It was difficult to look past the chipped tiles the color of pea soup, the water stains on the drop ceiling, and the walls riddled with nail holes and smoke stains, but I could. I could see everything we’d ever dreamed Red Blossoms Bakery could be, and a few things Aiden had dreamed up himself.
“We’ll put up new sheetrock, of course,” Aiden said. “I was thinking we could save a small space by the front windows for consultations and make the rest workspace. Do you want it open, or would you like a wall between you and the customers, Hell Cat?”
“Whatever you and Rowan think.”
Aiden narrowed his eyes. “Theo’s an idiot.”
“Agreed,” Rowan said, clearing her throat, “but we’re not talking about it.”
My sister really was perfect, which meant I needed to be fully in the moment for her, not replaying everything that happenedat Theo’s the other night and trying to figure out what went wrong, again.
“Maybe we could have a half wall with a door,” I said. “I’d like to have the sunlight from the front windows, but I don’t want people creeping into my work area.”
“Are you OK with them seeing you work?” Rowan asked.
I shrugged. “I don’t like people breathing down my neck when I’m sculpting serious art, but I don’t mind when I’m decorating.”
“I like the idea of a half wall,” Aiden said. “This wall here,” he said, thumping the plaster, “isn’t load bearing, so we can knock it down.”
“I have to check the lease first,” Rowan said, ruffling through her color-coded file folders.
“Shouldn’t be a problem,” Aiden said, clearing his throat and looking everywhere but at us.
Son of a bitch.
I’d wondered why the rent had mysteriously gone down five-hundred dollars per month for the perfect space. “You’d know, wouldn’t you?”
He grabbed my arm. “Poppy and I are going to discuss her worktable while you read through the lease,” he said to my sister.
“OK,” Rowan said, not even bothering to look up from the stack of papers in her hands as Aiden pulled me into the worn commercial kitchen.
“You bought the building,” I hissed.
“Keep your voice down,” he said, shifting his feet like a toddler who needed the potty. I’d never seen Aiden O’Malley flustered. It was almost adorable.
“Explain,” I said, crossing my arms.
“I knew this was the right space before I showed it to you, so I made the owner an offer and bought it with an LLC.”
“What if we’d hated it?”
“Then I’d have fixed it up and rented it to someone else. This is a great location.”
“It is, which is why you’d have had no problem getting the rent the original owner wanted,” I said poking his chest as hard as I could. He didn’t even flinch. Pretty sure it hurt my finger more.