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“It is. Of course, I just got a big client at work, and now I’m not sure I’m going to have the time to get started right away. Because of course I won’t.” Jenna blew out a breath. “And it’s not like I’m going to turn away a paying client for a personal project.”
“Well, Noah’s paying you, right?”
She shrugged. “I’ll charge him when something costs me money, sure. But I hadn’t planned to charge for the design work or anything like that. I know he’s only buying it because I pushed him. And it’ll be a fun project for me. It doesn’t seem fair to make him pay for that.”
I pressed my lips together. I wanted to tell her she should charge him market rate—look at how Austin had pushed until she’d relented on that with the learning center—but I also really, really didn’t want to get involved.
“What?”
I lifted my eyebrows. “What, what?”
“You think loud. Just spit it out.” Jenna glanced over as the bell on the door jingled.
“Hey. Look who I found!” Kayla held the door for Whitney, and the two of them joined us. “I like this. Where’d the tables come from?”
“The café was throwing them out.” I glanced at Whitney as she sat next to Jenna on the couch. “You okay? You look pale.”
“Just getting back into the home from vacation swing of things. Turns out, Beckett is a lot easier to manage when there are five other adults around to help out. Scott has been going out to Robinson Enterprises to consult on a classified project, so it’s just me and Beck all day and I’ve gotten used to having backup.” Whitney shrugged. “I’ll adjust. For now, I’m glad Scott decreed that Beckett could join them for man time.”
I grinned. Man time. How cute was that? Did Cody and the rest of the guys call it that when Beck was around? I got a little mental flash of Cody with a toddler that looked suspiciously like him on his hip. He’d be such a good dad. Maybe it was rushing things a little—Cody and I had said we loved each other, and we’d talked marriage and family a little. Probably not enough to justify that daydream—but it didn’t hurt to dream, did it?
No. Of course it didn’t.
“How’s the learning center working out, Kayla?” Jenna flipped open a pizza box lid and wiggled a slice free.
“It’s good. You were right about the extra outlets in the labs. We use them all. Sometimes, I even wish I had one or two more. But that’s what power strips are for.” Kayla eyed the pizza. “Is that for all of us?”
“Do I look like someone who routinely eats two whole pizzas by herself?” Jenna tipped her head to the side and stared at Kayla.
Kayla’s shoulders crept closer to her ears. “No.”
Jenna narrowed her eyes. “You’re sitting there trying to decide how often ‘routinely’ is, aren’t you?”
“No! I swear!” Kayla held her hands up.
“Eat the pizza. At this point? I insist.” Jenna pushed the boxes closer to Kayla.
Kayla snatched a piece out of the box without looking at it and took a huge bite.
I smothered a grin and reached for one of my own. Of course I had to put it right back down because the bell over the door jingled. “I’m coming back for that. No one eat it.”
I wiped greasy fingertips on the sides of my pants—grateful I’d worn dark jeans today instead of something dressier—and hurried over to greet the customer.
The evening passed quickly. I did manage to eat three slices of pizza—at least one slice too many—in between customers. We laughed. Whitney showed us photos of their time in the Caymans and the beach house they were considering. They hadn’t pulled the trigger yet because they still weren’t sure what they’d do with it when it was vacant. I guess it would be a challenge to choose between keeping it vacant so you could randomly head down for a long weekend whenever you wanted or rent it out and keep it from just sitting there.
Finances weren’t a concern. Obviously. But I appreciated that none of the guys really went overboard throwing money around.
The girls left around nine. I spent the last hour before closing tidying up the shelves so they were ready for tomorrow. I didn’t plan to get here super early. Even with closing on Monday, the schedule was starting to get to me.
Sales were up. Maybe it was time to think about hiring someone to cover some hours. I’d have to play with numbers and see if I could make it work. I’d like to be able to make it a full-time position with benefits. But I wasn’t sure sales were up that much.
I locked up and made the short walk home. My cell rang as I was closing the front door of my townhouse. My heart leapt and I hurried to dig it out of my pocket. Cody had been acting a little odd this week. Maybe this was him, finally calling to tell me what was going on. Or he could come over and tell me. I wasn’t picky.
Actually, I’d like that better. Even with it being late.
Before I traveled down that road too far, I glanced at the screen and deflated. I answered. “Hey, Austin.”
“Wow. Way to greet your brother. Youramazingbrother. Who loves you. And is, of course, your favorite.”
