A Little Thankful (Small Town Lovers #8)

Sage 9

My mom conveniently took my dad out on a fifteen-mile hike along the river so I could be alone with Autumn’s potential daddies. My aunt Sylvia and Sami actually drove home for the next couple of days. Sami was desperate for her friends. At fifteen, friends were everything, especially when there were a couple parties to attend.

My grandfather had a hot poker game that required his presence, and my grandmother agreed to stay right here with me to help care for Autumn, who was down for her nap. I found myself leaning more and more on her for help and advice. Leaving her would be difficult, not to mention Mace, Hunter and Forrest, who, according to Gram, Autumn seemed to love more than almost anyone else.

“You should’ve seen the two of them last night,” she said, as we both sat at the kitchen table, drinking tea and munching on homemade oatmeal pumpkin raisin cookies, warm from the oven. I loved to bake with my gram. She was always so much fun.

“Oh yeah?” I asked, wanting to hear more.

“He had her belly laughing as he took her around the hall to see all the entertainment, and to meet some of the other kids. If that man isn’t the bio baby daddy, he sure should be. He’s taken to her like wings on an angel. It’s beautiful to see. Who knew a stuffy accountant could turn to mush with a baby in his arms.”

“I think I always knew that about him, knew there was a secret part of him that he didn’t like to show. Sometimes, it takes the love of a sweet little girl to bring it out,” I told her.

“Well, if he’s her daddy, she’s one lucky girl.”

“I think she’ll be lucky to have any of them as her daddy. Mace is sweet with her as well. And so is Hunter, although, I don’t think he’s had enough time with her.”

“Which means you’ll just have to stay longer to give him that time, especially if he’s her daddy.”

“Gram, you know my life is in San Francisco.”

She smirked, and tilted her head, a tell that meant she was about to give me some backhanded advice, whether I asked for it or not. “And just what kind of life is that? Do you have any friends? Any family there? And what about all your girlfriends here in Cricket? Have you seen any of them since you’ve been back? Do they even know about Autumn?”

Gram had a way of getting to the heart of things.

“No. They don’t know. I haven’t seen any of them since I’ve been back.”

“Well, I’m sure they’ve heard about her, and I bet they’re wondering what’s going on. Shouldn’t you tell them?”

I didn’t want to tell her that I’d ghosted most of them during the past eighteen months. Again, I didn’t want to be influenced. Besides, most of them had moved to other states, and weren’t even living here anymore.

“I will, just not today. Let’s do one thing at a time. Right now, we should be thinking about the results of the paternity test.”

The doorbell rang and a million butterflies took off inside my stomach. I knew I was nervous, but I now felt sick.

“I’ll get it,” Gram said, and I put the tea kettle back on, and started a pot of coffee. I thought we could at least be adult about the whole thing, and drink accordingly. No wine or beer will be served. Just coffee, tea or water, and our cookies, which sat on a pretty sky-blue platter in the middle of the table. I assembled Mom’s tea pot and matching cups, poured half-and-half into a creamer, and added a honey bear, a sugar bowl and white napkins.

That was when Dr. Charles walked into the kitchen.

She came right over to me and gave me a quick hug. “Relax. This is on them. You’ve already done the hard part, but I think they already know that.”

“Thanks,” I told her coming out of the hug. “I can offer tea and coffee, and homemade cookies. What would you like?”

“Love some green tea if you have it. Been a long day.” She looked around. “Are we sitting at the table?”

“Ummm, yes,” I mumbled and stuttered. I was so nervous it showed. “The, umm, table. Let’s sit around the table.”

But Dr. Charles was already heading that way.

“So how’s your visit going so far? Or did you move back here? This town could sure use your expertise. I love to hike and ski and repel down mountains, and I would love it if you could organize more group activities like that. I know a lot of folks around here who enjoy that kind of stuff, even rafting down our river in the spring for example, but there isn’t any one organization that coordinates those kinds of adventures for us. Especially the mindset you need for those kinds of activities. I was afraid to do all that shit at first, until I watched one of your Zoom lectures on the adventure/sports mindset a few years ago. Really helpful, but damn it would’ve been so much better if that person, a Jami Something…”

“Jami Albright,” I said.

The more she spoke the more something lit up inside of me. Like a fire wanted to start but I kept blowing out the flame. Once again, Dr. Charles made perfect sense.

“Yeah, that’s her. It would be so nice if she could come here to Cricket to give a lecture on the subject. That would be awesome. Is that something you and your parents might consider doing?”

“To be honest, I hadn’t thought about that before, but you make perfect sense. There’s no reason why Jami and all the other speakers we hire couldn’t speak right here in Cricket. And Moon Hall is the perfect place to set up a bank of Zoom monitors for exactly that. Not only could they speak to a room full of real people, but we could hold world-wide Zoom meetings right from Cricket.”

“Moon Hall might be a little small, and I don’t know if the owners would let you set up monitors like that. However, I know the old lumber warehouse is for sale. That place is huge. Think about what you could do with all that space.”

“Wasn’t there a lot of flood damage to that building?”

“I think that’s all been cleared up through Dragonfly. You should check it out while you’re here. It might be exactly the kind of venue you and your parents are looking for.”

My mind raced with all sorts of ideas, but this time, except for maybe a business loan from my parents, or better still, if they made me a full partner, this would be my venture.

Not theirs.

I wanted to check out the lumber warehouse like right now, but I knew I couldn’t go anywhere until this whole paternity thing got resolved.

But holy shit, she lit a fire under me, that had turned into a bonfire, and was quickly moving into an inferno. I could actually pull something like this off. I could be my own boss. Run my own show, and do it all from right here in Cricket where I had a family to love me and three amazing life partners who said they loved me.

What the hell?

This time when the doorbell rang, there were no butterflies in my stomach. I didn’t feel sick, and I definitely was no longer afraid. This time, I had a potential plan, and whenever I had even a glimmer of a goal or a plan, my whole world changed for the better.

“They’re here,” my grandmother said as she walked back into the kitchen with Hunter, Forrest and Mace trailing right behind her.

They looked so serious I didn’t recognize those faces. They greeted Dr. Charles, and even she noticed their somber temperaments.

“Are you sure you folks are ready for these results? We can put this off for another time if you want me to. It’s totally up to you.”

“I’d like to put it off forever,” Mace mumbled.

“Is that just your opinion or do all three of you share that thought?” she asked.

Hunter pulled out a chair, then leaned on the table as he took his seat. “I’d like to think that all three of us are her dads.”

“Sounds good to me,” Mace said.

Dr. Charles gazed over at me. “What do you want to do, Mom?”

“I want to contact the agent who’s handling the old lumber warehouse that’s for sale,” I said. “If the guys don’t want to know which of them is Autumn’s father, then what are we doing here?”

“You want to contact who?” Mace asked.

“The real estate agent handling the old lumber warehouse,” I repeated.

“I know her,” Forrest said. “I do her taxes, but why do you care about the old lumber warehouse?”

“I’ve got a potential plan, and if it works, I won’t have to ever return to San Francisco. Not even for the meeting on Monday. The client can come here.”

“What are we waiting for. Let’s call the agent,” Hunter said, standing.

“Already texted her,” Forrest said. “She can meet us in front of the place in thirty minutes.”

“You’re amazing,” I told him, kissing him on the cheek. I turned to Dr. Charles. “You can just leave all the paperwork and if we ever decide to open it, I’ll give you a call. Thanks so much for stopping by. If this works out, you may have changed my life… all our lives, and you did it without opening that envelope.”

She pushed her chair back and stood. “Believe me, it was my pleasure.” Then she handed me a sealed envelope, and shook my hand. “I’ll send you my bill. Oh, and I hope it all works out for you. Those three men are some of the best people I know in this town. You couldn’t be connected to a better trio. Glad you’re back, Sage Pilgrims. This town needs more people like you.” Then she hugged me, and I about fainted right there. Dr. Charles rarely hugged any of her patients. And when she did, they were either next to death, under ten, or someone she truly admired.

“Thank you,” I told her as we stepped apart.

“Good luck,” she said gazing at all four of us. “Now get out of here, because I heard Jess Hall was looking to buy that building for Dragonfly Designs. She might have already put an offer on it or she’s getting ready to. Either way, get yourself over there, and outbid her. The owner is eager to sell.”

“Oh yeah,” Mace said. “Who’s the owner?”

“I am,” she said, as a wide grin stretched her lips, and she snitched a cookie from the plate.

THE OLD LUMBER warehouse, a red-brick expanse of windows and space, was in better shape than I thought, and much bigger than I hoped for. Also, it came with several acres of land, a lovely four-bedroom cottage, and the river ran right behind it. Pine trees and spruce trees shaded both the warehouse and the cottage, which was located far enough away from the warehouse, that I could live there. The location was perfect for whatever kind of venue I wanted, considering all the parking that could be available. The whole thing was up on a natural incline, so now that the flooding was under control, no way could any of the water ever reach the buildings.

“This place is perfect,” I told them. “I could run my own business from here. It’s bigger than what I imagined, but that just gives me more room for expansion. I want to create a type of stage like Tony Robbins… a Zoom Mecca on the West Coast. I can bring in influential speakers from all over the world to talk on my stage, not only about your mindset for sports, but your mindset in general.” I stood in the middle of the building, opened my arms, tilted my head back and twirled around. “I love it here!”

“Then let’s buy it,” Mace said.

“Yeah, we’ll all buy it, and you can run the business,” Hunter added.

When I didn’t hear anything from Forrest, I stopped and we all looked at him.

“I’m thinking. Calculating. Running the probabilities in my head. We can’t just jump into things without some sound numbers behind us,” he said.

“Well get out your damn calculator and figure it out,” Mace ordered.

“It’s not that simple. First, I’ll need the price.”

“A steal at two point six million,” I told him.

“That’s a great price, but still, where the hell are we supposed to get that kind of money?”

“I have some money in a trust fund that my parents gave me when I turned twenty-one for any business venture I wanted to start,” I said. “It’s been accumulating money ever since I turned sixteen. It’s almost worth the entire price of this place.”

“Okay, that could work nicely, but you don’t want to use your capital to purchase anything this size. You’ll want to get a loan against it,” Forrest said.

“He’s right,” Mace said. “I learned that from my grandfather when I took over his business. Plus, you’ll want to make this place your own. And if the folks at Dragonfly aren’t too angry at us for outbidding them, they’re the perfect group to implement your vision.”

“Plus, we’ll need some cash to retrofit this place and bring it up to code,” Hunter said.“As it stands right now, you couldn’t sponsor a pickle ball match in here, much less bring in speakers, or build a set of any kind. This place is a fire trap. But I can tell you exactly what you’ll need to do, and help get all the paperwork done in no time.”

They stood together a few steps away from me and for the first time in my adult life, I fell in love, totally and completely. They not only complimented each other, but they completed me, and my sweet baby girl. They were the piece that was missing in my life. They were my happily ever after, and I’d be a fool to let them go.

My grandmother was right, I had no life in San Francisco. My life was here, in this building, on this land, in this town.

I walked right over to them, got in real close, and kissed Forrest first, like my life depended on it, which, at the moment it did.

Mace and Hunter whistled, and I turned and crushed Mace’s lips with a kiss that caused my knees to buckle.

More whistles, so I walked over to Hunter, and laid one on him. This time, my knees gave way, but he held me close, and spun me around until the world was a blur.

When I pulled away, and recovered my balance, I got down on one knee and said, “My incredibly hot, sexy, and forever brainy Forrest, and my seasoned business owner, Mace, who has magic hands both on my body and with baked goods, and Hunter who can shatter my body into a million pieces and who will literally walk through fire for me… fathers to my baby girl, loves of my life, future nurturers to both me and their sweet daughter, will you be my everything partners? Will you be my husbands?”

“Yes!” they said in unison, sounding as if they’d practiced this moment.

They encircled me then, kissing and loving on me, filling me up with “yeses” and “I love yous” until the joy I felt burst through in kisses and giggles. For the first time since Autumn started smiling and laughing, I knew what she felt like. That utter and absolute innocent joy that few adults ever experience, and here I was standing in the middle of it, wondering how the hell I ever got so damn lucky.

“Here we go!” I said, encircled by my lovers.

And just like that, I knew I was finally home.