Izzy was the first to stand. “I’ve got to get to the council offices. Have a good day, girls.”
They waved goodbye and April stretched before she stood too. “I need to do a shopping run. There’s only so long I can go without underwear.”
Emma snickered. “Well, as much as I’d love to join you, I actually have a virtual meeting in twenty. I could meet you later, though?”
April thought about it before shrugging. “Maybe … I’m visiting the bar with Noah today.” She didn’t need to add that, depending on how that went, she might not really be in the mood for company.
Her friend’s eyes softened, their pale-green color making April long for spring to come in properly. “Of course. See how you go, and call me if you need me.”
“I will.” With a smile and one more promise to call if anything came up, April walked out of Coffee Affair just as the sun broke free from the clouds for the first time all morning. The bell to the cafe jingled cheerily behind her and, combined with the sudden appearanceof the sun, she felt a surge of certainty. Whatever the day held, she could handle it.
As she walked the familiar route to The Last Call, April found her nerves building with each step. It was strange that she had felt less nervous speeding away from her life in New York than she did now returning to the bar. After all, April had spent practically half her childhood there. It had kept their parents so busy that she and Noah often spent their evenings after school in the back office while their mom and dad worked out front. As she walked, she thought of the rare occasions when, during quiet moments, her dad would let her sit at the bar with a tumbler of apple juice, pretending she was one of the regulars. She smiled despite the familiar pang of painful nostalgia that made her chest tighten.
Noah was waiting for April outside, arms crossed as he leaned against the doorframe.
“Hey. Took you long enough to get here.” His eyes grew wide as he took in April’s outfit. “What thehellare you wearing? You look like mom’s closet vomited you up,” he joked, trying—and failing—to stifle his laughter. April simply rolled her eyes as he hugged her, secretly reassured by his familiar presence. “How’re you feeling? Sure you’re ready for this?” The quiet concern behind his words made April’s chest tighten a little more, but she nodded.
“Yeah, I’m all good. Can’t open a business here if I can’t even get through the door,” she replied, hopingthat the cheery note in her voice wasn’t too obviously fake. If it was, Noah didn’t comment on it, which she was grateful for.
Noah turned and unlocked the door, entering first as April followed behind. Surprisingly, she found that her nerves seemed to fade as she walked into The Last Call. Unlike her dad’s workroom, there was no real presence of him here. Much of his old memorabilia that had hung on the walls had already been packed up and stored away in the garage when the bar closed. The interior itself looked like it hadn’t been updated for close to a decade and needed more than just a lick of paint if they wanted to reopen. If anything, the overall effect was strangely underwhelming for April, relief easing the tightness in her chest as she looked around.
Mail was piled up by the door, alongside enough dust and debris to make April long for rubber gloves. This place needed a deep clean and refurbishment.
Noah blew out a long whistle. “God, this place is a dump.”
Unfortunately, April couldn’t disagree. “It’s something, all right.”
“To be honest, it needs so much work I don’t know if we’d get much for it if we decided to sell it as it is.” Noah was eyeing the ceiling doubtfully as the dirty floorboards creaked underneath his footfalls. “We’d probably have to whitebox it if we want to sell it for a decent amount. I can do that, though; I have a couple buddies who would probably help out, too. But if wedon’t want to keep it, it might be easier to sell it to Luke so his firm can just level it and start over.”
April blinked, shocked at how casually Noah brought up this idea. “I don’t trust Luke as far as I can throw him,” she said, defiantly.
It was true that the space needed a lot of work. A clean, a repaint, the floorboards probably needed nailing down again, and it was likely that the electrics needed to be serviced and updated. Plus, she was pretty sure she’d seen a rat earlier. But the layout was great. The double doors opened directly onto the floor space and the windows were large, letting in a ton of natural light.
“So, you want to keep it?” There was a hint of smugness behind Noah’s words as he looked at her, like he’d known all along what choice she would make. “I thought you might want to. Mom said something to me about flowers.”
Of course she did.“It was just talk. I know you wouldn’t be interested in something like that.”
Noah shrugged, watching her carefully. “No, but ifyouwould be, then I can get behind it. I’ll help renovate; you come up with a business plan. We could be a good team.”
“You’d really do that? Open up a flower shop with your little sister?” she teased and was surprised when he half shrugged, half nodded, looking entirely serious. As if the idea of her up and opening a flower shop wasn’t ridiculous. “Why? I’ve never run a shop in my life.”
“You’ve worked in retail before.”
She rolled her eyes. “Sure, when I was, like, sixteen.”
“See?” Noah raised a brow. “Plus, didn’t you take that forestry class one summer while you were at college?”
“Floristry.”
“Huh?”
“You saidforestry; it’s—Never mind. Yes, I did. But it’s been a long time …” She sighed, unsure why she was trying to talk herself out of this. The truth was, most people would kill for this opportunity and shehadbeen good at that class. She’d done it every summer for three years running. “Can I think about it?”
“Well, whatever you decide to do, it sounds like you don’t want to sell to Luke, so we might as well get started on whiteboxing either way,” he said, looking for all the world like he was just humoring her. “Hey, look! The pool table’s still here. Do you remember when we were kids and Dad would let us play on it after the bar closed?” Noah walked closer and ran his hand over the wooden side of the table before grimacing and wiping the grime off on his jeans. “Let’s just grab the mail and get out of here. We can come back in a few days to start clearing it up.”
She agreed, and they walked to the door together and scooped up a few handfuls until all the letters were off the floor. As Noah locked up, April looked down the street, enjoying seeing the first few buds growing on the magnolia trees that lined Main Street.
“Hey!” a woman called out from across the street, making April jump. Noah took the letters out of herhands and smiled at the other woman, who April now recognized as Penny Larkin. She’d been a couple of years older than April in high school so they’d never been that close, but April had always liked her.