“Why all the questions?”Jesse interrupted his thoughts.
“I asked Livy out. We’re going to dinner Wednesday. Some place called Jimmy’s.”
“Are you?”Jesse raised an eyebrow.
“Is that a problem?”
“No, not a problem. She just rarely dates anyone.”
“She said yes to going out with me.”
“Fine. But one thing.”
Austin eyed him.
“Don’t mess with her. She’s great, and she’s had a hard life. Just…be nice.”
“Don’t worry, buddy. It’s just one date.”But he admitted—though only to himself—that Livy was the first woman who’d grabbed his attention in a long time. A very long time. His business kept him so busy. But it appeared Livy’s work kept her just as busy.
Well, it would do them both good to take a night off.
Emily slammedthrough the front door of their house.“Mom, I’m home.”
“In the kitchen.”
Emily hurried into the room.“Oh, hey. Guess what. Delbert is probably going to hire Austin to do some work for Cabot Hotel. And maybe the whole Hamilton Hotel chain.”Emily snagged an apple from the bowl on the counter and crunched a bite.“And Delbert is going to let me work on doing the updates for social media for the hotel. How cool is that?”
“Very cool.”She was proud of all the challenges Emily had taken on this year. And she had to admit the idea of Austin being around more didn’t sound so bad either.
“Austin said he’d train me and help make up a content calendar. I’m going to learn so much from him.”Emily’s face flushed with excitement.
“Sounds like it.”Livy hung up the dishtowel she’d been using to dry the dishes.“Oh, there’s a package for you over there on the counter. From your dad.”
Emily moved over to the end of the counter and eyed the package.“Wonder what it is? It’s not my birthday or anything.”
“Why don’t you open it and find out?”
Emily tore open the package and gasped as she opened it.“Wow, Mom, look at this.”She held up a new cell phone.“This is the newest model they have. So cool.”
Everything wascoolwith Emily these days.
Emily opened a card that was with the package and read it out loud.“Em, thought you might like this. I’m pretty hit and miss on your birthday but wanted you to have this. It’s all set up and the bill will come to me. Enjoy.”
“That’s a very nice gift.”Something she’d never be able to give Emily. New model cell phones were way out of her budget.
Emily opened the box and pulled out the shiny new phone.“This is like the best gift ever.”
Ouch.
“You should call your father and thank him.”
“I will. And I’ll go change before we head over to Grams.”Emily hurried out of the room.
Livy sank onto a chair at the kitchen table. Itwasa nice gift. Very nice. And she liked Emily to have nice things. Her daughter would love the phone. It was nice of Brett to send it.
Nice, nice, nice.
So…why was she so upset? She sighed and stood back up. She’d go change, too. Maybe they’d take the boat over to her mom’s house for dinner. Fresh air on the ride would do her good. Help her get over her ridiculous…jealousy? That Brett could afford to buy Emily gifts like the phone for no occasion, just because.
