Kiss by Kiss (Riggins Brothers #3) - Kaylee Ryan Page 0,81
I owe you an apology.”
I nod. “How do we fix this, Mr. Hamilton?”
“Nashville Horizon has fraud protection coverage for rare,” he emphasizes the word, “occurrences as these. It does take some time to get it all processed and through the insurance carrier.”
“What do I do until then? This is my livelihood. The livelihood of my business.”
“I’m sorry.” His shoulders slump. “I’ll make some calls and see what I can do.”
“You’ve got until tomorrow morning to notify us of the next steps,” Owen informs him. “See to it that we hear from you.” With that, he nods at Grant, who links his fingers through mine and leads us out of the office and to the elevators.
“Wow,” I say once the doors slide closed.
“That’s not at all what I was expecting,” Owen tells me.
“I’m sorry to drag you both into this mess. Thank you for being here.”
“Are you kidding? I live to make that man squirm. He’s a pansy-ass who sits in his big office all day and does jack shit. He has no idea what was going on under his nose.”
The elevator doors open, and with our heads held high, we make our way out of the building. The warm May sun beats down on us, and I take a deep breath, filling my lungs with fresh air. I don’t know how this mess is going to turn out, but I have to have faith that everything will be all right.
“You going back to the office?” Owen asks.
“No. We’re going to go back to the bakery and relieve Mom, and then we’re… we’re just going to be.”
He nods. “Love you, brother. You too, Aurora. I’ll let you know if I hear anything.”
Grant steps forward and gives his brother one of those back-slapping man hugs men do. “Thanks, O. I appreciate everything you’ve done.”
“Me too.” I move forward as Grant steps back and I give Owen another hug. “Thank you for being here.” I know I’ve told him already, but I feel as though it deserves to be repeated.
“You kids have fun. I’ll call you later,” he says, climbing into his car.
“You can go to the office,” I tell Grant. “I’m sure you have a ton of work waiting for you.”
“Nothing that can’t wait. Today I just need to be close to you.” He doesn’t say why, but he doesn’t need to. I could feel the tension rolling off him in waves as I told Owen my story. And let’s be real, we don’t ever need an excuse to spend time with the ones we love. Even if it means missing work for a day. We’ll call it a mental health day.
When we make it back to Warm Delights, Aspen and Lena are laughing with a group of women at one of the tables. “Oh, we didn’t expect you back so soon,” Lena greets us.
“Grant and Owen, they were incredible. You should be proud,” I tell her.
Lena nods. “I am. I’m proud of all of my boys. Did you get everything worked out?”
Grant and I tell them about Lucy and Elijah, and the epic mess at the bank. Despite the shitshow, it’s still turned out okay. We were lucky to be able to figure out what happened so soon, and they can work on getting my money back in my account where it belongs.
“Oh my,” Lena says. “I’m glad you found out who was behind it and can move forward.”
“Me too,” I agree. “How did it go?” I ask my sister. I’m over talking about Elijah and the way he keeps screwing with my life.
“Great. It was busy, but this one handled it like a champ.” She hip checks Lena gently.
“I raised five boys. This was nothing,” she jokes, and the ladies sitting around the table all laugh. “We’ve got this handled. You two shoo.” She motions for us to go. “Take the day to just… be.”
“No, I can’t ask you—” I start, and she’s already shaking her head.
“You didn’t ask me. I volunteered. Besides, Aspen and I are making a new creation. You can’t see it yet.”
“Should we be worried?” Grant laughs.
“Nope. We’ve got this,” Aspen assures him. “Go.”
“Thank you both.” I give them both a big hug, wave to the ladies at the table, and pull Grant back out to the street.
“That was easier than I thought it would be. I was sure you’d insist on staying.”
“They were having fun and looked as though they had it all under control. Besides, there is something else that I need right now.”