Perfect Match Enemies to lovers romance - Leia Stone Page 0,47
still glued on the hallway that led to Gran’s office.
“Hey, Ashton, your truck is ready and purring like a kitten.”
And gonna cost me a fucking arm and leg. “Alright, I’ll be right over.”
The second I hung up, my phone buzzed with a text from Darcy.
Darcy: The client walks completely if you don’t respond by tonight. Should I meet you at the bar with the papers?
Shit. For the hundredth time I wished my twin was alive to talk to. We talked about everything and she gave the best advice. But I knew what she’d tell me to do. She’d want me to hang on to dad’s shithole bar because she had always had a soft spot for him. She was a daddy’s girl through and through, and it made what happened to her, the way she died, all the worse.
I just wanted to be free of this weight that I carried. Jenna, the bar, my fucking dad. I wanted to light a match to it all and watch it burn. I wanted to walk away and start something free of the memories that place held … but one thing held me back.
Millie.
What if we could make it work … together? With a new menu and all the other ideas she had, maybe it could be a new start, a new dream. My dream. Her dream. Jenna’s dream.
I just wasn’t sure I wanted to gamble the only decent offer I’d gotten since I put the bar on the market eight months ago, on a girl I met last week…
This was insane.
Me: Meet me at the bar at eight PM tomorrow night.
I would tell Millie on the drive back and she’d understand. Right? I’d sign the papers tomorrow night and then drive them back over to Gran the next morning for her signature and then it was done.
Finished with Wayne’s Place. On to Ashton’s life without that ball and chain fucking bar.
Walking down the hallway, I called out, “I’m going with Jackson to get my truck.”
Gran called back, “Okay,” before she and Millie erupted into laughter again.
I didn’t like this. I didn’t like this one bit.
After paying an eye-watering sum to pick up my truck, I’d gone back to Gran’s to grab Millie. Boy, were those two thick as thieves. Laughing, sharing recipes in the kitchen when I walked in. Of course I wanted them to be close but I was starting to get nervous that Gran and Millie were plotting.
“Millie, wait in the truck for me, will ya?” I asked her as she said her goodbyes to my family and slipped out the front door. Shit, twenty-four hours and they’d adopted her. Gran even let her keep her lucky cooking apron. With Millie outside, I cornered Gran in the kitchen as she went to go back to her office.
“What are you up to with her?” My mother died when I was young, Dad was in and out; this beautiful, old, ornery woman before me was my everything.
Gran reached out and grasped both my shoulders. “What’s best for you, son.”
My brow furrowed in confusion. “And that is?” I was gonna shit my pants with this suspense. “Gran, what did you do?”
She smiled sadly at me. “I saw my old Ashton on this trip.” She patted my hair as I shuffled on my feet uncomfortably and chewed two pieces of that awful nicotine gum.
“Okay…”
“Sweetheart, I sold Millie my half of the bar.”
I reeled backward, nearly choking on the gum. “You didn’t!”
I should have burst into her office earlier and demanded to know what they were doing, but never in a million years had I thought she would do this.
“Honey, I never wanted to sell. Wayne’s Place can be everything your father and Jenna wanted. Millie’s got the grand vision you don’t, and the grit and determination to make it happen.” Her wrinkled hand came up to touch my cheek and I shook my head.
“You’ll never understand.” My voice was hollow. “Jenna and I had a dream to fix up the bar yeah, but she’s gone now and everything about it just reminds me of her. I want to be free of those memories.”
Her voice brightened. “Maybe it’s time to make new memories in that place. Give it a new life.”
“I can’t believe you did this,” was all I said, before storming out through the kitchen.
“Ashton!” she called after me but I tore right through the living room, out the front door and up to my truck.