“We’re looking at moving in.” His grin grew even wider. “This is the new home of Hunter and Chris’s Building for Fixing People.”
I blinked back my surprise and took a step forward, seeing the building in an entirely new light. “We’ll keep working on the name, but this location could definitely work.”
“I knew it.” He punched the air and dangled a set of keys. “Want to take the grand tour?”
“In a minute.” I turned to him, frowning as I locked my gaze with his. “Did you buy this place?”
“Yes.” He gave me a guilty smile. “I was meeting with the realtor the other day when I left early.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?” Mentally trying to calculate how much a building like this would have set him back, a deep sense of guilt came over me. “We could’ve bought it together.”
Hunter’s ginger curls bounced from the force with which he shook his head. “No. Look, I know you’ve got a lot of money but I also wanted to contribute something to the business.”
“Your skills weren’t enough?”
He sighed. “My skills aren’t what’s going to bring in the patients. Yours will. Plus, we’ll have to buy all the equipment and office supplies. I knew you wouldn’t let me chip in for those. This place needs some work, but we can do it ourselves. If you don’t like it—”
“No, I love it.” I grinned at my friend and held out my hand for him to shake. “We’ll do the work ourselves, but whatever materials we need are on me. Deal?”
He slapped his beefy palm against mine and nodded. “Deal. I’m pretty tapped out now anyway.”
“Yeah, we’re also going to talk about that.” Releasing his hand as I took a step back, I gestured toward the cracked concrete path that led to the front doors. “How about that tour?”
“I’ll lead the way.”
I fell into step behind him, already trying to picture what the outside of the building would look like once we were done with it. Thousands of ideas raced through my head, but first, we needed to figure out what to do about our patients.
“I’ve been thinking about making a deal with the hospital to outsource the physical therapy department to us,” I said. “They’ve been complaining about all the space we take up for ages. I just need to set a meeting with the board to discuss it.”
“You think they’ll go for it?” He twisted around to glance at me while turning the key in the lock. “I’ve been trying to come up with ways for us to take our patients with us, but I’ve come up dry so far. Once I saw this place though, I couldn’t get it out of my head. I figured since it needs so much work, we have months before we’d be able to move in anyway.”
“It sure won’t happen overnight,” I agreed, narrowing my eyes as I thought. “I’ll have to get right onto making that deal. We might need months to get this place in shape, but it’s also going to take some time negotiating with them.”
“I knew you’d figure something out.” Hunter stepped inside and gave me a stupid little bow as I followed. “Welcome to your new humble abode, doctor. I hope you’ll be happy here.”
I punched him in the shoulder and rolled my eyes. “Our humble abode. If we’re really doing this, we’re going to be fifty-fifty partners.”
He raised both of his eyebrows. “That hardly seems fair to you.”
“It’s more than fair,” I said firmly, planting my feet and looking at him expectantly. “Are we in agreement because, if not, the tour will have to wait until we are.”
His eyes darted from one of mine to the other, and he suddenly barreled forward and enveloped me in a giant, backslapping hug. “I never expected it, but yes, we’re in agreement.”
“Great.” I gave him a final thud before I stepped away. “Let’s get this show on the road then. Tell me what I’m looking at.”
The ground level was one massive, cavernous space. An industrial-looking walkway ran around two thirds of the top with doors leading off it at odd intervals. There was a single set of steel stairs to the far left. Piles of discarded rubble, machinery in various states of disrepair, and dirt covered the floor.
All things considered, it could have been a lot worse. Windows high up in the walls let in some natural light, and once the place was cleaned up, I could see how well it would