Like me. But she could do this. Where once she could have been construed as a nostalgic sap, now she was an accountant working closely with an HR department in a respected, prime position. The present, not the past, was what mattered.
Jade clutched her water bottle and smiled. “Good thing you’re holding the scissors.”
“And the checkbook,” Olivia stated with confidence. Maybe once he saw a check made out to him, with a few zeroes, he’d change his tune. “I’m going back and I’ll keep going until he gives in. This may take more time than I anticipated, but I’m determined to be done once and for all.”
“Are you sure?” Melanie asked. “I hate to play the devil’s advocate here, but—”
“Please, you’ve never had an evil bone in your body,” Jade pointed out.
Melanie shrugged with a slight smile. “Still, if this place bothers you so much, just leave. Let Jax go on with his life and you go back to yours. You have that partnership to work on back in Atlanta anyway.”
“I do,” Olivia agreed. “But I have to figure out this partnership first.”
Why didn’t her father just leave the entire airport to Jackson? Then Olivia wouldn’t be here, taking time away from other projects she needed to focus on—like the career move she’d worked the past decade to maintain. If she were just doing her regular job, and not vying for the top spot, she could technically work from anywhere.
But she didn’t want to work from Haven. This may have been her childhood home, but she’d left here long ago and never looked back. Why did she have to be pulled back in?
When she and her mother had left, they’d sworn to never return. Olivia didn’t want to be so hard about it, but...
No. She couldn’t travel down that lane of memories, not when she was desperately just trying to get out and keep this a business arrangement.
She glanced to Jade and Melanie, who stared back at her as if they were afraid she was going to crack or have a meltdown at any moment. Pity looks, or the sympathy hugs, were a surefire way to get her to break.
Another wave of emotions swept through her as she thought of how amazing these girls were. Not that she expected anything less than for them to band around her and offer support.
After her father’s death, they’d all come to Haven to the cute women-only spa, Bella Vous. Jade had booked the trip because they all needed to get away from Atlanta and just unwind. What better way than a spa? They’d all heard the buzz over the new resort run by three brothers in honor of their late sister. How poetic and amazing was that? There was no way Olivia and her friends were going to be left out.
Just after the trip Olivia learned of the will, Jade’s career literally blew up in her face, and Melanie was embarking on her own journey after her hellacious marriage came to an end. So here they were with no clear path, but they were always a team. If they were going to succeed or fail, they were doing it together.
“We need a ladies’ night. Is there a bar in this town?” Melanie took one last drink of her smoothie. “I mean, I saw one, but it was . . .”
Olivia laughed at Melanie’s shudder. “Yeah. Taps is the only bar. It’s not terrible if you want a neat whiskey or beer.”
“I never trust a place that doesn’t have a wine collection. And I don’t mean the box variety.”
Olivia laughed. She could always count on Jade to have her own “crisis” during someone else’s. Still, they deserved some bonding time.
“We’ll just do a girls’ night in. I need a manicure in the worst way and there’s nowhere around here I’ll go.”
“Good thing I packed the necessities,” Jade replied. “Melanie, you do the liquor run.”
Melanie held up her empty shaker. “Wait, is there even a store that sells the supplies we need?”
Olivia rolled her eyes. “I would think. Surely the town isn’t made up of complete savages.”
“I’m not so sure.” Jade came to the other side of the island, holding her bottle, and resting her palm on the counter. “During my jog I saw a man watering his lawn in only plaid boxers, a woman in curlers and a hideous floral robe standing on the curb getting her mail, and I won’t even get into the man who was standing in his doorway wearing nothing but what the good Lord gave him. He had the balls to actually wave at me. Pun intended. But in my too-long chat with Mrs. Kinard, I did learn that our favorite teacher’s husband passed just yesterday. I thought we should send flowers or . . . I don’t know, bake a casserole.”
“Flowers,” Olivia muttered. “We’re not baking anything and getting too cozy with the neighbors. We won’t be here that long.”
Olivia didn’t want to hear anymore. She didn’t want to know what was going on in this town or who the people were. All she wanted was to get this deal in motion so she could get out.
“Remind me not to take that same path when I go tomorrow,” Melanie said as she sat her bottle in the sink. “I’d rather not have Mr. Balls waving at me.”
Olivia came to her feet. “Well, as fun as discussing balls has been, I need to get to work cleaning out the closets. I’ll never sell this place with all the boxes and knickknacks.”
She shoved her hair back from her face, wondering if she should go on a jog herself. She’d been so anxious
