Needs A Little TLC (Spinning Hills Romance 2) by Inés Saint Page A

devil if I don’t pluck every single day.”
    Jessica laughed and Cassie managed a smile. She had a difficult decision to make and her friend was right. The good had to weigh in, too. The problem was, Cassie had never been good at weighing things. The only way she knew how to move forward was to jump. Even if she fell afterward, it was always easier to get back up if she’d fallen after taken a running leap.
    “Have you heard from Billy?” she asked. Her kindred spirit had been on the back of her mind all day.
    “Yes, he called just before soccer practice, all excited because everyone had noticed his hair.” Jessica shook her head.
    “So he’s happy.”
    “He’s in his own little world, but he’s happy. And I think you’ll be happy, too,” she said as she put her pencil down and pushed the calculator away.
    “Do the numbers make sense?”
    “They do. A long-term partnership with a business like Amador Construction and Preservation is worth the short-term hit. We can get moving on this right away. You’d need to take care of the new lease and finding a new Realtor for the Cincy office. I’d have get to work on hiring painters, ordering furniture, and decorations for the new one.”
    Cassie took a good look around. Jessica’s taste was impeccable and they had the same scheme in each office. Beige walls with dark red accents that matched their name, framed black-and-white pictures of old homes and neighborhoods, and an eclectic mix of vintage furniture that matched their niche market. “If we decide to move forward, I can handle both markets until I find the right Realtor.”
    “It sounds like you’re not ready to commit.”
    “I have too much time on my hands right now. Whether we open a satellite office down there and take on four properties or take on six and move our headquarters, handling both markets will be a challenge. I’m up for it.”
    Jessica frowned at her. “Red Realty shouldn’t be your life. You need to get out more.”
    “But I’m happy. I love my business. Most of my clients become family.”
    “Define happiness.”
    “Good friends, success in my chosen field, an automatic coffeemaker, and my heart in one piece. So I’m all set,” Cassie said, not missing a beat. “I’m in my own little world, like Billy.”
    “Committing to Spinning Hills by moving our headquarters would bring you closer to old friends, make you even more successful in your chosen field, and you can find an automatic coffeemaker anywhere, so I’m guessing it’s your heart that’s holding you back?” Jessica looked into Cassie’s eyes. “Before you went to your grandmother’s house, you said you could handle Sam and that it would all come down to the numbers. Well, the numbers say we should move permanently.”
    Cassie narrowed her eyes at her friend. “You’re a sneaky one, but the only thing holding me back is my dead therapist’s voice inside my head. She told me to think before I jump, and that’s what I’m trying to do.”
     
    Cassie’s apartment was a thirty-minute drive from her office, and it had never felt like part of her world. It was only a place to park while she was out creating it.
    Every week, without fail, she and her associates blogged about the history of particular houses or towns in their different markets, and every week, without fail, people looking to buy or sell an old house found them through that blog.
    Every so often, a new client ended up being a troll or an ogre, but mostly those who found her understood the special magic hidden within the walls of old structures and they became part of her world. A home of her own hadn’t been necessary. Her needs and goals were met by spinning that magic for others.
    But the moment she’d walked into her grandmother’s house, she’d been struck by an overwhelming sense of loss. Once upon a time, that abandoned, run-down structure had been her home and her sense of place in the world, until the day even Cassie had been stolen from