“And I’m here because…”

  “Because of Strange Joe’s.”

  “My shop? You want to put my shop in your stores?” She took a bite of her pizza with wide eyes.

  “I’m thinking about it. Van, you could have a brand. You could start with four stores in O’Shea’s. You’d have less overhead, and it’s a smaller footprint than your current location, so fewer employees. You could even promote some of your current employees to oversee or manage the new ones.”

  “Okay, wow! Hold on.” Van set the plate down. “I can’t afford this. I still have to pay off the initial business loan along with my student loans, remember? I have three roommates. What makes you think I have the money to set up shop somewhere else?”

  “I think I can help you there too.”

  “How?”

  “The partnership with a company like O’Shea’s will all but guarantee you another loan. I was also thinking that maybe I could be an investor.”

  “You want to invest in Strange Joe’s?” Van asked.

  “I’d want to see the financials and the business plan first, but I’ve actually been looking for an investment opportunity for a while. I have money from my family. I make good money at my job. I’ve been searching for something I could put money in that I’d actually like. I like Strange Joe’s. I’ve been going there since I got to Chicago.”

  “Really?”

  “I had my first interview for O’Shea’s there. I got there extra early and downed a cappuccino before the HR person even arrived. I’ve gone there almost every day since. I’m not going to lie, sometimes I go to Starbuck’s when you guys are really busy, but I like your coffee shop, Van. It’s busy almost every time I go in there. You’ve got to be doing something right.”

  “I guess, yeah.”

  “I think we can help each other. If you’re not interested, that’s okay. We can just eat pizza and talk, and you can go home. If you are, we can start talking about some details to see if it would even work,” Lena said.

  “It’s my company, Lena. I wouldn’t just hand it over to O’Shea’s or you.”

  “I understand. That’s not what this would be. I promise. You’d be the primary shareholder and the decision maker. O’Shea’s isn’t looking at ownership.”

  “I’d need to talk to a lawyer before-”

  “Absolutely,” Lena agreed.

  Van seemed to be considering for a moment before she reached for her pizza.

  “Okay. I’m willing to see if there’s a match.”

  Lena and Van shared her laptop for the next few hours, working on the first draft of a business plan. Van seemed to be more than interested in expanding and creating a Strange Joe’s brand. Lena was excited. After talking business with Van, she knew the woman knew her stuff. She had an MBA, which was more than Lena had. She had great ideas and wanted to add community involvement to her business once they could afford it. Lena felt like it was a place she could invest in and not only see a profit one day but it would be something she could be proud of too. That mattered to her even more. Her phone rang just as they’d lost all of their energy. Lena knew they’d need to wrap up if she was going to be able to wake up on time for work the next morning.

  “Hey, how are you?” she greeted Summer immediately.

  “Grateful for the private plane that got me here so fast,” Summer replied, and she sounded as exhausted as Lena felt.

  “Where are you?”

  “I’m in the waiting room with Seth. Dad’s still in surgery. I don’t know anything yet.”

  “I’m so sorry, Summer. I feel totally helpless here. I can’t even hug you,” Lena replied.

  “Hey, I’m going to go,” Van said after sliding on her shoes. “I’ll talk to you tomorrow, okay?”

  “Yeah, thanks,” Lena said and returned her attention to Summer. “How are you?”

  “Who was that?” Summer asked.

  “Who was what?”

  “Who’s with you?”

  “Oh, Van’s here.”

  “Where? Your house?”

  “It’s a long story, but we’re putting together a business plan,” Lena replied.

  Van waved at her as she opened the door, exited, and then closed it behind her. Lena rose to lock it up for the night.

  “A business plan? When did this happen? You and I were supposed to have a date tonight.”

  “Summer, this doesn’t matter right now. Your dad matters.”

  “Yeah, you’re right. Seth and I are going to stay here until they kick us out, whenever that is. Then, I’ll head home until we can come back.”

  “Okay. I don’t know how long you’re going to have to stay, but do you want me to come out there? I can catch a flight Friday after work and stay the weekend. I don’t have to. It’s totally up to you. I won’t be offended if you want me to stay out of the way.”

  “I can’t even think of that right now,” Summer replied. “I haven’t talked to him in a while, and the last time I did, we fought. That’s all I can think about right now. I’m sorry.”

  “Babe, I’m sorry. I’m here.”

  “I know. I should go.”

  “Will you call me when you find anything out?”

  “It could be late for you.”

  “I know. I don’t care.”

  “I will if I can.”

  “Okay,” Lena said.

  “I’ll talk to you later.”

  “Yeah,” Lena agreed, and the line went dead.

  CHAPTER 21

  Summer waited in the room for another hour while her father was still in surgery. It wasn’t actually a room. It was more of a hallway with four ancient black plastic chairs that were bolted both to the floor and the wall and had silver scratch marks all over them. Seth was sitting to her right but had left a chair between them that was now filled with empty hospital coffee cups and wrappers from their vending machine dinner. His dark hair was mussed, and his equally dark eyes were closed. There were many times in their lives where people thought Seth and Summer were twins. They looked so much alike and were usually together growing up that it made sense to make that assumption. That made Summer think of Lena and Leo and she closed her eyes at the selfish thought that entered her brain. She was supposed to be lying next to her right now after making love for the first time. She was supposed to be holding her, kissing her shoulder and neck and whispering sweet nothings in her ear, or even saying something funny to make her laugh so she could feel the reverberations against her own skin.

  Instead, she waited for her father to come out of emergency heart surgery and had to just deal with the timing of it all along with the fact that the last time she’d seen her father had been too long ago. They’d fought about the fact that he wouldn’t throw her mother’s stuff out even after all this time. He’d kept their bedroom as a shrine to his deceased wife along with all of her belongings. The house was in utter disrepair, and he had no money to fix it. The stubborn bastard wouldn’t accept any money from either Seth or Summer. She’d yelled at him for it. She’d yelled at her own father for having too much pride. He could lose the house they’d grown up in, when he had children who could buy him a hundred houses each. The only money their stubborn father had accepted from them was used to pay off her mother’s medical bills so that he could spend his money on the mortgage and other living expenses. Summer found herself getting more and more infuriated at the man that was currently under anesthesia.

  “So, aunt Donna is at the house. She’s going to take care of Mo for us,” Seth said while putting his phone back in his pocket.

  “That’s good,” Summer replied without really paying attention.

  “She’ll come back tomorrow during visiting hours but wants us to update her when he’s out,” he continued. “Are you listening, Sum?” He tapped her shoulder.

  “Yeah, sorry.” Summer turned to him. “Aunt Donna is taking care of the dog and wants us to update her. Got it.”

  “There’s some paperwork they need us to fill out. I did most of it, but there’s some stuff I don’t know. Can you take a look?”

  “Sure,” Summer answered, and he passed her a clipboard that had been on the other chair.

  “This isn’t exactly how I pictured our reunion,” He said once she had it in her hand. “I thought I’d get settled back in, you’d come out here, and maybe I could convince you and dad to get in the same room for dinner one night.”

  Summer stared down at the words that appeared to be in a foreign language to her heavy eyes and tired brain. She reviewed Seth’s work and then added a few things he’d left blank.

  “You’d have to convince him. I don’t have a problem eating dinner with him. I just wish he’d listen to me and take the damn money I don’t even need so he doesn’t lose the house he and mom built together and we grew up in,” she replied.

  “I know. I get it.”

  “You don’t seem to care as much about it as I do,” Summer retorted.

  “Hey, that’s not fair. Just because I’m letting the man make his own decisions doesn’t mean I’m happy about it.”

  “I know. I just don’t understand it.”

  “He lost the love of his life and went a little crazy there. You and I can’t understand that. We’ve never felt anything like that before,” Seth said.

  Summer turned back to him again.

  “That was profound,” she replied.

  “Thanks for the surprise,” he joked. “Let’s talk about something else. We can’t change his mind. Even if we could, it’s not like we can do it right now.”

  “Yeah, you’re right.” Summer flipped one page up so she could review the next.

  “So, what’s going on with you? How’s Chicago?”

  “Chicago’s great,” she answered and checked a few more boxes.

  “Great?” Seth knocked her arm. “Hey, talk to me.”

  “What do you want, Seth?” she asked a little louder than necessary. “My father’s having an emergency surgery, my brother spends more time traveling the world than at the company he founded, while I have to sit behind a desk I don’t really want and make decisions that impact all of the employees while the board tries to get me to hire a real CEO. I finally find a house I love, it’s owned by a woman I’m falling in love with, but I haven’t told her, and I don’t think we can just start living together, so I have to find somewhere I like less. I finally start dating her and think I might actually get this whole love thing for the first time ever, we’re about to take our relationship to the next level, and I get a call from you telling me about dad. I have to leave her at home, where she’s visited at night by a woman she kind of dated and probably still likes her. For all I know, they’re taking that step right now with each other, while I’m filling out hospital forms,” She said it all in one breath and then forced the necessary oxygen back into her lungs. “I’m so tired, Seth. I’m tired of running a company with little to no support from you. I’m tired of trying to finish school while I do it. I-”

  “Hey, hold on there.” He turned his entire body to her. “One thing at a time.” He put his hand on her shoulder. “I honestly don’t know where to start. Your rant was pretty extensive.”

  “I know. I’m sorry.”

  “Let’s start with work, okay?”

  “Fine.”

  “Sum, do you want to be the CEO of our company?” he asked plainly. “I know I’ve been gone a lot this year, and I suck. I get it.” He pointed at himself. “But every time I talk to you about work, you seem like you kind of hate it. Now you’re on this last-minute vacation, but you’re not actually going anywhere. What’s going on?”

  “I don’t know.” Summer sighed. “I guess I’ve been feeling a little out of place lately.”

  “Out of place?”

  “Seth, this thing was your dream,” she reminded. “I helped in the beginning. I loved it then. I loved working with you and making this thing happen, but now it’s happened, and I don’t know what I’m still doing.”

  “You’re in charge, Summer. You’re good at it.”

  “Maybe, but it’s not where my heart’s at.”

  “Sounds like your heart is not somewhere else, but maybe with someone else.”

  “Lena Tanner,” she replied with a sudden smile.

  “Yeah?”

  “I am crazy about her, Seth. I’m supposed to be with her right now. It’s kind of driving me nuts that I’m not.”

  “Why isn’t she here?” he asked.

  “We just started dating. I didn’t think it was fair to tell her to drop her life and fly across the country just to sit in the hospital.”

  “Is she crazy about you?”

  “I think so.”

  “Then, I doubt she’d mind, Sum.”

  “She offered to come this weekend if I’m still here.”

  “That’s good.”

  “Yeah. I’ve been staying at her house since before it started though. I think I need to move out so that, maybe later, there’s a chance I can move back in officially,” she said.

  “What does she think about that?”

  “I don’t know. We were supposed to talk about it tonight.”

  “Bummer,” he replied. “Well, you can talk about it later, I’m sure. Is that the step you were talking about?”

  “Huh?” she asked and finished the paperwork she’d been working on.

  “You said you were about to take a step.”

  “We were going to have sex,” she said.

  “Summer! Gross! I don’t want to know that!” He covered his ears like a toddler who didn’t want to listen to his mom yelling at him.

  “Hey, you asked.” Summer smirked at him. “It would have been good too,” she teased and laughed as he recoiled.

  “That’s enough. New topic.” He waved her off.

  Summer kept laughing. It felt good to laugh, given all that had happened.

  “I want to finish school, Seth.”

  “You are finishing school.”

  “No, I mean that’s the only thing that I want to do.”

  “You want to quit work and just finish Stanford?”

  “I think so. I’ve only been on vacation for a few days now. It’s like I can breathe again. I talked to my advisor, and because they’ve basically built the program around me and my schedule, I can finish in Chicago. I want to go for my MBA later.”

  “You’ve never talked about that before.”

  “Not with you, no, but with the people at school I have, and I can afford to do it without working, which isn’t a luxury most people have. I think I’m going to work on that book people keep telling me I should write and see what, if anything, comes from it, but I don’t think I want to be the CEO anymore.”

  Seth seemed to consider her words and said, “Well, shit.”

  “I know. This is not how I planned on telling you. Honestly, I don’t know if I was going to tell you at all.”

  “That’s stupid, Sum.” He turned back to her. “If you don’t want to do this, I don’t want it for you. Let’s just take care of dad and then talk about what’s going to happen, okay?”

  “Yeah, that sounds good.”

  “I’m glad about the girlfriend thing. Never tell me about the sex thing again.” He held up one finger and then another as he rattled items off. “And what was that about another woman being in her house tonight?”

  Summer thought of Vanessa with her floppy hair and her earrings that seemed a little too much for someone that wasn’t in high school. She thought about her being in Lena’s house, sitting on the sofa with Lena, where Summer usually sat, and laughing with her about stuff Summer should be laughing with her about. She felt a rush of frustration and anger.

  “I don’t know. I can’t worry about that now,” she said after a moment.

  She trusted Lena. They’d said they were together, that they were exclusive, and she didn’t think Lena would do anything to jeopardize that, but their relationship was still new and, therefore, vulnerable. She wasn’t entirely sure about Van, since she didn’t know her at all. What she did know of her was that she seemed to take the rejection well. Maybe she took it a little too well though, and she was waiting for Lena to be alone so she could try to change her mind. Lena had been at the coffee shop earlier that day. Summer decided she definitely hated Van again.

  A doctor, dressed in pale blue scrubs with the mask around his neck, approached them from behind two swinging doors that led to the surgical wing of the hospital. Summer stood immediately without thought, feeling like she needed to be standing for whatever news the doctor would be delivering.

  “Taft family?” he asked.

  “That’s us.” Seth stood next to her and placed his hands in his pockets.

  “I’m Dr. Maddox. I’m the surgeon who’s been assigned to your father’s case.”

  “How is he?” Summer asked.

  “He suffered a pretty severe heart attack. We had to perform an emergency triple bypass. This treats the blocked arteries by helping to increase the blood flow to the heart. We take veins from other parts of the body and use them to reroute blood around the clogged artery.”

  “Is he okay?” Summer asked, knowing she could look up the details of a triple bypass online later.

  “He’s in recovery now. He’s stable, but we’ll need to monitor him here for the next few days. We’ll keep running tests, and if everything looks okay, he should be able to go home after that. He will have to make some lifestyle changes. I’ll have one of the nurses come by the room and review those with you later.”

  “Can we see him?” Seth asked and removed his hands from his pockets.

  “He should be in his room in about an hour. You can see him then,” the doctor replied.

  “Thank you,” Seth answered for both of them.

  The doctor nodded and headed down to the nurse’s station in the middle of the hallway to fill out some paperwork. Summer couldn’t sit any longer. She’d sat on the plane and then in the uncomfortable plastic chairs for hours.

  “I need real food,” Summer said.

  “Me too. Want me to go grab something?”

  “No, I got it. I need to move. Do you want your usual from In-n-Out?”