Sophie ran right into my arms as I hugged her and kissed her. “Can I tell her?”
We both looked at Paislie as she stood there stunned and confused as hell. “Sure you can, princess,” I replied as I kissed her cheek.
“Paislie! This is your new house!”
The color drained from Paislie’s face. “Come again?” she asked as Sophie looked at me with a confused face.
“What does that mean?” she asked as I threw my head back and laughed my ass off.
When I finally stopped laughing, I looked at the love of my life and said, “Welcome home, Paislie. The first two floors belong to us and the top two belong to Emmit, Adaline, and Landon.”
“And the new baby!” Sophie cried out.
I kissed Sophie on the cheek and put her down. “Yes, and the new baby.”
Paislie closed her eyes and shook her head as if clearing her thoughts. “Wait. Hold on, you bought this house?” She pointed back to the house and asked again, “This house? As in . . . the house that belongs to the Russell’s?”
“Yes, but the house belongs to us. Emmit and I bought it, along with the vineyards.”
She sucked in a surprised breath. “The vineyards?”
“Yep,” I said with a nod of my head. “Emmit and I formed a corporation together.” Wiggling my eyebrows, I said, “We’re in the business of wine grapes now. And hopefully, olive oil.”
Paislie looked more than stunned. “What about . . . I mean. Neither one of y’all want to do anything with racing?”
“Oh, hell yeah. We’re going to build a team most likely and be co-owners. I’m thinking that will be a few years down the road; once we get the hang of all of this, we can concentrate on that.” Flashing her a smile, I said, “You can take the boys out of racing, but you’ll never take the racing out of the boys.”
She stumbled back a few steps.
“Uncle Malcolm, Paislie looks sick.”
Reaching out for her, I asked, “Paislie. Are you okay?”
“I . . . I . . . I need to sit down.”
DID HE SAY OLIVE OIL? No. Did he? Holy shit, what is happening right now?
“Sophie, run and let your momma know we need some water for Paislie.”
My hand flew up as I called out, “Harder! I need something harder than water.”
Malcolm laughed as Sophie gave me a puzzled look before turning and running into the house.
Glancing back to Malcolm, he flashed me a smile that made my stomach flutter. Damn him.
“Information overload?” he casually asked.
My mouth opened as I tried to speak. Is he for real? Any other woman would be running for her life right now.
Inhaling a calming breath, I slowly blew it out as I tried to clear my head. I’d give anything to talk to Elizabeth right now.
“So . . . let me get this all straight.”
He took my hand and kissed the back of it as I continued to talk. “You bought this house with Emmit, along with the land.”
“Yep.”
“Autumn and Sophie most likely will live in the stone cottage.”
He chuckled and then gave me a wink as he replied, “Unless Autumn finds out what we did in there, but most likely yes, at least for a little bit.”
I let out a frustrated breath as I covered my face before dropping my hands to my sides. “Wait. You said Emmit and Adaline are going to live in this house too?”
His smile faded. “Um . . . well yeah. They were going to live on the top two floors and we’ll take the first two floors. Keep it all just like the original owners had it. The only thing that was part of the contract is that we didn’t turn the original house into a tasting room or anything. There are two private entrances and both houses each have three-car garages.”
So I’m getting married and moving into a four-story house that we’re sharing with another couple. Am I okay with this? He sure seems to be.
“Did you mention olive oil? Are there olive trees here also?”
With a smile, he shook his head. “No, that’s where buying the ranch that backs up to this place comes into play. Since Adaline loves to cook and the idea of making the bed and breakfast on that land was hers, she mentioned growing olive trees and making our own olive oil.”
My eyes widened as I stared at him. “So, you all have your futures planned out and what am I supposed to do?”
Malcolm looked at me with a stunned expression. “I . . . well I thought . . . um . . . I thought you would love the idea of living here. You’ve mentioned how much you loved the house. And the bed and breakfast. You mentioned it just a little bit ago. It’s perfect.”
I stood up and let out a dry laugh. “Malcolm, that’s Adaline’s idea. I can’t just walk in and make myself a part of it.”
“No, Adaline will be thrilled you’re interested as well. She knew there was an old historical home on it. She simply mentioned the B & B idea. Her goal is to get the olive orchard going.”