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“What can I say, Liz? When you’re right, you’re right. I had her pegged all wrong.” Carmela’s eyes floated to the woman pantomiming riding a jet ski. “If I could start over I would.”

“Don’t think that way,” she chided. “Apart from being completely useless unless you have a time machine, you probably wouldn’t be here now if events had been di erent.

Things only happen exactly as they are meant to.”

“You’re very wise,” Carmela said with a laugh as she relaxed into the chair.

“It’s so good to see you like this, Carm,” Liz said after regarding her quietly for a long time. “It really makes my heart feel full.”

“Like what? Tanned?” she joked.

“Tanned,” Liz agreed, nodding and chuckling. “Happy, healthy, vibrant, relaxed. It’s like you’re positively radiant. I don’t know if I’ve ever seen you like this. . . like decades of worry have magically lifted from your shoulders.”

Carmela took a long, deep breath. “Liz . . . that’s what it feels like,” she admitted quietly.

Smiling, Liz got up from her chair and walked around her desk before taking the chair next to Carmela. “You deserve

every last second of this feeling. Indulge in it. Why don’t you two take a little more time o ?”

“Don’t think I haven’t thought about it,” Carmela replied with a chuckle. “I’m not looking forward to being buried in work again.”

Liz laughed as she raised her eyebrows. “I bet there’s something else you rather be trapped under, and I think you’re doing the right thing by hanging onto whatever little bit of magic you found while you were away.”

“There’s something else I found. I want you to fire Brandy,” she said dramatically, crossing one leg over the other.

Liz furrowed her brow. “Fire her? Why? She’s the only person we’ve managed to keep in that job for more than a few months. She’s trustworthy, smart, dependable—”

“And that’s exactly why I want you to fire her,” Carmela interrupted. “So I can hire her to be my realtor’s assistant for double the salary. Plus, if she wants, I want to pay for her real estate agent course so I can make her part of my team. I haven’t talked to Rhiannon yet, but I want her on my team too if she’s interested. I was thinking we can turn the old file storage room—”

“Into one big communal o ce for the three of you,” Liz completed her thought. “I like it. They could both learn a great deal from you—”

“And I can leave the running around after clients and chasing down leads to the younger, hungrier agents. It might leave me with space in my life for more important things than work,” Carmela explained. Liz’s wide, excited eyes told her she was on board.

Liz nodded, but from her distant gaze, Carmela knew she was already making plans for how to spruce up the space they hadn’t used since going digital years before. “This will

be good practice for you,” she decided. “For when you become the broker when I retire.”

Carmela smiled before leaning over and giving her a hug.

“Since when are you so touchy-feely,” Liz joked as she hugged her back.

Blushing, Carmela shrugged. “I guess it’s part of the new and improved me.”

Liz smiled in approval as Carmela stood and went to get Brandy.

CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN

“DID you know Liz is trying to get the association to let her put in a window?” Rhiannon said as she approached Carmela’s o ce doorway.

Her girlfriend smiled. “Just you wait, she’ll get them to do it too.”

Rhiannon closed the door and the blinds before approaching Carmela’s desk. “She wants us in there by January first. I don’t see how she’s going to make it all work in a month and a half considering everything she wants to do. I told her all we need are three desks and enough plugs for the computers.”

Carmela rolled her chair back to give Rhiannon enough room to straddle her. They tried not to be publicly a ectionate in o ce, but Rhiannon had been with buyers showing them houses all day and had missed her.

“You’ll come to learn that Liz doesn’t do anything if it’s not to her standards. By the time she’s done with that shared space, it’s going to be magazine quality.

Rhiannon bent down to take Carmela’s bottom lip between her teeth before kissing her deeply. “You know we’re not going to be able to do this anymore,” she warned between kisses.