Free Making Me Believe by Kirsten Osbourne Page A

to cook a lot more than I usually do, but I’ll live,” she grinned. “Maybe we could find a cabin near a nice restaurant?”
    “We’ll take steaks and I’ll grill out some too. That way all the work doesn’t have to be you.” He liked the idea of doing something for her.
    “Set up the time and place, and let me know as soon as possible. This is a good time of year for me to take off work for a couple of days,” she said.
    “I’ve been meaning to talk to you about that, too. You know, we don’t need the money you make. I can easily support us both and then some. Do you want to start looking around for a location for your book store?” he asked.
    Her eyes widened. “We’ve never really talked about money, but it never occurred to me that would be possible.”
    He smiled. “If you were to save every dime you made, how long would it take before you could get your store?” He knew how much she hated her job. It seemed to drain everything from her. He wouldn’t mind if she wanted to just stay home, but knew that she wasn’t the type who could do that without going insane.
    She thought about that for a minute, doing some mental calculations. “Probably four or five months?”
    “If I could add around $20,000 to your savings? Then how long?” He could add a lot more to it than that, but he knew she had a good chunk already saved.
    “Then I could quit tomorrow,” she said. “But I don’t expect you to do that.” She’d never felt like she should live off him. They didn’t exactly keep their money separate, but she felt like she should pull her own weight.
    “Why not? I can easily do that, and you’d be able to do what you want to do. Would you like to do that right away?” he asked.
    She thought about it for a minute. It never occurred to her that he’d help her open her store, but there was no reason to say no. He was her husband, and any money she made would be shared by them. “Absolutely. I’d love to never have to wear an antenna on my head again,” she told him.
    “Give your two weeks’ notice on Monday then. We’ll scout around for a location for your store. I’m assuming you want to open it here in Arlington?” he asked.
    “I was actually thinking Grand Prairie. Arlington has a couple of used book stores, but there aren’t any in Grand Prairie at all. It wouldn’t be too far from here, and I think I’d drive more traffic into my store that way. There are a couple of empty shops on 303 that I’ve been eyeballing for a while, hoping they wouldn’t be rented out before I was ready.”
    “We’ll drive over there and take a look tomorrow,” he said. “If there’s a place worth having, we’ll lease it. Do you know anything about keeping books for a business?”
    “I’ve never done it, but I’ve done a lot of research on it. I have an idea on how I want to run things. With the amount you’re pitching in, I’ll have enough for operating expenses for the first three months. Hopefully after that, even if I’m not making a lot of money, I can handle the expenses as they come along.”
    “Hopefully we can find something tomorrow. Do I get to build the bookshelves,” he asked with a gleam in his eye. He loved the idea of working with his hands and helping her in the process.
    “Well, I was going to buy cheap ones, but sure! I’ll take all the help I can get!” She waited a moment. “I’ll even see if I can come up with some way to……compensate you for your time.”
    He grinned. “Do I get compensation for offering?”
    She kissed him. “Will that work?”
    He stood and led her into the bedroom. “It’s certainly a good start!”
    *****
    They found the site she wanted to use for her bookstore the following day, and she gave notice on Monday morning. She was thrilled. The next few weeks were full of preparations for the book store. They decided to open on June first, which meant a lot of work had to be done in the meantime.
    They took the second weekend of May to go to