“Well, of course he did,” he said, and gave her a one-armed hug. “We all do.”

“Stop being nice.” Winnie sniffled some more. “Or I’ll never be able to turn off the waterworks.”

“Were you looking for me?” Cam asked Gavin. “Or did you come to put in a few hours?”

“Both.”

“He’s upset because Piper wants to sell the property,” Winnie said. “He just got back together with his ex and doesn’t want to leave town.”

“That’s not why I don’t want to leave town,” Gavin said. Paused. Shrugged. “At least that’s not the whole reason anyway.”

“So Piper’s definitely selling?” Cam asked.

“She wants to,” Gavin said. “And I get it. She needs out. She deserves that.”

“I tried to get us a loan,” Winnie said.

Both men looked at her, shocked.

“Yeah,” she said. “Look at me adulting, right? But Piper’s not trying to run from us. She’s just trying to get herself a life now that we have one.” She looked at Gavin. “I thought if I got a loan and paid her for her third of the property, she could go away to school in Colorado like she wants. And then maybe we could stay and rent the cottages out, like you thought about doing, and . . . I don’t know . . . do a B and B thing.”

Gavin looked stunned. “You’d do that with me?”

“In a heartbeat. With you as the people person and me as the fixer-upper person, we couldn’t go wrong.”

“You sure, Win? I mean, you get that I’m all sorts of fucked up, right?”

“Hello,” she said with a soggy smile. “Have you met me? Because same. But in the end, it doesn’t matter, because I was declined by the bank. I don’t have any credit history, and apparently I’m also a huge risk. I know, shock, right?”

Gavin laughed a little bitterly. “Well, I’ve got plenty of credit history, it’s just all bad credit history. In fact, it’s so bad they’ll probably run the other way. But I’ll try anyway. We’ll figure it out somehow, okay?”

Winnie smiled and nodded. “I believe that.”

Cam did too. The Mannings were a force to be reckoned with, and he wouldn’t bet against them. But . . . “You guys need to talk to Piper. Tell her, all of it. She’d find a way to help you guys make this happen.”

“You think so?” Winnie asked.

“I know so. I realize neither of you are here for advice, but I’m going to give it to you anyway. You want to prove to her that you can handle things? Then show her.” He turned to the door.

“Where are you going?” Winnie asked.

“To find your sister.”