Noelle was scowling at her, which didn’t seem fair, since she was the one who’d brought up the idea in the first place. She must really love Carrigan’s, if she was willing to broach the idea of Miriam staying to save it.

“Could you leave Charleston? Logistically?” Hannah asked. “Have you thought about it?”

She had thought about it. She’d done all the math late one night. Just in case, she’d told herself. What it would take to close up the store, move all her materials here, and set up a permanent workspace. How much it would cost, and what part of Carrigan’s she could take over without disrupting the entire business.

The day Elijah told them about the will, Hannah had mentioned the carriage house. Miriam had snuck away from customers to do a walk-through during those long, busy two weeks when they’d first opened. It wasn’t a bad option. With the right conversions, it could be perfect. She would need to add a filming space, with a lighting setup, but it was doable.

She nodded. “Logistically, I could.” Emotionally, that was more complicated math. She would have to give up Charleston and Tara, who would never move here. It was more risk than she’d taken in, well, a decade.

“I think this is a plan we can take to the Rosensteins,” Hannah said. “First, we need specifics, projections, concrete ways we’ll get ourselves through the first year…”

“I’ve started cost analysis, although I need some numbers from you on Carrigan’s expenses,” Miriam assured her. “Except I didn’t write myself into the plan.”

“We need to know if you’re onboard, before we talk to them,” Hannah said. “Because it’s a whole different pitch.”

“Do you want me here?” Miriam asked. She wasn’t even going to think about whether or not she wanted to be here, herself. One step at a time. Noelle was silent, but Miriam already knew her answer. She was watching Hannah. If Hannah wanted to do this with her, maybe…

“I do.” Hannah smiled, and that smile was a part of Miriam’s happiness she’d forgotten she needed. “I want you here. I want to do this wild idea with you. Cass wanted you here. The Matthewses want you here. Do you want to be here?”

The idea of making a decision that would alter the lives of everyone she loved made Miriam want to run back to her warehouse and hide. In that space, she made all the rules, and nothing she did impacted anyone but herself.

She breathed through a rise of panic.

“We said I would stay through Thanksgiving and then we would figure things out, and that’s in a week. Can I still have that week? To try to sort out my brain?” she asked, pleading with Hannah with her eyes to understand why she couldn’t make this decision on the spot.