Chapter 178 Signed

Chapter 178 Signed
Lyra stood at the kitchen counter slicing vegetables for dinner, her mind drifting back to the decision she'd made two weeks earlier, before any of this trouble with the sedan had even started.

She'd thought about it for days before telling Cade. Whether to keep looking at other cities, other options, somewhere far from the club and everything tangled up in it.

But every time she pictured herself somewhere else, the picture felt wrong. This city held Rosa's kitchen and Mara's steady presence and the messy, complicated life she'd built here piece by piece.

With everything still unfolding with Garza, with the club's future so uncertain, leaving had never actually felt like leaving toward something. It felt like running from it, and she'd promised herself a long time ago she wasn't going to be someone who ran.

So she'd signed the lease without much fuss, the paperwork going through just before all the sedan trouble started.

Cade came in from the hallway, phone in hand, and set it on the counter beside her. "You're deep in thought," he said, watching her.

"Just remembering signing the lease," she said. "Feels like longer ago than two weeks."

"A lot's happened in two weeks."

"That's an understatement." She kept chopping, steady and unhurried. "I keep thinking about the timing of it. If I'd waited even a little longer, I might've talked myself out of it once the surveillance started."

"Would you have?"

"Maybe." She glanced at him. "I don't know. I like to think I wouldn't have let fear make that decision for me, but it's easy to say that now that it's already signed and done."

Cade leaned against the counter, arms crossed loosely. "For what it's worth, I'm glad you didn't wait."

"Me too." She set the knife down. "This city is home now, whether I planned on that happening or not. Leaving never actually made sense, not with everything still unsettled here."

"No," Cade agreed. "It wouldn't have."



She thought about the money part too, standing there, the way Cade had insisted on covering it the moment she'd told him she was serious about signing.

"I have some saved," she'd told him back then. "Not everything, but enough to start small."

"I know you do," he'd said. "I still want to cover it."

"Cade, it's not your dream. You shouldn't have to fund it."

"It's not about whose dream it is," he'd said, steady and certain. "I want to. That's different from needing to. Let me do this."

She'd argued a little, out of principle more than real objection, and eventually let him win because some part of her had wanted exactly that. Not because she couldn't do it herself, but because it meant something different when someone chose to be part of building it with you.

"You're doing the thing again," Cade said now, pulling her back to the present. "Going quiet and thinking hard about something."

"Just remembering the money conversation," she admitted. "How you basically refused to let me argue."

"I didn't refuse. I was very reasonable about it."

"You were stubborn about it."

"Reasonably stubborn."

"That's not a real category."

"It is in my head." He smiled, easy and warm. "I don't regret it, if that's where this is going."

"It's not going anywhere," Lyra said. "I'm just grateful. Even with everything else happening, you still made room for this, for me."

"There was never a version of this where I didn't," Cade said simply.

They ate dinner that night, the conversation drifting comfortably between small things, Lyra occasionally circling back to the shop without meaning to.

"I've been thinking about paint colors," she said. "For the walls."

"Already?"

"I like planning ahead."

"Even with a man in a sedan potentially watching the place?"

"Especially then," Lyra said. "If I stop planning because of him, that's letting him win something he hasn't actually earned yet."

Cade studied her for a moment, something proud settling into his expression. "That's a good way to look at it."

"I've had practice finding good ways to look at bad situations lately," she said. "This whole year's been good practice, honestly."

"Fair point." He reached for his water. "What colors are you thinking."

"Something warm, not stark white, not too bold either. I want it to feel like walking into somewhere calm."

"Sounds like you."

"That's the idea." She smiled slightly. "I want people to feel the way I feel when I'm home. Safe and unhurried like they can take their time."

Cade watched her talk about it, something soft in his expression that had nothing to do with cameras or Garza or anything else weighing on the rest of their life right now. "You're going to be really good at this."

"I hope so."

"I know so," he said. "I've watched you build things out of nothing all year. The ledgers, this position with Dante. Now this." He reached across the table for her hand. "You don't need me telling you that, but I like saying it anyway."

Lyra squeezed his hand, warmth blooming in her chest at the simple certainty in his voice. "Keep saying it. I don't mind hearing it."



Later, cleaning up the dishes together, Lyra found herself circling back once more to the practical details, the part of her mind that never fully stopped organizing even when the day had wound down.

"I'll need to hire someone eventually," she said, drying a plate. "Once the renovations are done. Someone to help run things day to day, especially once I'm balancing this with everything for the club."

"Rosa would probably know someone," Cade offered. "She knows everyone."

"That's true." Lyra considered it. "Maybe not yet, though. I want to get the space right first. Make sure it actually feels like what I've been imagining before I bring anyone else into it."

"Makes sense." Cade dried his hands and leaned against the counter, watching her finish the last of the dishes. "How long until it's ready to open, you think."

"Realistically, a couple months. Renovations first, then stock, then all the small details that probably nobody but me will ever notice or care about." She smiled slightly at herself. "I might be a little particular about it."

"A little," Cade agreed, teasing gently.

"You're one to talk. You color-coded the supply crates last week for no reason anyone asked."

"That was efficient organization."

"It was excessive."

"It was efficient excessive organization," Cade said, and Lyra laughed, the sound easy and real despite everything still sitting unresolved just outside their door.



She checked the camera feed herself before bed, an old habit forming fast now, though the street outside the boutique stayed quiet and empty in the app's grainy nighttime footage.

"Nothing," she said, showing Cade the screen.

"Good." He wrapped an arm around her, watching the still image over her shoulder. "Let's keep it that way for a while."

"I signed a lease for a shop I might not even be able to walk into safely yet," Lyra said, the absurdity of it finally landing fully. "That's a strange sentence to have to say out loud."

"It is," Cade agreed. "Doesn't make the shop any less real, though. Or any less yours."

"No," Lyra said, setting the phone down finally, letting herself believe it fully. "It doesn't."