The Change Up Read Online Free PDF

“How long will that take?”
    “A couple weeks.”
    “No. A couple days. Tops. If there’s nothing in the local ordinances to stop us from expanding on property we own, then we’re moving forward as planned. We aren’t going to go looking for obstacles.”
    “Suit yourself, but you might want to work it out with Sutter before you fire up those chainsaws. All he needs is a neighbor or two to back him up in filing a formal complaint. Then I’ll have no choice but to halt the cutting until the experts have had their say.”
    Wonderful. Helen Anne might be getting more time after all.
    “Okay. I’ll talk to him,” her father said, and it shocked the hell out of Rachel, because Reeds didn’t pander to anyone. Where was his famous edge?
    When he hung up, Rachel said, “We aren’t really going to talk to Sam Sutter. Right? We don’t owe him anything. It’s our property. Once the two days pass, if the city gives us the go-ahead, we clear the lot and move on. Worst-case scenario, they fine us.”
    He steepled his hands and bounced them off his lips. “Give one, take one, Rachel. Remember?”
    She did, and she was comforted he remembered, too. “The golden rule of closing a deal.”
    He nodded. “The success of this team is going to hinge on the people of Arlington getting behind it. And the sale of the team could very well hinge on the success of the team. We don’t need bad blood between us and the Sutters and however many people Sam can get behind him.”
    It made sense. In fact, if not for the pajamas and the unorganized, written thoughts on the page in front of him, Rachel would’ve simply sat back and admired the cunning business prowess of the man she’d spent the last twenty-plus years emulating. Instead, she wondered how long before conversations like these were an impossibility. Could the doctors have been wrong? And if they weren’t, was her father powerful enough to conquer the unconquerable?
    A knock on the door saved Rachel from answering the gloomy questions.
    When Danny called out, “Come in,” Liv poked her head around the doorjamb. “Oh,” she said to Rachel’s father, “Mr. Reed, people are looking for you.”
    “What people?”
    “These people.” Rachel’s mother walked in. “You scared the life out of me, Danny. I went to check on you in bed, but you were gone.”
    “I’m here.”
    “I see that.” A smile replaced the worry. “Now, will you please get dressed? Liv doesn’t want to see you in your pajamas.” Under her breath she added something about eating and taking medication.
    Rachel watched in surprise as her normally autonomous father followed his wife’s lead.
    “Everything okay?” Liv asked when the door closed.
    “Fine,” Rachel said, but the second she said it, she remembered Sam. “I hope. Apparently Sam Sutter has a problem with us cutting down trees to build a bigger parking lot.”
    “Who’s Sam Sutter?”
    “The brother of a guy I dated in high school. So, in other words, nobody important—except, he might be a credible threat to moving forward with this expansion, so we need to neutralize him.”
    “Ooh. Sounds exciting.”
    “Hopefully not.”
    Excitement with Sam Sutter was the last thing Rachel needed.

Chapter Two
    Rachel’s Tuesday had started off a lot like her Monday—drinking a lousy cup of something you couldn’t call coffee while she sat on her bed at the Uncomfortable Inn looking over to-do lists and timelines for the upcoming baseball season. She gave up just a few sips in, dumped the bitter brew, and headed out to Starbucks with Liv in tow.
    Big mistake.
    “Maybe it would be faster to go inside?” Rachel stared, bleary-eyed, at the snaking line of cars and trucks in front of her.
    “Maybe it would be faster to go to Buster’s Bagels.” Liv pointed across the street where the empty drive-thru lane beckoned.
    “There’s a reason everyone is in this line.”
    “Yeah. People are lemmings.”
    “No. Buster’s coffee is mud