I exhaled deeply, forgetting where I was for a moment as Pearl clicked the spoon around her teacup.
“Want to talk about it?” Tabitha asked.
What would we be talking about? “Pierce and my whirlwind engagement?” Frankly, it was the last thing I wanted to discuss, but I had a job to do and money on the line.
“It’s not usually something that makes a woman sigh so loudly.” Tabitha closed the cash register and leaned up against the counter.
Pearl set down her teacup and smiled. “Normally a sigh that loud always involves a man.”
I laughed. Did I have the situation written across my forehead? “It’s not what you think.”
Tabitha shook her head. “Trust me, in this town you learn not to jump to conclusions until you hear the complete story. Whatever you think your drama is, I’ve heard crazier.”
Even though I wanted to tell her the truth, to pour my heart out to two women who would probably offer me advice, I couldn’t betray Pierce’s trust or our agreement in such a fashion.
“It’s so crazy.” I sat my muffin trying to decide what was acceptable to say.
Tabitha popped a hip against the counter. “Trust me, I understand crazy.”
Her counterpart, the much older Pearl, made a sound in the back of her throat in agreement.
The parts of my story I shared made it sound as if I was talking about Pierce and me.
“I’m so conflicted,” I started. “It feels as if there are two sides of me. Half of me misses my life in America. I’d forgotten so many of the conveniences living in the states can provide. So much we take for granted. But I enjoy helping people in Guatemala. It’s giving my life a purpose for possibly the first time.”
At least a purpose that didn’t revolve around making more money. I hadn’t figured out Pierce’s motivations for buying up most of Pelican Bay, but money probably wasn’t the only factor. He made much more on his investments in real estate in New York. Why he spent his hard-earned cash picking up rentals that barely made back their investment was a part of my fiancé I still needed to figure out.
But I planned to, eventually.
“I’m sure you and Pierce talked about where you’re going to live when you agreed to marry him. Didn’t you?” Tabitha asked, her eyebrows furrowed.
I nodded because we hadn’t, but I couldn’t let her know that. “Yes, of course, and we came to an agreement, but I don’t see Pierce working in Guatemala.”
Tabitha and Pearl both chuckled at my quick assessment.
Pierce wouldn’t be caught dead in his thousand-dollar suits rolling around in the dirt in Guatemala, but Oliver might. It didn’t make Pierce an evil man or put Oliver somehow higher than his cousin, it just made them different. They both wanted to help people but in their own unique ways.
“Why can’t you have both?” Tabitha asked as if it was the easiest question on the planet.
“Both?” I never considered having two men in my life, a threesome wasn’t something I saw me being okay with, but then again Tabitha didn’t understand what was really at play.
She shrugged as if her question was an easy one, but she only knew half the story. “Yes, both. Like movie stars. They’re always flying back and forth from one philanthropy opportunity after another between making movies. You can use Pierce’s money to do good in the world but still keep your roots here in America.”
“Tabitha’s right, honey. It doesn’t have to be one or the other. Marriage is all a compromise.”
Except my situation was more than just marriage and compromise. Hearts were at stake.
Yet, her idea intrigued me and I smiled while letting my attention be drawn out the window as a tall man with bulging muscles walked a big black Labrador on the street. Could I have both?
Maybe?
But at that moment I was fake engaged to Pierce. Something in my life had to give. In my current state I was walking a tight rope and might fall off in either direction if I wasn’t careful.
“You might have a point,” I said, leaving the rest of my muffin on the table and pushing my chair back to stand. “If you ladies will excuse me.”
They both smiled and waved me out of the bakery, happy to have helped, but they didn’t understand exactly how they had. The decision I made at that moment would leave their town entrepreneur vulnerable and his plans at stake. It needed to be done though. I’d let excellent opportunities go in the past and I refused to let another one slip by me.
I had to visit the marina and find a boat because on the inside of one was a man who needed to know exactly how meeting him changed my life.
