"Really?"Melody brightens."Because honestly, she's been a nightmare since she left.Won't eat properly, keeps escaping, bit my assistant..."
"I said I'll think about it."
"Think fast.I'm getting married next month and moving to Portland.I need to rehome her anyway."
She drives away with three goats and one very vocal Buttercup, leaving me standing in my successfully saved, financially stable, goat-yoga-offering inn.
Everything I wanted.
Everything except what matters.
I walk back to my office and pull out the check again.
Two hundred and fifty thousand dollars.
Enough to fix the roof, update the electrical, pay off the second mortgage, and still have money left over.
Luke Sterling, solving my problems even while hating me.
No, not hating.Luke doesn't hate.
He just...withdraws.Builds walls.
Protects himself.
I pick up my phone, pull up his contact.His name sits there, like it’s teasing me.
"Just call him," I tell myself.
But I don't.
Because Dr.Patricia Chen was wrong about one thing.
Some mistakes are too big to fix.
And some trust, once broken, can't be rebuilt.
Even if you're willing to hack a dating app to try.
24
YOGA PANTS AND EMOTIONAL RANTS
LUKE
Mere days before Thanksgiving, and Seattle is doing its best impersonation of a soggy existential crisis.
The sky is that washed-out gray that makes you question your life choices, the wind carries a sideways drizzle sharp enough to sting your cheeks, and every parked car is coated in a fresh sheen of damp regret.
It’s the kind of weather that makes tourists cancel boat tours and locals book therapy sessions.
I duck beneath the awning of Alder & Ash, one of Belltown’s most painfully curated restaurants, where the table linens are starchier than the clientele and the waiters wear vintage Rolexes better than I do.
Connor said there was a wedding venue emergency.
Something about a double-booked reception hall or a linen shortage or an emotionally unstable florist.
So of course, I came.
