“You met him.”
“I metsomeone.” She laughs and pulls out a cookie for herself. “Bottom line is that you could save this store yourself if you weren’t so bogged down by everything else. I mean, Richard sucks the life out of you. At least once a month, he says something else to fuck with your head. That’s not normal, Marley. No wonder you’re drowning. He’s completely burnt you out.”
I stare at my well-meaning friend for a long moment before standing from the chair to pace the room. “I know you’re right, I do, I just… I don’t know what to do with any of it. I’ve let it go on too long. I mean, Richard and I have been together five years. How do I get out of that now?”
“Can you imagine five more? Haven’t you ever heard that saying, pull out the roots and the weeds’ll die? Cut off the head of the snake? One nail drives out another? The point is, if you’re feeling good, you’re going to make better decisions, you’re going to think more clearly, and you’re going to have more energy for the things you love.”
My phone buzzes on the table, and for some sick reason, I get really excited. The kind of excited I shouldn’t be getting over a man that isn’t my boyfriend.
“Is it him?” Kit leans forward with wide-eyed excitement as though the text has come in for her.
“It is.” I can’t help but smile, though I feel a little guilty about it. “He says he can stop by in the morning.”
“Damn!” she says, leaning back in her chair. “Isn’t he like hours away? He’s going to drive all the way out to you on a whim?”
“Yeah.” My cheeks heat with warmth as butterflies take occupancy in my stomach. “Is that weird? I mean, maybe he’s not doing as well as he claims he is on his website.”
“Or… he’s like totally excited you texted him and he’s jumping at the opportunity before you change your mind. Now what are you going to tell Richard?”
Her question hangs in the air as dust particles swirl lazily in a soft streak of afternoon sun.Do I need to tell Richard? I mean, I’m hiring Tex as a business consultant. He’s going to look at my books and help me come up with a business plan. That’s all. Plus, I can’t imagine the drama that simple statement is going to cause.
“I don’t know what to tell him. Is it weird that I reached out to Tex?” My stomach tightens. “Maybe I shouldn’t have texted him.”
“Sweetie,” she bites into her cookie, “I shouldn’t have called my dad’s best friend to fix my heater last night either, but I did. Life works in mysterious ways. Just go with it.”
I widen my stare and lean in slowly. “How’d that go?”
“Details for another day.” She grins. “You still coming tomorrow night for our girls’ dinner? I’ve already got the chicken nuggies and ice cream.”
“Yeah.” I drag in the scent of fresh coffee brewing from the tiny station to the left of my office. There’s an undertone of peppermint that’s new. I love that the girls are always putting out new flavors. “Sounds perfect. I’ll need someone to decompress all this nonsense with.”
She pops the last of her cookie in, then stands. “Great! I better get moving. I’ve got like twenty-four thousand papers to grade before tomorrow morning.”
“Good luck! Don’t forget stickers! Love you!”
“Love you more!” She smiles wide and taps the frame of the door twice before heading out into the bookstore, leaving me with the weight of my problems. Problems I made for myself.
I mean, I’ve been telling myself that texting Tex is about business. That it’s a necessary evil,but is it?
I mean, I still think about the man. I still wonder what he’s doing, who he’s with, if he thinks about me. Hell, just last week I had this kinky dream about a night we had out at his cabin eight years ago.
Eight years ago. That’s not normal.
My pulse shouldn’t quicken when I see his texts. I shouldn’t be wondering what I’m going to wear tomorrow. I shouldn’t be thinking about this at all because it’s a business meeting. A meeting that I need to help save my bookstore. The bookstore that my grandpa opened decades ago. The bookstore I grew up in. The bookstore that used to be a cornerstone of this small mountain community.
This meeting should be about all that, but deep down, I can’t shake the truth. Tomorrow, I get a visit from Christmas past, and I’m not sure I’m ready.
Chapter Two
Tex
I haven’t been back to Rugged Mountain since I left eight years ago. Haven’t talked much to Marley either, though I have kept up with her life through social media. She doesn’t post much, but when she does, it’s always with that weird fucking dude she’s been dating. Outside of that, she does a little promo for the bookstore with a lot of pictures of Bookmark, the resident shop tabby cat. This time of the year, she’s always posting him with bows while he sprawls out on covers of classic Christmas books.
I know it’s not healthy to keep checking up on her, and I know what I see online isn’t an accurate representation of the full life she’s lived in the last eight years, but the urge to see her, to know what she’s been doing, is usually too great to resist.
I flick on the blinker and pull onto Main Street, a flood of memories carrying me away the second I see the backdrop of white-capped mountains and the brick façade buildings that line the small-town road. I’m not much of a Christmas guy, but I can appreciate how well Rugged Mountain does the holiday season. Green wreaths hang over lampposts, window displays fill each storefront, white twinkling lights weave with garland and holly through the tops of every building, and the scent of the bakery’s bear claws wafts into the streets.
Damn.I like to think I’m a strong man, but the bear claws here might be my kryptonite. They make them differently than I’ve seen in other places. Here, they have a flaky crust that wraps around some kind of warm cinnamon sugar mixture with glaze on top.
