I lowered anxiously into the chair across from him. Then I opened a vein and poured out my heart. Tears flowed unbidden as I explained the blanket of protection my little company had once provided me. The hope for escape and independence that came with every sale while I bided my time until I could leave Robert. Then the fear I had at losing it all, as if giving away my secret meant losing all I’d gained in its shadow. And how I knew now that wasn’t true.
“I am so deeply sorry for lying to you,” I said. “I’m so incredibly grateful to you for giving me a chance as your pastry chef. You trusted me. I kept something from you, but it was never a reflection of my lack of trust in you, or anything about you at all. I’d just been so afraid for so long. It was all I knew.”
“And are you afraid now?” he asked.
A small, humorless laugh escaped me as I shook my head. I couldn’t imagine fearing anything with Lucas near. “I’m glad to be here with you,” I said. Without thinking, I added, “I’ve missed you. I’ve felt as if you were avoiding me, and I hated it.”
Interest lifted his brows. “I was giving you space.”
“For what?”
“For whatever you needed,” he said. “After I realized you were keeping this secret”—he waved to the pink pastry box—“I knew there was something behind it. People are generally proud of their success, but you didn’t want anyone to know. Then, as you opened up to me about your life before we met, I understood a little better. I decided to let you tell me when you were ready.”
“But why have you been avoiding me?” I asked. He still hadn’t explained that, had he?
Lucas looked briefly away. He laced and unlaced his fingers on the desktop. “After hearing your strong feelings about marriage, I didn’t want our growing friendship to become a problem for you. So maybe I hid a little too.”
I blinked, stunned and unsure for new reasons. Why would my feelings about marriage have anything to do with him? Unless he had feelings toward me, and he thought I was against all romantic relationships.
Was it possible my attraction to Lucas wasn’t completely one sided?
“I had plenty of work to do in here,” he said. “I should thank you. I’m caught up on paperwork for the first time since the restaurant opened, I think.”
I bit my lip and smiled. “I want to go to France,” I said. “If the offer stands.”
A flash of pleasure passed over his handsome face. “Of course.” He opened his desk drawer and produced an envelope. “This is everything you need for the trip. And a few of the preview photos taken for the restaurant’s marketing materials. I thought you might like to have them.”
The phone on his desk rang as I accepted the envelope, and he offered an apologetic look. “I’m sorry—I have to take this call.”
I stood on wobbly legs, overwhelmed by relief and acceptance. “We’re good?” I asked.
He nodded. “What if we agree to just say what’s on our minds from now on, yes?”
“Yes,” I agreed. Then I floated out on a cloud of hope and deep appreciation for another person in my life who accepted me for me.
I drove straight to Alicia’s house from the restaurant and waited while she changed out of her work clothes and into her varsity-football-mom clothes. Then we went to the high school stadium to watch her sons play in their homecoming game. I provided the usual three dozen cupcakes, iced in the school’s colors.
Seated in the stands, under the Friday night lights, I told her everything about my chat with Lucas. Then I pulled the envelope he’d given me from my purse.
“You didn’t open it yet?” she asked.
I shook my head. “I didn’t wait for you with the ancestry things. The least I could do is wait to show you my paperwork for France.” I worked open the flap and slid the contents onto my lap.
Scents of popcorn and hot chocolate lifted through the air on a breeze. Shirtless teens with giant letters painted across their chests walked in packs with others wearing face paint in the same colors.
Cheerleaders shook their pom-poms and bounced around on the track outlining the field.
I scanned the pack of uniformed players, searching for CJ and Bill.
“Lucas likes you,” Alicia said. “Are you ready to combust? That’s the only thing he could’ve meant with that line about your growing friendship.” She sang the last two words.
I smiled. “It feels awful to say, because I’m legally unavailable, but I really hope you’re right.”
She smirked, obviously satisfied with my brutally honest response. Then she turned her attention to the paperwork. “Okay, what do you have there?”
I fanned through the stack. “Airline and flight numbers. Hotel information.”
“Please say you got the last available room,” she said. “And there’s only one bed.”
