She shook her head. “But that’s the thing, it wasn’t. Scott told me he was sleeping with her for months. Months is not a mistake. It’s a choice that he made again and again.”
The other woman’s mouth opened and closed. Had she not known about how long her son had been cheating?
“Sadie—”
“No. I’m sorry, Mrs. Chase, but at some point you have to accept that your golden boy isn’t so golden. He may be your son, but he did a bad thing.” More than one bad thing.
Mrs. Chase straightened. “Good people can still make mistakes.”
“Yes, and they pay the price for those mistakes. His price was losing me.”
Mrs. Chase shook her head, huffing out a breath before storming out the door.
God, what waswrongwith that woman? Was she so blinded by loyalty to her son that she couldn’t understand the severity of what he’d done?
And who’d be the next person to step into the shop? Scott himself?
She turned toward the kitchen—only to kick her foot right into the corner of the counter. She was only wearing sandals, so pain immediately blasted up her leg, causing her to cry out, scrunch her eyes and grab her foot. “Goddammit, would the universe give me a freaking break?”
“Are you okay?”
She straightened and spun at the voice behind her, eyes widening at the sight of Eastern standing in the doorway. Where the heck had he come from? Although, hewasa far better option than Scott.
“I didn’t hear you come in.”
His brow was furrowed, concern in his gaze as he closed the space between them. “I can be quiet when I want to be. Did you hurt yourself?”
“It’s nothing. I just stubbed my toe.” And now she just felt like a grade A drama queen.
His gaze lowered, and before she understood what he was doing, he gripped her hips and lifted her onto the counter behind the display cases.
She gasped, grabbing his arms. “What are you doing?”
“Checking your toe. Right or left?”
“Eastern, I’m fine.”
“Right or left, Sadie?”
When he just continued to look at her with challenge in his eyes, she sighed. “Left. Big toe. But it’s fine. I just have a low pain tolerance.”
He lifted her ankle and removed her sandal. A part of her thought she should feel self-conscious about him touching andinspecting her foot so closely, but when his gentle fingers grazed over her skin, it was impossible to feel anything but a stream of tingles running up her leg.
He focused on her toe like it was a puzzle. “It doesn’t look too bad.”
When he started massaging her foot, she had to bite back a groan. Holy Christ, his hands felt good.
“How did you stub your toe?” he asked.
“I was distracted.” A bit like right now, but for a completely different reason. “And I was frustrated.”
His gaze lifted to hers. “Frustrated about what?”
“A lot of things.”
“Would one of those things be me?”
Gosh, he just got straight to the point.
