Ethan leaned forward and pressed his elbows against the top of his knees. “What do you think she meant about how you guys ended?”
“I don’t know.” The woman who’d just threatened to have me trespassed didn’t look like someone who’d moved on without a backward glance. “It doesn’t make any sense.”
Ethan and Susan had both been in the office when my engagement to Vanessa came about, so they knew what had all gone down. How messed up I’d been over the end of my relationship with Tessa.
“Do you really think she’d have you trespassed from the bakery?” Susan asked, tilting her head. “I just can’t see her doing something so drastic, no matter how angry she is with you.”
“Probably not,” I conceded, rubbing my chest in an attempt to ease the ache there that had nothing to do with rowing at dawn or the divorce that had just been finalized. “But the asshole who thought he needed to come to her rescue would jump on any excuse to call the cops again.”
Ethan quirked a brow. “Sounds like you left some details out of what you told us.”
Remembering how that guy put his hand on the small of her back like it belonged there while Tessa tilted her head up to him and smiled like he was her salvation. Jealousy roared through me so hard my vision tunneled. I wanted to punch something. Preferably his smug face.
It took me a minute to get myself back under control, my teeth clenched too hard to speak. Then I gritted out, “Because I did.”
I told them about the man who’d come in toward the end of my confrontation with Tessa, and what he’d said about calling the cops, how he’d been willing to get arrested for punching me, and that he had easily guessed who I was.
Figuring out why I was struggling, Susan murmured, “You can’t be angry that Tessa has a boyfriend. It’s been three years, and you were married to Vanessa.”
“But I didn’t want to be,” I growled, getting to my feet to pace the floor-to-ceiling windows that lined the wall behind my desk. “There hasn’t been a single day I’ve been truly happy since all that shit went down. I’ve wanted to be CEO since I was a little kid, but it wasn’t worth losing Tessa.”
Ethan stood and circled my desk to clap his hand on my shoulder. “We already knew you felt that way, but Tessa is the one who needs to hear that.”
I raked my fingers through my hair with a groan. “Like I said at the start of all this…my first conversation with Tessa in three years went even worse than you could imagine.”
3
TESSA
After Gage left, I stared at the space where he’d stood seconds earlier, my breath catching in my chest. Now that I didn’t have to act like seeing him didn’t wreck me, the adrenaline that had carried me through the confrontation bled out of my system all at once.
My hands trembled so hard I had to press them against the counter to steady myself. I hated that he could still affect me at all. That my body recognized him even when my heart wanted nothing to do with him.
The anger and hurt were so close to the surface that I felt scraped open.
The silence pressed in, and I exhaled shakily, suddenly aware of the weight of Jace’s hand at my back in a way I wouldn’t have been just yesterday. Before I could dig too deeply into why that was, the kitchen door swung open.
Jenny hovered just inside the doorway, her fingers twisting in the hem of her apron. Her gaze darted toward the front windows, as though she was afraid Gage might come barreling back inside.
“I’m so sorry,” she blurted. “I should’ve handled that better. I—I must’ve said something wrong. I didn’t know what to do when he was so angry about such a pretty cake.”
“Hey.” I stepped toward her, keeping my voice soft. “You did nothing wrong.”
She blinked at me, disbelief written all over her face. “But he?—”
“What he did was not okay,” I cut in gently. “I don’t pay you to be treated like that by my customers. No matter who they are or why they’re upset.”
Jenny’s lower lip wobbled. “I tried to stay calm, but my mind just went blank. I love this job, and I was scared I was going to mess everything up.”
“You didn’t.” I shook my head and gave her a gentle smile. “In fact, I’m proud of how you handled yourself. You’ve done great these past two weeks, and today doesn’t change that.”
Her shoulders sagged on a relieved exhale. “Really?”
“Yes, really,” I assured her. “And you won’t need to deal with him again. I promise you that.”
I’d be the one who handled Gage if he ever dared to show his face here again. Which I didn’t expect to happen now that he knew I owned Hale & Honey.
“That’s really good to hear.”
