I took a deep breath, chanting, “To lose patience is to lose the battle,” in my head, thinking I couldn’t go wrong with advice from Mahatma Gandhi.
“Just give him the message.”
“I’ll think about it. Not sure why he’d need to speak to you, though. You’re no longer on the show or in LA.”
That was obviously one message that would never get passed on. And why was she answering his phone in the first place? Was there more going on between them than he had let on?
The doubts I’d tried so hard to keep at bay were taking hold, telling me I might have been wrong.
“And have you forgotten that you’re an assistant and your job is to pass on messages?” My words came out clipped.
I should have known better than to push her. She didn’t fight fair. “Oh, honey, we both know I’m so much more than an assistant. Why do you think Grayson keeps me around? But I gotta go. Grayson and I are off to dinner.”
She hung up, leaving me to stare at my phone.
Willa came crashing through the door, her apron crooked, her hair a mess. “Rayna, I need a hand with the cake for the Wilsons.”
“Be right there,” I murmured. Since Willa was in work mode, she missed my hunched-over form and the unshed tears welling in my eyes. At least it granted me a reprieve from her questions.
Besides, there was no use crying. I was stronger than that. But I hoped if Grayson was hooking up with Wynona, he would end things between us first.
Or has he been with both of us? Oh God, does he think we were just casual?
I’d never known him to be a liar. But there was no question about the doubt Wynona had planted in my mind.
A message came through, and I nearly dropped my phone in my haste to open it. But it was only an email. The potential investor had replied, asking if we could meet in Denver in two days.
I responded that we’d be there, because why not? It was time I took more risks in life.
When I got back inside, Willa was flitting around the kitchen, putting edible flowers on the three-tier cake we’d been working on yesterday.
“Finally.” Her head snapped up, her eyes wide and darting around the kitchen like she was looking for something. “You need to fix up the writing. I messed it up again.” Her eyes were frighteningly large, and she was blinking rapidly. “Have you seen my fondant smoother?”
I pointed to a spot next to the cake. “You mean the one right there?”
She grabbed it and smoothed out the sides. “Oh, we only have ten minutes left before we need to load up and deliver it.”
“Ten minutes? And you’re only telling me this now?”
Granted, we’d been busy all day. But we also had two staff members, and at least one of us could have come back here and finished the cake.
“I forgot.”
“How do you forget about the cake that we’ve been working on for two days?”
She blushed, and I picked out the flowers she’d smashed into the icing. “Jameson.”
Her face and the shrug she gave me were answer enough. He came in for lunch every day, especially since she wasn’t working at the garage full time anymore.
“He was on his way to Maisie and Oliver’s place. One of their cars wouldn’t start. So he dropped in since I wouldn’t see him until after dinner.”
Maisie was one of Willa’s best friends and lived in the mountains with her boyfriend, Oliver. They were expecting a baby, and it made Oliver a little twitchy. In the beginning, it was endearing. Now that she was only a few weeks away from her due date, it was less so.
He wouldn’t even let her go to the toilet by herself. Maisie was ready to move back in with her parents. But I doubted Oliver would let her move without him. And her parents’ place wasn’t exactly safe. They were doomsday preppers who had traps set up all around the house.
While Willa fixed up the icing, I decorated the cake. We’d been working together for so long that we didn’t have to talk about who did what. And ten minutes later, the cake was ready, looking like a giant bouquet as requested.
Willa walked around the cake, nodding. “Damn, we’re good.”
