He was a fool.
He’d just called Abigail beautiful and then run away from her.
Even if she didn’t think he was a beast, she certainly had no reason to assume anything good of him at this point. But if there was one thing that this time together had shown him, it was that he desperately wanted her approval and wanted her to think well of him.
In the past two days, she had gone from being simply his employee to being someone whose opinion he valued. He’d meant every word of what he said. She was smartand kind and beautiful. She had more kindness in her little finger than he had in his entire body, and he’d always known that, but he’d never been able to enunciate it so clearly before—because until now, he’d never spoken to her about anything other than the tavern.
And it wasn’t as if he’d spent much time with her now, either.
But the tiny bit of time they’d spent together had proven that if he chose to spend more time with her, he could very quickly lose his heart to her, and that was an unsettling thought.
What if she didn’t feel the same way? What if she couldn’t wait to get out of here? What if she ran after they broke the curse and never came back?
Not that he expected she would…but there was always the potential for that, and even though he hadn’t considered it until now, he was terrified of it.
He didn’t want to lose her, and that had never been clearer.
The door opened behind him, and Abigail came out, wiping one hand on her apron, the other holding the bucket of kitchen scraps for the compost pile. Roan watched as she dumped the food in the pile and set the bucket down before coming over to join him.
“At least your garden is still growing well,” she said, her voice steady.
Her presence was steady as well.
He looked down at her gratefully. She could have run away from him and avoided him after he’d made things awkward, but she was here standing beside him, showing him that he was not alone and that she hadn’t been scared off.
He swallowed over the lump in his throat.
“I’m glad it is,” he said, trying to keep his voice even. “I would have been sad if it all stopped growing because of this curse.”
“I think it may end soon,” she said, her voice quiet. “If we did get sent back in time like the ball suggested, we only have three more days.”
“That’s still a long time,” Roan said, his voice shaking a little more than he would have liked.
“I know,” she said quietly. “I’m worried about the others.”
Roan was, too. He’d gone into the storage room a couple of times to check on them. They were still breathing, and they didn’t appear to be suffering any ill effects of being asleep. But they were asleep.
“We should prepare to feed them something nutritious when they wake up,” he said. “Though without knowing when they’ll wake up, that makes it difficult.”
“I know,” Abigail said with a sigh. “But there’s some canned soup in the storage room now, so we’ll be able to open a couple of those jars when the time comes and only have to heat it up.”
She was so resourceful. Before she’d come, he’d always been living moment to moment in the tavern, and what he served was dependent on what they had. But shortly after joining him, Abigail had filled the storage room with canned foods and canned ingredients that made it possible for them to quickly feed more mouths than normal if they had unexpected visitors.
It didn’t happen often. Most of the town had their rhythms and never changed. But occasionally, they had a few extra visitors, and having the food put up ahead of time to quickly open and serve a hearty stew or a delicious soup was something he would never take for granted again.
If only he could afford to give her a raise. She deserved it.
“Thank you,” he said quietly, wondering if she would know that he meant for more than just the soup.
She smiled up at him, and his whole day grew brighter.
“You’re welcome,” she said, resting her hand on his shoulder for a moment before turning and walking back into the tavern.
Roan was ready to tear his hair out of his head. He had been fighting the balance sheet for the past hour and was no closer to figuring out why he couldn’t make everything work properly.
The fact that the numbers didn’t quite match wasn’t what bothered him. What bothered him was the fact that it seemed he was losing money.
He didn’t know how to stop it, but if he didn’t stop it, he could lose everything.
