“Goodnight, Tess.”
She turns and walks away, her footsteps fading into the city, leaving me under the streetlight, heart full and carefully held.
I don’t follow. I don’t need to.
For the first time in a long time, I don’t feel like I’m chasing something that doesn’t want to be caught.
I feel like I’m being allowed to walk alongside it.
One step at a time.
Chapter 27
Tess
Three months later
Gwen’s eyes are so wide it would be funny if I were not busy pretending nothing unusual is happening.
She keeps staring at me.
Then at Leo.
Then back at me, like she is watching a magic trick and waiting for the reveal.
Leo is already at the stack of flat-packed pink boxes, his hands moving so fast they blur.
Fold.
Tuck.
Tuck.
Done.
I do not acknowledge Gwen.
I do not acknowledge the way her mouth keeps opening and closing, like she is dying to say,are we seriously doing this, or is this real life, or did I miss a meeting where we decided to let the emotionally reformed billionaire back into the ecosystem?
If I acknowledge her, I will laugh.
If I laugh, I will lose my footing.
And I worked too damn hard to get my footing back.
So, I turn to the register instead and pull on the neutral mask I have worn for years, the one that says this is just business, nothing to see here, please do not perceive my inner life.
The older woman at the front of the line clutches her purse like it might try to escape her.
“Right,” I say evenly. “Two cinnamon buns and a sourdough. That will be twenty-one fifty.”
“Oh. Oh my,” she says, fumbling. “Is that… is that…?”
Her voice trails off because Leo slides a perfectly boxed order across the counter without looking up.
“Two buns, one loaf,” he says.
Calm.
