“Because it’s for you.”
“Oh please. If it’s mine, maybe I need to run it.”
I froze. “What are you saying?”
“Maybe I do need to fire you. Get you to go out there and do something different with your life.”
“Why would you say that?” I asked, my hands trembling. “The salon would fall apart without me.”
“It would not, and if it did would that be so bad?”
“Yes! That would be horrifying!”
“This proves my point. You need to find something that’s not the salon, Winter. You focused on the kids and the salon, and now that they’re grown, you’re doubling down on the salon.”
“You think I should do what, then?”
“Date. Spend time with people who aren’t us. Shaun looks like a step in the right direction.”
I blinked.
Because I wasn’t sure how to do that.
17
Monday
Shaun walked up to the strip mall, phone in his hand. It was early, well before anyone usually showed up. The parking lot was quiet, and everything seemed calm and at peace.
The occasional car that wound up being left overnight sprinkled the otherwise empty lot. Ice covered some parts, with snow peppered in between.
His feet crunched in the snow, barely the only noise he heard. Even the road was quiet and distant, it seemed.
And funny enough, the sound, or maybe the lack of sound brought him peace.
Better than he’d been feeling, anyway.
Frustration had a way of working into whatever he attempted. He liked to think the aggressive wood chopping he’d been doing over the weekend was to prepare for a bitter winter that was coming.
Because this was Kansas.
And he lived almost in the country.
Cold winters happened.
He wanted to have his woodpile stocked. That had been his motivation after the fight-but-not-fight with Winter. He wouldn’t consider her lack of faith a fight, per se, but she certainly wouldn’t be making this easy for him.
In a way, he appreciated the chase, but damn he was tired. He wondered all weekend if it was worth it.
If she was worth the effort.
Yet every time he wondered, something would come to mind that he liked about her. Her determination. Devotion to her family. Taking care of them. Her dedication to the family business.
The way she laughed.
Smiled.
Looked at him with those eyes, the ones that made his dick hard.
