“You’re not a bitch.” I take another bite. “We can talk, or we can enjoy our Cheerios in silence.”
“You’re a nut.”
I lift my spoon. “A honey nut.”
She covers her face with one hand. “Don’t quit your day job for the comedy club circuit.”
But her posture no longer reminds me of a cornered alley cat, and the line between her eyebrows has smoothed. I shovel in another spoonful and wait.
Eventually she pushes her bowl forward and wraps her hands around her water glass.
“Winnie told me she’s thinking about selling the bakery. And Jon—” She pauses to pull in an unsteady breath. “I met with him today to discuss the money he transferred from our joint accounts.”
I set down my spoon.
“He believes he had every right to take my money. Told me he’d think about what I deserve.” Her jaw tightens. “His exact words.”
I grip the edge of the table like I can prevent myself from standing up and driving to wherever Jon Clark lives and dismantling his life brick by brick. “You met with him face to face?”
“Piper came with me. She wanted to kick his ass.” Her gorgeous mouth kicks up at one end. “I told her she can’t go to jail pregnant. Plus, getting arrested will mess with Felix’s football season.”
“Fuck football. I’ll post her bail.”
“Jeremy.”
“Say the word, Avah. I’ll have a team of attorneys so far up his ass, he’ll need a colorectal surgeon to remove them.”
She meets my eyes, and the fierceness there stops me cold. “I don’t want you to fix myproblems.”
Every circuit in my brain is screaming at me to throw my weight around until her ex-fiancé chokes on the consequences of ever putting his hands on her. But I sit with her words, trying to fit them into the framework of everything I know. Growing up in a house where productivity was valued over anything else, I learned to make myself indispensable through action. Fixing is all I’ve ever known how to do. And if I can’t be a fixer, what good am I?
I can’t figure out what Avah wants from me, if anything. Christ, please let her want something.
“Would you consider it interference if I bought the bakery?”
She laughs like maybe I’ve just resuscitated my potential for a comedy career. “Uh, yeah.”
“How about if I loan you the money?”
“I’m not taking your handouts.”
“It’s an investment.”
“I’m not a good bet.”
I trap the urge to blurtI’m all inin my throat, where it can’t do any damage. Avah wants to be the one who saves herself. Even though it’s driving me insane at the moment, I respect the fuck out of that.
“Agree to disagree.” I lean back in the chair. “Let’s talk about the NorthStar caregiver camp.”
Her eyes narrow at the pivot, but she takes it. “You’re going up for the first weekend, right?”
“What if I pay you to go with me?”
She raises one delicate brow. “Like a hooker?”
I walked into that one. “You have some real untappedPretty Womankink, huh?”
“You’re the one offering cash for my company.”
