CHAPTER 13
Jackie looked down into the murky mug of liquid and frowned.
“Ignore the smell.” Bronwyn pushed the mug closer to Jackie. “Trust me, it will help.”
Jackie let out a breath. At this point, she was desperate. It was the end of the third day with no voice. Her silence in meetings left her colleagues more than amused. She’d tried using an AI-generated voice for her virtual meetings, but those voices could never capture her inflection or soulfulness, no matter how advanced the technology was. Jackie put her nose to the mug and gagged. God, it smelled like the back of a roadside flea market.
Bronwyn waved her off. “It’s not that bad. It’s just sage, licorice root, a little nettle. And…. Oh gosh, I forgot. What else is in this, sweetheart?” Bronwyn called out to her son, Thyme, who was behind the herbal apothecary counter at her store, Thyme in a Bottle. Jackie wasn’t sure it was wise to take medical advice from her barely legal godson, who she also wasn’t quite sure had a degree.
“There’s also a little ginseng, marshmallow root, slippery elm, valerian root, and a dash of turmeric, Auntie Jackie,” Thyme said as he ground something with a pestle and mortar. He paused to wipe his brow and move floppy curls out of his face. “I basically threw the kitchen sink at it. Something should help!”
Jackie’s eyes widened. She wasn’t sure if she wanted to be experimented on. She shook her head in a vehementHell no.
Bronwyn held Jackie’s manicured hand, a set of mismatched gold rings adorning her own. “Listen, Thyme knows what he’s doing. When I started going through perimenopause, he made me a wonderful salve to ease the night sweats. I’m telling you, my baby is amazing. Holistic medicine is truly his calling.” She beamed proudly as she looked at Thyme, who had now moved on to helping a customer.
Jackie admired that Bronwyn loved her seven kids so fiercely, no matter what they did with their lives. The only person Jackie had ever felt that type of love from was her father. He was the missing half of her heart.
Eventually, Jackie let go of Bronwyn’s hand and put the steamy mug of Thyme’s elixir up to her lips.Here goes nothing. Jackie took a sip and winced. It wasn’t bad, but it damn sure wasn’t good either. Thyme had asked a series of questions about Jackie’s symptoms, touched her neck, and looked down her throat with a flashlight. Based on whatever he saw or didn’t see, he was convinced she wasn’t contagious, which she hoped was true for the good of everyone around her. She loved Thyme but was still skeptical of his medical credentials. Jackie looked up to see Bronwyn looking at her, expectantly.
“Well,” Bronwyn asked. “How do you feel?”
Jackie rolled her eyes. Surely she didn’t think that one sip would work instantaneously.
Bronwyn nodded with understanding. “Right. You just had one sip. You have to drink the entire thing and wait a while. In the meantime, tell me how’s it going with that fine specimen Antonio. Well, I mean, not tell as intalk. You know what I mean. Give me a thumbs-up or down.”
Jackie shrugged, then gave a sideways thumb. She couldn’t say it was bad or good. It was just…different. Ever since she got back to the office, it seemed like everywhere she went, Antonio was there. Meetings. In the hallway. He’d even infiltrated her morning routine, showing up at her favorite bakery and the coffee shop she frequented. She was starting to think it wasn’t a coincidence anymore.
“Hmm,” Bronwyn mused. “Just okay? Do you think you could, you know, see the two of you rekindling? You said it yourself that what you two shared was magical.”
Jackie scoffed, then held up her hand to Bronwyn’s face to get her to stop talking. She’d rather drink a gallon of Thyme’s sewer water tea than rekindle anything with Antonio Steele.
So why was it that, every time she saw him, her stomach did summersaults?
She’d been trying her best to ignore him andthatfeeling. Her eyes tried to look elsewhere but always seemed to come back to him. Despite herself, she took daily inventory of his suit game, which was impeccable. And his cologne—that very familiar cologne that announced his presence every time, before she could even turn around—had some sort of power over her.
Fuck. Maybe I just need to get laid.
Jackie looked up to see Bronwyn giving her a slight smile.
“I know that look, Jackie. You have thought about taking that man out for another ride. I say, what’s the harm? You’re adults.”
Jackie looked at Bronwyn as if she’d grown a second head.
