“I didn’t lie to you,” she said. “About Cara, or about myself. It’s just… Everything kind of changed. And maybe that’s hard for you to believe, because I know men tend to side with men, but –”
“Oh, I don’t fucking side with men,” Cody said. There was such a hard edge to his voice, sharp like a blade, it shocked her. “My dad wasn’t worth shit. He left my mom to raise three children, and even before that, the relationship wasn’t good. He only ever saw her long enough to get her pregnant again. Had nothing to do with us. It was the shock of my life to discover that we inherited this place. Doesn’t surprise me that your husband took a job with you, then abandoned you at the last minute.”
She blinked. “Oh. Well… I’m sorry.”
“Now we’ve both overshared,” he said. “So, it’s fine. Just as long as I don’t have to worry about the work being done, I don’t care if it’s being done by two of you.”
Of course, there was a matter of salary. He had been planning on paying a quoted amount to two people.
“Well… the money…”
“I’ve got to talk to… Shit, I’ve got to talk to my sister, because she’s more up on that. I mean, I know it, I have all the spreadsheets, but… Just let me go look at the paperwork.”
He definitely sounded like this was something he didn’t want to deal with, and fair enough. He had hired her to make less work for him, not more.
She almost felt bad, except even when he was being nice, he was abrasive.
You would think that it would do something to blunt those good looks. But it didn’t. Because he was justthathot.
They pulled up in front of a small, white building with board and batten siding. The windows were black, and there was a sign hanging off the front, round and bright with the words Juniper & Sage Bakery.
She had collaborated on the name for the bakery with Cara, and in emails back and forth with Walker Grayson, who was the marketing director, and probably Cody’s brother.
It was gorgeous. There were little planter boxes in the window, with pink flowers that looked like they had been freshly planted there, bravely defying a potential next frost that might hit still as spring was trying to push its way through.
“Oh,” Cara said. “Oh, it’s gorgeous.”
Cody put the truck in park, and it had just clicked over when Cara leaped from the truck and walked toward the bakery, hands clapped.
Cody got out of the truck, too, and Marlowe ended up just sitting there. Cara looked comically small standing there next to Cody. She was so petite, maybe five foot one if she was lucky, and she came up well below Cody’s shoulder, she was talking and waving her hands, animated like Cara was, a cartoon princess so excited for this next chapter of her life.
Marlowe couldn’t move.
Because this was her new life, and she wasn’t supposed to be doing it by herself.
Cara was getting this whole fresh start, a dream, and she wasn’t losing a huge piece of herself in order to get it. Envying Cara wasn’t very nice, but right then, Marlowe couldn’t help it. Cody wasn’t even really Cara’s boss in the same way he was Marlowe’s. Cara was renting the bakery space, so it was much more independent. If Cara wanted to, she couldhave a fling with Cody. Not only was she unencumbered by employment, but she didn’t have the baggage that Marlowe did…
You’re losing your mind.
She probably was.
She should just be relieved that Cody was letting her stay. That had been a concern.
But she was also just… She was exhausted in her bones. She had been running on pure adrenaline for the past week, first getting packed up and ready to go, then trying to deal with the fallout of Aiden ending their marriage, and then keeping her fingers crossed, praying to a God she wasn’t sure even listened to her at this point, that she would still be able to have this job.
She had it. She had the job. But that was it.
Her marriage was over.
And now it felt like there was nothing to do but sit in it.
She was physically safe. She would have enough money to survive, she had a place to stay. It was better than it could’ve been.
No. What she didn’t want to do was give Aiden any credit for that. She didn’t want to believe that he had been setting her up to be okay without him. Because that just made her angry.
Cara looked through the windshield, back at Marlowe, and Marlowe shifted. She needed to get out of the truck. She forced herself to do it, her fingers felt like they were filled with cement as she undid her seatbelt and opened the door. She got out, rocks crunching underneath her shoe as she turned and slammed the truck door before shoving her hands in her pockets and making her way toward the two of them.
“Isn’t it great?” Cara asked.
