She set it down on the floor.
It was beautiful. There was minimal furniture, but that was just fine. A dining table and chairs, a kitchen area that was small but serviceable. She knew there was a bed in thebedroom. That was the furniture that had been promised to her.
Her antique loveseat was coming along with the rest of her things in a truck that was now half full because it didn’t have Aiden’s stuff.
She walked deeper into the space and set her keys on the counter. Then she walked over to the window and opened up the dark blue curtains. The view was stunning. The window overlooked a sprawling green lawn, there were evergreen trees in the distance, and sharp blue mountains rising up behind them, snowcapped and glorious.
This place was unlike anywhere she’d ever been before.
This place was real. It was where she had moved to. It was her new life.
And for the first time since all of this had started, she started to cry.
Because now it felt real.
Now she was across the country, starting this new existence without her husband.
Now she was by herself. For real.
Here across the country, with her boss, who was both a stone cold fox and just stone cold in general.
“What is my life?”
Chapter Four
Cody couldn’t shake the intensity that he still felt from the simple act of his fingertips brushing against Marlowe’s.
Why was he getting so damned worked up over her?
There were beautiful women everywhere. Beauty was a feature of all women, in his opinion. He liked them in all shapes and sizes. He was a big fan in general.
But there was something about her. He couldn’t believe that her husband had done that. Abandoned her like that. He had been concerned about the hotel initially, but now he was thinking more about her. Now that the shock had worn off. He would pay her what he had promised. He was certain about that.
He didn’t even need to review anything to know that she didn’t deserve to be penalized just because the man she was married to turned out to be a dick.
It was weird because he had gotten the impression when he had done the phone interview that they’d been together for a long time. They’d seemed solid. Like two people on the same page.
Not that he knew anything about marriage, dysfunctionalor otherwise. He didn’t know the kinds of things that people in long-term relationships did. The ways in which it drove them crazy. He was chronically single, and not by accident.
He tromped up the front steps into the house, which was blessedly empty of his siblings.
That meant he could grill hamburgers in peace.
He smiled just slightly as he took the patties outside to cook them on the grill. He could remember doing this back when Lila and Walker were small. He wondered if they remembered it.
Lila had been so little. They would get home from school, and their mom wouldn’t get home from work until so late that it was up to Cody to make sure that everybody was fed. He had a basic but solid repertoire. Hamburgers, hot dogs, hamburger helper, and tuna melts. He had expanded since then, but there was nothing quite like old comfort food when the mood hit.
And a cheeseburger would always be comfort food to him.
By the time he finished grilling and went back inside, the front door opened and slammed shut behind him.
“I quit.”
Cody looked up and saw Walker, hat in his hands, his hair sticking up at all angles, like he’d been pulling it.
“Sorry,” Cody said, voice monotone. “You can’t quit. You swore me a blood oath.”
“This isridiculous. Thespecificationsthat these people have.”
