She worried. And worried. And still got on the flight to Vermont.
And when she arrived at her sister-in-law’s doorstep, she burst into tears.
Cara was philosophical. She always was. And she was on Marlowe’s side.
“He’s an asshole,” Cara said, leaning against the counter, a cup of tea in her hand. “I can’t believe he did that to you. I can’t…”
“I know,” Marlowe said.
The trouble was, he’d never been an asshole before. He’d never been cruel. Not the man she knew, andthiswas undeniably cruel. He’d set her up – whether he’d known from the moment they’d accepted this job that he wasn’t going or not.
She could feel something shatter deep within her, it wasn’t her heart, not in the way that people meant it. It was trust. Because even his sister was shocked, everyone would be shocked. They were this very solid couple. They always had been. If it wasn’t them, if they weren’t the ones that were going to go the distance, then who was going to?
What could she trust? What could she count on? Ever again.
“Right.” Cara pushed off the counter and clapped her hands. “We’re still going.”
Marlowe didn’t have anywhere else to go, but it wasn’t that simple either. “I mean, this doesn’t change anything for you. But it does for me. Cody Grayson hired us on the basis that there would be two of us running the resort. I don’t know if I can do it by myself.”
“I’m going to help you.”
“You’re going to be running the bakery. That’s going to beso much work. Early mornings and… I can’t ask you to take on double duty.”
“My older brother — and his bullshit — are my responsibility. The way he let you down is my responsibility. Marlowe, you’ve been my sister for so much of my life. I’m on your side. He doesn’t have a side here. He lied. He cheated. That’s it.”
The words made Marlowe grind the back of her teeth together. “I know. Very aware. I just…”
“Do you want to call him?”
She couldn’t figure out for a moment if her sister-in-law meant Aiden or her boss. Cody.
The idea of speaking to Cody on the phone again made her feel… Weird. Like there were little sparks dancing beneath her skin.
He was such a taciturn man. They had done two phone interviews prior to him offering her and Aiden the job. One she and Aiden had done together, and one she had done by herself because Aiden was busy at the bar.
Cody wasn’t a friendly man, nor was he chatty. His voice was low and rough and had a growl at the back of it. The reality was, he could narrate dirty audiobooks and make a killing. It was just that the words he was saying… were not half as sexy as the voice itself. He was clipped, and to the point. There was no excessive chatter. Still, she felt a strange sense of avoidance about speaking to him again, and not just because she thought she would lose her job.
“It’s easier to ask for forgiveness than permission,” Cara said, confirming she meant Cody.
Nerves sparked in her stomach, and she set her cup of tea down, unable to keep sipping at it.
“It’s also a terrible idea to show up in a place you don’t know anyone expecting a job that you’re now taking under false pretenses.”
“You knowme,” Cara said. “You have me. Anyway, youalready sent your things across the country in a giant moving truck, and I’ve got all my stuff ready to go in my car. We’re doing this.”
If Marlowe wanted to be charitable, she could look at the last couple years of Cara and Aiden’s lives and see why Aiden was maybe having a crisis. They’d lost both of their parents, and while Marlowe had lost both of her parents a long time ago – her father to alcohol, and then death and her mother to her whims that had taken her far away – she knew that when you had a functional family the loss was different.
But Cara had carried the brunt of her mother’s declining health, not Aiden.
Their dad had died when they were young, and Cara had been taking care of their mother until just recently, when she had finally passed from dementia.
She knew that Cara wanted to leave that part of her life behind, desperately.
Cara was counting on her. Cara, who was such an important person in her life, and who she loved so much. Cara, who was more family to her than anyone in her own family. She had a house waiting for her, she had to be out of this house – the childhood home that she’d inherited when her mom died – because it was already sold.
She couldn’t abandon Cara.
Aiden might be able to abandon Cara — and Marlowe, for that matter —but Marlowe wasn’t like that.
