“Is it a surprise?”
“Uhm, hmm. A huge one.”
He shrieks and jumps into the car, buckling up.
When we pull up at the shop, he’s confused. “Where are we?”
“You’ll see.” I unbuckle my seatbelt and climb out of the car, letting him out onto the sidewalk.
I pull out the keys from my handbag and open the door. I almost laugh at the confused expression on his face.
“Ta-da!” I beam. “Welcome to our bakery, Brody.”
His eyes are wide. “Ours?”
I nod. “I bought the place, and I’m going to be baking here every day.”
He places his hands on his face then shouts in excitement. “This is the best surprise, Mommy. It’s like you and Daddy wanted to.”
“It really is. Go on, have a look around, and we gotta think of names.”
I stand at the storefront window and look across at the cafe, my smile instantly dropping.
Ember stands outside, talking to a woman. I am not the jealous sort, and there could be several reasons why he is there.
The woman comes across like a lawyer, the power suit, and all. She’s definitely not from around here. I decide to give him space sitting at one of the tables, merely watching. The woman speaks, and he appears to cut her off.
I read somewhere that a moment’s beginning ends in a moment, which is true for what happens next. The woman places a hand on his cheek and places a kiss right on his mouth. He doesn’t pull away. It’s not a friendly kiss; it’s akiss-kiss, as Desi would say.
I don’t realise I’m crying until Brody asks, “Mommy, are you okay?”
The tears stream down my face, but I feel nothing. “I am okay, sweetheart. I am just so happy about all this.”
I hold my arms open, and he steps into them. I kiss his hair, and the sweet smell of his baby shampoo reminds me of all the reasons that what I just saw should be thelastthing I care about.
Chapter 20
Shelby
“God, I can’t believe how stupid I’ve been. This is the reason I didn’t want to date again in the first place.”
“Firstly, you are not the stupid one. Ember is. And not all guys are like him. You were married to a great one.” Dylan reminds me. That's true. Drew was not without fault, but he was a good man, and he loved me with all his heart. I knew that. I trusted it because he never gave me a reason not to.
“I still feel that you need to confront Ember. It’s been a week, and ignoring his calls is not going to make this whole thing disappear,” Desi tells me as she wipes down the counter at the bakery. “Take it from someone who knows.”
“I just can’t talk to him, not right now. I can’t see him, not when every time I do—”
“You’re falling for him,” Dylan states.
“I have tried not to, but I’ll be lying if I deny it. He just made me feel alive. I should have known it wasn’t the same for him.”
“Then you need to know the whole truth about what happened. You owe yourself that. Not the asshole who doesn’t see what’s in front of him,” Desi snaps. She was ready to kick down his door and make him sorry he ever came back to Sunnyville, her words.
I lean my head on my hands. “Where do I even start?”
“Lunch, we can start with lunch and then anything else,” Dylan tells us.
“You’re right. I am starving, and I can’t think on an empty stomach.”
