“He disappointed you this morning, didn’t he sweetheart?” Her eyes shined with sympathy. From the little I’d heard around town about her situation with her ex-husband, she definitely understood disappointment.
I nodded rather than answer with words. Tears burned behind my eyelids and I blinked furiously to clear them. I didn’t want to cry in front of Violet and push her sweet sympathy too far, especially considering how I was the one who had broken her brother’s heart all those years ago.
“Go on and sit with Mom. I’ll bring your order to you. Take a load off.”
The idea of working with Dahlia excited me and perked me up a bit. Getting to be with her again was one of the reasons I wanted so badly to stay in town. “I’m here to work with your mom today. I’m going to soak up all her writerly vibes and get loaded up on coffee and carbs and forget all about what happened last—”
“Oooh la la. I won’t ask. I’ll just make all kinds of assumptions.”
I laughed. “Go right ahead. I don’t kiss and tell. For the most part, anyway.”
“I’ll be there in a minute.”
“Thank you, Vi. I—I missed you when I was gone. I want you to know that.”
“Oh, Charli, I know, and I missed you too.” She had been the best sister-in-law, so sweet. We’d have lunch once a week and discuss books and life. We were both big readers, and I had helped her set up her book club. We used to have such fun together.
Choked up again, I nodded, then turned to head to Dahlia’s usual table in the corner. Cade’s dad was there too. Ben Barrett was one of the best men I knew. He was honest and kind and had always been like a second father to me.
“Hey, honey, come on over.” His enthusiastic wave threatened to spill the tears I’d been holding back. I inhaled a sharp breath to steady myself and waved back.
“Hi, you two. Dahlia, thank you for letting me crash your writing session.”
“Any time, sweetheart. Maybe we can sprint if we get our motivation up. But I’m having a lazy day so far, so no guarantees.”
Sprinting consisted of setting a timer and writing nonstop until it went off. Sprinting alone sucked, but sprinting with Dahlia would probably be intimidating as hell. The woman had written almost a hundred books.
“That’s okay. I love you, but sprinting with you sounds terrifying,” I joked. Ben laughed as I set my things down, then slid into the seat next to her at the round table.
She winked at me through her black cat eyeglasses and swept her long silvery blonde hair over her shoulder. “Nonsense. I’ve read your books. You’re wonderful, Charlotte. Don’t ever underestimate or underrate yourself. You’re gifted. Own it. And side note, Adaline Paige is my current obsession.”
Ben chuckled. “Especially since you introduced that small town cop, Officer Jaden Skeritt into the storyline. A little bit of art imitating life, am I right?”
I turned bright red. I hadn’t realized I had named him after Cade until the book had been published and it was too late to do anything about it. “God. I am mortified. That was an accident of epic subliminal and deeply Freudian proportions.”
“No, I love it. It’s a sign about your future with Caden is what it is,” Dahlia insisted, pointing her scone at me for emphasis. “You belong with my son. You are part of this family, honey, a Barrett for life. But I promised to keep my nose out of this situation and that’s what I’m going to do.”
I giggled nervously. Dahlia was known for matchmaking, always getting her way, and ending up correct about almost everything she had ever predicted. She thought Cade and I belonged together. The odds were in her favor, and I supposed mine too since I wanted him back. Or at least I thought I did. The problem was, would I be able to keep him this time? Losing him again would kill me.
“I’ve got to get back to the station. Cade and Trevor are both off today, and they need a senior officer there.” After kissing Dahlia goodbye, he stood and placed a kiss to the top of my head. “I wish you would stick around this time, Charli. Dahlia is right. You’re a Barrett for life. Bye now.”
“Bye.” I breathed. I watched him leave without focusing. My blood had turned to ice, and I was sure my face had turned red again because it was on fire. Even my body was confused. Hot and cold, exactly like my relationship with Cade seemed to be.
Cade was off work today?
He was off.
He was fucking off.
That note: “Work early. Talk soon.”
Why would he lie to me? Obviously, he couldn’t get away from me fast enough. Obviously, he regretted spending the night with me. So, obviously, this would never work between the two of us.
Violet showed up with my coffee and a chocolate filled croissant.
“Thank you.” The sound of my voice echoing in my ears was muted, like it had come from under water. I couldn’t stay here, but if I left, they would know something was wrong and I didn’t want anyone knowing anything about how I felt.
I sipped the hot coffee. I took a bite of my breakfast.
I could do this. I was strong on my own and had been for years.
I had been friends with Dahlia even after the divorce and I didn’t want to lose her. “Let’s sprint.” The good thing about sprinting was there would be no need for talking while we did it.
“You got it, sweetie.” She set the timer on her phone, and off we went.
I resisted the urge to kill off Jaden Skeritt in a tragic, yet heinously brutal murder. Blood and guts were totally my bread and butter. Trent had been right about that.
Stabbing was too good for liars.
I was picturing razor sharp guillotines and psychopathic maniacs running amok wielding chainsaws, or maybe an assortment of rusty medieval weapons could accidently be distributed throughout a maximum-security prison that Jaden was somehow trapped inside of . . .
I was also fighting the temptation to write in a sexy lumberjack or burly firefighter for Adaline to mess around with to make Jaden jealous.
But sadly, my heart was a faithful fool even if my imagination always ran out of control. So, instead of imaginary revenge plots, I ended up writing a scorching hot love scene involving Jaden going down on Adaline for hours and hours (and hours. She was angry and incredibly horny, obviously), followed by an epic sexcapade on her staircase, after which he declared his undying love to her. I ended the chapter with a hot air balloon proposal over Mt. Hood.
Adaline was thrilled with her sparkly diamond engagement ring.
Damn it.