Not What I Expected

“Well, what if you’re not the only guy I’m having sex with?” Of course he was. But I needed to keep checking in on our situation. It really was too good to be true.

Oh the irony …

So many young women looked for guys who would commit and be faithful. Give them that coveted monogamy. I was once that young woman.

Not anymore.

I wanted the opposite of everything I had with Craig. It wasn’t that I wanted to erase a single minute of our lives together (save for the last day I saw him). I simply wanted a part of my life to truly be mine.

My needs.

My desires.

My secret.

He kicked the heel of my boot with the toe of his, a subtle gesture that no one else saw. “Then I’d better keep up on my STD testing and not ever oblige you with my naked tip again. Epperly may be a small town, but STDs don’t care about population size.”

I liked that he was the cautious one. Since really … he would be the one spreading the hypothetical STDs. Twenty-two years in a monogamous marriage left me with a lot, but never an STD.

When we arrived at my SUV, I turned toward him before opening my door. We kept a safe distance of several feet, hands in our pockets.

“You really don’t care, do you?”

His forehead wrinkled. “Care about what? I care about a lot, so you’ll have to be more specific.”

“You don’t care if tomorrow night I have sex with some other guy. It’s not cheating. You won’t be upset.”

The tension on his face remained idle for a bit, as if he had to contemplate what I said—or maybe how to respond. It felt weird. Had I read him all wrong?

Before I could clarify or rephrase anything, he relaxed his expression and lifted a single shoulder. “Your life, Elsie. Not mine.”

My life.

A huge grin spread along my face. I had no intentions of having sex with some other guy … at least … not the following night. But the reality that I had a life of my own again felt so freeing.

“Great.” I turned and opened the driver’s side door. “Oh …” I twisted to look back at him. “It goes both ways. In case you were worried. If you and Tillie have sex. That’s fine. None of my business. Just make sure you’re upfront with her. She’s been through a lot. I’m not sure she’d be okay with a sex toy.”

Kael’s thick eyebrows eased up his forehead. “Okay … um … thanks for the heads-up. If it gets brought up, I’ll let her know the situation.”

“But don’t tell her it’s me. Remember … this is our secret.”

His chin lifted for a brief pause, inspecting me with a peculiar look before dropping into a sharp nod. “Got it. I should maybe have NDAs with my women, huh?”

Women? Was he serious?

I shook my head and closed my eyes for a second.

None of my business. None of my business. None of my business.

“Uh … yeah. Sure.” I hustled to get into my vehicle and shut the door, offering a quick glance and even quicker smile before shoving my Tahoe into reverse.Chapter TwelveI’m not sure why he married me when my opinion means less than that of a complete stranger.* * *Several days later, I put a huge SALE sign in the store window. That doubled my customers from the previous day, but it didn’t do much to affect profits since I actually had to put stuff on sale—stuff I wouldn’t normally mark down until Black Friday or the week after Christmas.

The day after that, I had a sign for complementary hot cider and pumpkin chocolate chip muffins. That brought in more customers, but sales only budged a little. A lot of token purchases were made, five-dollar-or-less items. And everyone had to pay with a freaking credit card. By the time I factored in the processing fee, I basically lost money for the day.

“He’s running me out of business, and there’s nothing I can do.” I confessed my frustration to Amie on our early morning walk with Meadow.

“Then you need to let the shop go or else you need to play dirty.”

“Play dirty?”

She had no idea I’d been playing very dirty with him. I came so close to telling her on multiple occasions, but I liked my secret too much. It was the first time in … forever … that I had something one hundred percent for myself.

“Start a rumor. Run him out of town.”

I shot her the hairy eyeball. “Such as?”

“Maybe say you heard so-and-so got something like salmonella or some sort of parasite from one of his products. Rat droppings in his kitchen. Changing expiration dates on his packaging. So many possibilities. Or go after his shiny reputation. Say he said or did something inappropriate to you.”