Not What I Expected

Rachel wiped Amie’s sweaty forehead with a damp towel then handed her a glass of water while Kael and one of his other employees cleaned the vomit-covered floor.

“I sh-should … have shopped at Smith’s …” Amie’s shaky voice sent out a final declaration to the handful of remaining customers gathered around the crime scene.

Abandoned baskets of products littered the aisles like carnage.

“I’m very sorry, Amie,” Kael said as he shoved soiled paper towels into a trash bag before standing and clocking me with a look I knew I’d never forget. “Your friend is on her knees in misery. Why are you just standing there, Mrs. Smith?”

I tore my gaze from him before he saw right through me. Then I rushed to Amie’s side. Rachel wrinkled her nose and bit her bottom lip. Apparently Kael was the only one who wasn’t truly sympathetic.

“Let’s go.” I, too, wrinkled my nose from the sour vomit smell as I helped Amie to her feet.

She hugged her midsection, blond hair matted to her sweaty face. “I’m so sorry, Elsie. I … I should have known better than to try something that wasn’t from your store. I deserve this. I’m such a traitor.”

“Over-selling,” I gritted through my teeth next to her ear.

Amie wanted to be an actress before she settled on her career as a chiropractor. And there was nothing I could have said or done to stop her from finishing the scene in her once-in-a-lifetime role. All I could do was cower under the eyes of everyone around us.

“What did I expect?” she belted out.

I wanted to die.

“Not this! Save yourselves!” We hobbled arm-in-arm to the door.

“Um … Amie?”

We glanced around at Kael, holding up a phone. Amie’s phone. He studied the screen, lips twisted as he brought it to her. “Oh … wow. You must be pregnant, huh?”

“What?” Amie said.

Kael held up the phone so we could see her screen and my message. “My … my … Mrs. Smith. How ungodly of you to recommend your friend get an abortion.” He added his own dramatic flair. He had his own way of turning heads and starting a terrible rumor.

She snatched it from his hand.

He smirked. “I would never tell a woman what to do with her body, but you really should consider adoption.”

Amie inspected the screen, and then she shifted her gaze to me, maintaining a firm wrinkle of confusion along her forehead. I gave her a dead stare, trying to hide any sort of tell. But Kael knew. Even if no one else understood, he didn’t miss the true meaning. Amid the new round of chatter bleeding out of his store into the square, the most viral gossip ever, we hung our heads in shame and wormed our way to my store and the long line of customers we’d just inherited because I was an asshole.

Craig would have been friends with Kael. I had no doubt about that. He would have sat next to him at the sports bar, drinking beer and placing bets on sports and business. My husband was competitive to a fault. He would have fought dirty, but not that dirty. All in good fun and friendly competition. He would have exploited all our longtime customers who were in their eighties and nineties and given credit to Smith’s sausages and popcorn for their longevity.

He wouldn’t have done what Amie and I did. Even my competitive husband had boundaries.

If Jeremy could blame Craig’s death for his affair, I could blame Craig’s death for my temporary lapse in sanity and moral judgment.

Right?Chapter SeventeenHe’d come into the house while I’d be in the middle of a TV show—stand directly between me and the TV— to tell me about a carburetor he was working on in the garage or why it took him so long to replace the brakes on the neighbor’s vehicle.* * *Finn and Chase made sure Amie and her car got home safely since she was still feeling the effects of whatever herb she took to make her vomit. Bella, Linc, and I scurried around the shop the rest of the afternoon, dealing with the onslaught of customers. It ended up being one of our best Black Fridays (sales wise) ever.

“Coming?” Bella asked as I shut off the lights and grabbed my purse. “You go ahead. I have a few errands to run.”

“Checking in on Amie?”

I nodded.

“That’s terrible. And so bad for Kael. I mean … clearly I feel for Amie, but I kind of feel bad for him too. What if it wasn’t his fault? You know? What if it was the manufacturer’s fault? There could end up being a recall on whatever made her sick, but in the meantime, nobody will go back to Kael’s store. That’s sad.”

“Yes. It is. I’m sure he’ll rebound. He’s young and charismatic. Everyone loves him.”