Page 90 of Salty, Spiced, and a Little Bit Nice

I finally told her everything: about our arrangement, the pretend relationship for Jacqui, and how it all went pear-shaped yesterday. Naomi was silent, listening, not even interrupting once, until I finished my story.

“You’re in love with him, aren’t you?”

There was no point in pretending with her. She knew me too well. “Yes.”

Naomi chuckled softly. “About time. You two are meant for each other.”

A wave of sadness tore through me, because right now, I didn’t know how things stood between us. “But with everything that has happened… I don’t know what to do. I want to help, but I don’t know how. He’s been avoiding me and ignoring my messages.”

“Give him some time,” Naomi replied. “Just be there to support him. And whatever happens, be firm and stand your ground, no matter what your mother says. It’s your life, your relationship, and you’ve done so well to start a new life out there on your own. It won’t be easy saying no to her face-to-face, but you’re strong, and you can do this.”

I went quiet. “What do you mean, face-to-face?”

There was a long pause before Naomi spoke again, her tone careful and measured.

“You haven’t read my messages, have you?”

“Um.” I put her on speaker, then tapped open her unopened messages. As I scrolled through them, my heart started to race, and panic began to overtake my consciousness.

Your mother has been asking questions about you. And Alec. Eric isn’t saying anything, but she’s VERY suspicious.

Her next message, an hour after the first one:

She knows where you are. We don’t know how she found out, but she did.

And her very last message from last night.

Heads up. She’s flying out to PB tomorrow.

I froze, as Naomi’s voice echoed in the empty store. “Her flight arrived at four.”

Shit.I thanked her and hung up, then shoved my laptop into my bag. I didn’t even know where she would be headed, but in my mind, the most sensible thing to do was leave now, get home, and warn Alec. As I typed a frantic message to him, the front door swung open. A familiar voice rang throughout the store, sending chills down my spine.

“So. This is what you gave up the family business for, huh?”

Dread filled me, as the hairs on my neck prickled and my back stiffened. I slowly looked up and locked gazes with the woman I’d moved to the other side of the country to avoid.

She strolled into the shop, casting a critical gaze around. “Not bad. Although I’d probably invest a bit more in the kitchen if I were you.” She nodded toward theperfectly finecommercial kitchen at the back of the shop.

“What are you doing here?”

Her eyes were still assessing the place. “How much did it cost you to set up this business? What’s your projected monthly turnover for the first year? How long until you break even?”

I heaved a resigned sigh. “Seriously? You’ve been here for five seconds, and you’re already dissecting and criticizingmybusiness?”

My mother scoffed. “That’s because I can’t imagine how this is a profitable business model. There’s a reason your father and I never went into retail, especially brick-and-mortar stores. The net profit margins aren’t worth the time, the effort, and the investment.”

I ignored her unsolicited business analysis. “Let me ask again. Why are you here?”

She finally turned to look at me. “I’m here to take you home.”

“Yeah, that’s not happening.”

“It sure is.” Her tone was condescending. “Because I said so.”

“How did you know where I was?”

“It wasn’t easy, trying to find you. Eric and Naomi wouldn’t tell me where you were. You locked your Facebook profile, went private on all your social media accounts. It was a smart move, I’ll give you that. Mimi suggested we hire a PI to track you down, but I didn’t want to risk the possibility of this…scandalgetting out. Can you imagine what our business partners might say? If they heard that the daughter of Henry and Veronica Pang ran away from home, and we neededa private investigatorto track her down? How embarrassing would that be for us?”

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