Page 246 of Tormented Billionaire Romance Series

I led her outside to my car and popped the trunk. She stood back, clearly trying to be impassive.

I pulled out her finished apron and held it out to her.

Her eyes lit up and she snatched it, shaking it to unfold it. “Holy shit.”

“Do you like it?” I asked, feeling a little anxious.

Suzie didn’t answer right away. She pulled the strap over her neck and then tied the ends behind herself. The apron fit perfectly. She laughed. “This is fucking amazing. If I hadn’t paid for it, I wouldn’t know it wasn’t the original.”

Suzie suddenly stopped. “Speaking of pay,” she said, echoing my thoughts, and grabbed her wallet out from her pocket. She handed me a crisp $50.

I tried to push the bill back to her. “I don’t have anything to make change.”

“I don’t want change. I want you to keep it. This is amazing.” Suzie spread her arms and stared down at her apron admiringly. “If I’d known you were this good, I’d have been buying from you for ages.”

A warm flush went through me. “Thank you.”

“Maybe I’ll have to visit you at your shop.”

“Maybe.” I cleared my throat. I didn’t want to talk about anything even remotely related to the interview. “Well, I’m glad you like it. I have to go to a meeting now.”

“Yeah. Yeah, I bet you do.” Suzie dropped her arms, a heavy weight descending in the air around her. “I guess you’ll be doing a lot of stuff like that now you’re with Carter.”

I winced, recalling the kissing and the exchange of I-love-yous that we’d done on camera. I hadn’t watched to see what parts of the interview aired on Channel 13, but that part had clearly been included. “I’m sorry, Suzie.”

“No, you’re not.” Suzie gave a little sad smile. “And that’s okay. I guess Carter and I weren’t meant to be. And he seems really happy with you. I guess that’s all I ever wanted, for him to be happy—though I really hoped it would be with me.”

I didn’t really know what I could say to that.

“Well, anyway.” Suzie cleared her throat. “Thanks again for the apron. And good luck. Just know if you and Carter don’t work out, I’ve got dibs on him.”

I laughed, because that was much more like the old Suzie. “Okay. I’ll let him know.”

“See you around.”

“You will, don’t worry. I’ll stop by for coffee sometimes.”

Suzie left, taking her apron inside.

I got in my car and drove home in a hurry, my heart jammed in my throat. Every minute that passed had my heart beating even faster. I’d spent too much time at the coffee shop and now I feared I might be late.

Sure enough, when I pulled up in front of my house, a van had already parked on my driveway.

I parked on the street and jumped out to meet an older man halfway across my diminutive, brown lawn. “I’m so sorry to keep you waiting,” I blurted out.

“Hey, it ain’t nothin’. I just got here a minute ago.” He grinned, flashing a chipped tooth. “Why don’t we go inside and we can get down to business?”

“Of course.”

I led him into the house. Earlier, workers had cleared out most of my belongings, taking what I wanted to Carter’s house and sending the rest to the dump. Now, except for a last few pieces of furniture and some appliances, the house was as barren as it must have been on the day my parents moved in.

The man with me was a contractor. He brought out a blueprint of the house’s layout. “Why don’t we take a walk around so I can get familiar with the place?”

“Okay,” I agreed.

I thought it would take maybe about five minutes, that he just wanted to make sure each room matched what was on the blueprint. I couldn’t have been more wrong. He spent an hour measuring and remeasuring, tapping on walls, checking for studs, analyzing how the house fit together. He didn’t say much to me except to ask me to hold his measuring tape to this or that spot, and to tell me what parts of the house would absolutely need to be fixed up.

Returning to the living room, we sat on the floor. He shoved me his blueprint, with his notes scribbled all over it. “I don’t know what it is you’ve got in mind for the place. We’ll get to that. I just know you want to make it a store. Here’s my recommendations for the layout. We can knock out this wall separating the living room and dining room area. That will really open up the space. And the walls between the bedrooms can go, too. Can’t do much with the hallway without really getting messy.”

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