Page 123 of Smoke and Fire
“Yeah,” I drawled. “Those old ladies were prettyintense.”
Lizbeth’s eyes widened. “I’m sure. Bethany needs a manager. Someone to take inventory, do the ordering, coordinate hirings and firings, and all that other boring stuff. If I didn’t have a princess coming, I’d manage it. But I already do that for the bakery and my online business still needs some love.”
The Frolicking Moose definitely needed someone to smooth things out. Bethany and Maverick had both been so busy, I rarely saw them. The offer for me to manage the Frolicking Moose hadn’t come and hopefully wouldn’t. I didn’t want ties to Pineville.
Not yet, anyway.
Maybe I’d land here and stay awhile, but I didn’t want to make that decision so soon into my adventure. Besides, I hadn’t been here very long. Two months. Long enough for Ellie to train me then take off for North Carolina. They hadn’t even hired another barista since Ellie left, which left me running the place. When I didn’t work, the shop wasn’t open.
Their space to cater events booked out every weekend in the summer, and parking lot parties had started to spring up, which required drink and food catering. In a word, things had risen to disaster-level this summer. The forest wasn’t the only thing on fire.
Lizbeth tapped her fingers on the side of her frappuccino, gaze narrowed. A thoughtful expression filled her freckled face.
“Leslie would be perfect for the job. She managed a house with four boys, a husband that didn’t believe in romance, and now a divorce.”
The phrasea husband that didn’t believe in romancerang in my head. “What does romance have to do with their divorce?”
“10%, I’d say.”
“What?”
“Leslie and her ex-husband’s lack of romance contributed about 10% to their divorce, if we divvy out the causes.”
“That’s ridiculous.”
“But true.” She shrugged. “Romance may not be everything to a relationship, but it is something. They had a deeper lack of connection, but the lack of romance certainlydidn’t help.”
A little too much defensiveness stained my tone when I said, “Romance isn’t the only indicator of a relationship.”
She popped out of her chair with surprising agility for someone that pregnant. With her drink in hand, she grinned.
“I know. But it’s an indicator of the good ones. I’m going to see Leslie and feel out if she needs a job or not. Thanks for the frap! Tell Bethany, if she even shows up, which I doubt, that I’ll stop by with dinner tonight. JJ made homemade croutons and salad dressing, and I amherefor it.”
My brain dulled as I watched her head toward the door, her words still whipping through my mind.It’s an indicator of the good ones.Maybe she wasn’t wrong. Why else did I love Rodrigo and Rashaad so much? Still, it made my chest heavy. Sad, a little. If there was one thing that Jakob and I didn’t have when we parted, it was romance.
There was some at the beginning,Inner Me said a bit whimsically.
“But not much,” I murmured.
Lizbeth paused halfway out the door, the bell on the handle jingling as she stood there. “You believe in romance, right?” she asked.
“Sure,” I said.
Because what else was I going to say?
That you desperately miss it,said my inner voice in a sound like a sigh.That you thought you had it once, but now you see it wasn’t really there. That it makes you unaccountably sad. That you invested years in something that, in the end, may not have been that great.
Yeah,I thought sadly.That.
Lizbeth tilted her head to the side. “Have you been in a relationship before?”
“Just got out of one a few months ago.”
Her expression softened. “I’m sorry.”
“Me too.”
She gave a little smile, a wave, and wafted out the door. I watched her go, heart slamming against my chest. Dark emotions aside, it felt like a win. Sayinga few months agowas the first acknowledgment of Jakob and the demise of our relationship since I arrived. Words made it real. Words out loud made it irrefutable.
