Page 14 of One Small Spark
The line goes suspiciously quiet for a minute.
“And I realized I’m hopeless without you, sweetheart,” he says.
Ugh, these two. Adorable, yet disgusting. Like baby pandas before their fur comes in.
“All I’m saying is,” she finally continues, “just because Shepherd said some things about you in the past, it doesn’t mean he feels the same way now.”
Hope is way more forgiving than I am.
“I think you misheard him,” her fiancé says.
And Griffin is an idiot.
“I straight up heard him tell his coworker how awful I am. I didn’tmishearanything.”
People have said worse about me, but not the guy I’d been bantering with ever since he opened his bike shop. Not the guy I’d maybe sort of definitely been hoping would ask me out. Nobody who’d ended up making me feel so much like a fool.
I’d popped over, probably to fake-complain about him parking his giant truck in my spot, when I stumbled on the private conversation. The guys were behind the counter, their backs to me as Callahan did something to a bike.
“Wren Krause is loud, opinionated, and unavoidable,” he’d said. “That woman is too much in every category that matters.”
I snuck back out before they could turn around and see me, but I learned enough that day. He thought I was loud and opinionated before? Brother had no idea what was coming for him.
“And that’s before the Richard Allred situation,” I say.
Hope sighs but doesn’t try to argue that one.
Richard Allred, the former Sunshine resident-turned real estate developer came to town not long after I found out what Callahan really thinks of me. Richard was looking for new places to invest his money, and set his sights on Blackbird’s Bakery.
Until recently, the bakery was always just me, Mom, andTess. We work ungodly hours six days a week to keep everything humming. Even a small outside investment could have meant upgrading our appliances, updating our front-end, or allowed Tess to open her custom cake arm two years earlier than she did.
“Tess doesn’t think Maureen would have wanted an investor,” Hope points out. “And I doubt you would have enjoyed dating a guy like that.”
Maybe. Maybe not. While it lasted, his attention was flattering, if overboard. I’ve never been much of a flower girl and receiving a dozen bouquets at once tip-toed close to alarming.
But at least he’d been blatant about his interest. I hadn’t had to read into anything or second guess or think we had something going only to hear that, no, he actually thought I was a shrew.
But a few dates in, he’d told me he was no longer interested in Blackbird’s. He’d heard “local buzz” we weren’t doing as well as he’d thought, and he didn’t see the point in getting involved in a failing business.
He also didn’t see the point in getting involved with me. Someone told him I was a “nightmare” to be around, and he decided I wasn’t worth the trouble.
Stunned, I’d asked who had told him that.
Richard’s lip had curled as he slicked back his blond hair. “Shepherd Callahan.He’sthe kind of businessman I want to partner with.”
A few months later, Get in Gear had new signs out front and a slew of new bikes inside.
So, yeah. Callahan’s not my favorite guy. Even if he is, unfortunately, stupidly hot.
“I still think you’re wrong about him,” Hope says.
“You, my friend, have been blinded by love.” Despite what she and Tess and even the ladies in the book group hint at, my opinions about Callahan won’t be swayed.
“I tried.” She sounds like she’s talking more to Griffin than me.
“Anyway. Romance book group was an experience.”
“Sounds like it. Do you want to come over tonight? Have some dessert and vent some more?”
