24. Sable
CHAPTER 24
sable
I reviewed the week’s invoices at the bar with a heavy heart.
It wasn’t going well—it was better , but not like it used to be, not like I’d forecasted based on historic revenue numbers. Our bills were marginally lower than our revenue. Our profits were low .
I ran a hand over my face. I nibbled my lower lip, thinking about what else I could do to scare up more foot traffic. We needed more tourists because the locals were not coming back—not after Heath publicly turned his back on me after he ground me into the dirt.
Casey slid a cup of coffee in front of me. It was my second of the hour. I wasn’t sleeping well, thanks to all the freaking stress in my life. My heart was broken, my business was going bust, and I was seriously thinking about asking my doctor for some Xanax or Ambien, which was a significant step for me, considering I was very anti-drug, having been raised by a drunk and an addict.
There was a knock on the front door, and Casey raised an eyebrow. We weren’t opening for another two hours. She went to the door, and I went back to my laptop.
“Sable, you have a visitor.” Her eyebrows were raised in that you’re not going to like this way.
When I saw who my visitor was, I wanted to scream at the universe. Really? Today was the day that I had to deal with Jack along with all my other shit?
My ex-husband looked the same as always—decent enough, but with that weak chin that seemed fitting for a man with low integrity and a flexible spine. It had been over six months since we’d gone our separate ways, and it was incredible how little time I’d spent mourning him or the demise of our marriage. Sure, part of that was thanks to the distraction Heath provided, but I suspected the real reason was that Jack had been my hiding place, my shield from the world. Now that I’d been pushed out of my comfort zone and forced to face life head-on, I could see it clearly—I had never loved him.
I’d have stayed with him, been loyal, and supported him through anything, but he’d thrown me away. And in doing so, he’d pushed me to grow in ways I hadn’t expected. The person I’d become didn’t have much emotion left for this man in his khakis and button-down, looking like he’d wandered in from some corporate seminar.
Unfairly, I found myself comparing him to Heath— taller, stronger, more sophisticated, more rugged…simply more. Jack, by contrast, was just a shadow of what I once thought I was lucky to have.
“Jack.” I closed my laptop but didn’t get up from the barstool.
Casey gave me a pointed look, clearly waiting for my signal to stay or leave. I waved her off, and she left, muttering something about “ being close if I needed her to knee the asshole in the nuts .”
He came closer, his hands stuffed in his pockets, looking uncertain. “Hi, Sable.”
“Have a seat.” I was sitting at a corner of the bar, so I pointed to the bar stool on the other side.
He did as I requested. I could smell him. He was still using the Dior cologne I’d given him for his birthday earlier this year. How some things didn’t change. But how some things did since he looked older than he had when I last saw him. I wondered what I looked like to him and what changes in me he noticed.
“You look…ah…nice.”
Well, that was something. Mostly these days, people told me I look tired, which wasn’t far from how I felt.
“Would you like something to drink?” I pointed to the shelves behind the bar.
He smiled wanly and shook his head.
We nodded at each other, the silence heavy with tension, hinting at what was to come. I suspected the conversation might not be pleasant, despite the veneer of politeness and decency we were both maintaining…for now .
“Congratulations on the baby,” I blurted out.
Caleb . He’d named his son Caleb after the one we’d lost. When I’d first heard, it had crushed me. Now, looking at him, it didn’t hurt at all. I was glad I never had a child with Jack, never had something to tether me to him.
He shrugged and looked tremendously sad. “Ah, well…. The bar looks nice.”
“Thanks.” I waited for him to say more. After all, he was the one who came to me.
He gave me a look that was somewhere between a distressed smile and a happy frown. It was the same one he’d given me before he’d told me about Molly.
“Jack?” I urged after the silence became ridiculously long.
“How are you?”
I suppressed a sigh. “Is that why you’re here? To ask me how I am?”
He shook his head, letting out a long breath, his fingers holding onto the edge of the bar as if for dear life. “No. That’s not why I’m here.”
Well?” I prompted when he didn’t continue.
He rested his elbows on the bar. “Molly’s leaving me.”
I narrowed my eyes in confusion. That was not what I expected him to say. As I tried to think about how to respond, the only word that came to mind was, “Okay.” And then, because more words made themselves form in my head, I added, “It’s really none of my business, Jack.”
His shoulders slumped. “The baby…he’s not mine. ”
Okay, that was a plot twist I didn’t see coming.
“ Still , none of my business.”
For a moment, he stared at me in shock, and then I saw anger form. “Of course, it is. I left you because she was pregnant.”
That was rewriting history a little, but I let him have it. “Regardless, I don’t care that you’re having issues with Molly.”
“How can you say that, Sable? We were together for years.”
“And you cheated on me,” I pointed out.
“She was seeing another guy…while she was with me.” He sounded genuinely miffed about it, and I had to fight back a smile. It was one of those moments where you couldn’t help but think about karma—what goes around comes around. And yet, it was so utterly absurd, so soap-opera dramatic, that it felt almost surreal.
“She wasn’t sure whose baby it was, and the other guy didn’t have a job. She…ah…decided I was the baby daddy.”
Now, I was curious. “How did you find out you’re not the father?”
He swallowed. “I demanded a DNA test. She said she was going to be with him now because he found a job. They’re moving to fucking Boca Raton. I couldn’t let her take my baby.”
My phone chirped with a message, and I gave him an apologetic look. “Just need to check this.”
It was Casey: OMG!! Get all the deets. Who’s Molly’s boyfriend ?
Of course, she was listening. Before I could put the phone down, there was another message, this time from Mackenna: My mother’s friend’s niece works at the hospital, and she said Molly kicked him out of her room because he was throwing a fit.
And, since they were in the kitchen eavesdropping, Elijah messaged his thoughts: I ain’t cooking for that asshole, boss. Don’t offer him nothing.
I set the phone down.
“I’m sorry to hear about…ah…everything.” My subtext was clear: Karma was a bitch .
“It’s the worst thing that’s ever happened to me.” The bitterness in his voice was palpable, and for a brief second, I almost felt sorry for him. Almost .
But wait a minute? This was the worst thing that happened to him? Not the dissolution of an eight-year marriage? Not losing two pregnancies?
“Right.” I looked at my watch and then at my closed laptop, hoping he’d take the hint that I was working.
“She’s gone. Took all of her things from the new house. I bought the house for her and the baby.”
I didn’t know why he was talking to me about this because we were not friends.
I crossed my arms, letting some of my irritation show. “Look, Jack, that sounds...rough, but….”
He looked up at me then, his eyes filled with something unmistakable. Oh, I knew exactly what this was—I’d seen it before. Regret.
No. No. No. No. Absolutely not.
“I’ve been a fool, Sable,” he whined as I expected him to. “I threw away everything we had for...for nothing . Molly used me. I…I realize now what I lost.”
I raised both my eyebrows and muted my phone because my colleagues who were listening in were losing their ever-loving minds, making the device beep like crazy.
“You were good to me,” he continued, his voice growing softer. “You worked so hard to make our lives better. I mean, I did, too, but…you know, you contributed. I…didn’t appreciate that…you.”
There was a time when I would’ve given anything to hear him say this, to admit he’d taken me for granted. But now? I didn’t give a damn.
“Sable” —he locked his eyes with mine— “I want you back.”
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” I snapped.
“No,” he stated somberly. “I know I messed up. But you also had a fling. So, now we’re even, and we can…get back.”
This man was seriously delusional.
“Jack, you were fucking Molly for a year while we were married—and it sounds like she was fucking her baby daddy during that time. Good thing I got tested after you told me about her. Whatever I did happened after we were divorced, so that doesn’t add up to us being even.”
“Come on, Sable. I know you love me. I know you’ve been waiting for me to take you back. I’m here now.”
I stood, needing to put some distance between us. “Yeah, you’ve lost your mind. ”
“We can make this work.”
I couldn’t tell if he was actually this dumb or if I had been to have spent ten years of my life with him.
“I don’t think so, Jack.”
His expression twisted, and for a moment, I thought he might actually apologize. But instead, his face hardened.
“You’re making a mistake,” he barked. He stood up, and his posture was total aggression. “I’m trying to do you a favor here. God knows you need someone to accept your sorry ass after Heath kicked you to the curb in front of half the town. You should be grateful that I’m even offering.”
That did it.
“Alright, that’s enough. You can go now.” I marched to the door and opened it.
“Sable—”
“Get out.”
“Hey, get off your high horse and listen to me, you little bitch.” He’d worked himself into a frenzy because this conversation, like the one he’d had with me when he told me about knocking up Molly, wasn’t going his way.
That was when Elijah, Casey, and Mackenna came into the bar.
A giggle escaped me when I saw them.
Elijah had a butcher’s knife in his hand. Casey had a meat mallet. Mackenna had a bottle of vodka she was holding by the neck. My three Musketeers!
“You heard her.” Casey banged one end of the mallet on the palm of her hand as if keeping time. “Time to go, asshole.”
Jack scowled.
“Yeah, man, time for you to get the fuck outta here.” Elijah was a big man, and with his tattoos and long hair, his reputation of being a criminal, the butcher’s knife was just over the top.
“Think about what I said.” He pointed a finger in my face.
I didn’t know why I did it, but I snapped my teeth as if biting the offending digit off. He jumped back, squealing.
He called me a fucking crazy bitch before he marched out.
As soon as he did, the four of us broke into laughter, the pee-in-your-pants kind—the kind I hadn’t experienced in years.