Chapter 18
I don’t need a boyfriend. I need 12 million dollars and a carton of Blue Bell .
— Pepper’s secret thoughts
PEPPER
I was set to arrive at Atlas’s house about two hours after he had.
I’d had to run back to the hotel, do a check on a few things, and then gather up some of my wig stuff.
I had quite a few finished products that I needed to package up, too.
I gathered it all, my label maker, my laptop, and a week’s worth of clothes, and headed back downstairs to my car.
I ran into the night bellhop, and he waved me over.
“ Hey , I wanted to talk to you about a few things,” he looked at me warily.
“ Give me a sec,” I said as I walked over to one of the luggage carts and set my crap down.
Pulling it over toward Petra — I didn’t leave my laptop anywhere but fully secure after an incident with Sage a few years ago—and went back to him.
“ What’s up?” I asked him.
He grabbed my cart and started pulling it toward the side hall where employees had a break room, a couple of bathrooms, and a few storage rooms.
“ So you’re not hearing this from me,” he said. “ But a woman came in today with long blonde hair and started accusing you of selling drugs out of your room.”
I blinked.
“ They’re going to do a random room inspection with a few K -9 dogs tomorrow,” Petra continued.
I sighed, my mind whirling.
I knew damn well who the blonde was.
I also knew, like always, that this was a tried and true tactic that Sage liked to use.
“ Was the blonde a police officer?” I asked stiffly.
He looked at me with surprised eyes. “ Yes , how did you know?”
“ Because that woman is my sister, and she’s had a vendetta against me since she turned twelve.” I explained my situation, not leaving much out.
What was the point?
I wasn’t trying to protect her anymore.
Nor was my mom around to get offended that I went out of my way to let everyone know what kind of asshole my sister was.
“ Wow ,” he shook his head. “ That’s …”
“ My sister,” I finished for him. “ Did she pay someone for a card to get into my room?”
He shrugged. “ I don’t know that. I just overheard it when your sister was discussing it with the day manager. I just got a really bad feeling and felt like you needed to know what was about to happen.”
I scrubbed my hands up and down my face.
This was exactly what I didn’t need right now.
But again, I knew better than most what she was trying to do.
“ Okay ,” I said. “ Can you keep your phone on you? I am going to go move out of my room.”
His brows rose. “ You’re moving out?”
I scratched the back of my neck.
The timing was right.
Working at this hotel was fun. It kept me from getting bored because there was always something new and exciting to deal with.
But it wasn’t that great of a job.
I could do anything at this point. And I could also find a job closer to Sunnyvale that would work better with my hours at the bakery.
It was already tougher than I’d expected when Maven had moved the bakery out of Dallas .
And that was a job I wanted.
This one wasn’t.
“ O -of course,” he said. “ Does this mean you’re quitting, too?”
I caught my cart up and headed out to my car. “ Yep .”
It took me all of an hour to pack my things.
The one good thing about being in a hotel room was that you didn’t need to gather too much crap because everything was already provided for you.
The hardest part was getting my wig supplies packed up in the boxes that Petra had been able to scrounge up.
I accomplished it after way too much time and took a quick look around the room.
Everything was packed except for my toiletries, and I decided to leave those. They were the hotel’s, anyway.
After one quick search under the bed, inside the closet, and in the drawers, I resituated everything onto the luggage cart and headed back downstairs.
Once I loaded everything into my car—a tight fit for sure— I went back inside with the cart.
I found the night manager in his office typing on his computer.
He looked up when he saw me and a wary look crossed his face.
Yep , my sister had definitely done some damage.
“ Ms . Solomon .” He greeted me more formally than he ever had before.
I took a seat on the chair across the desk from him.
He winced, eyes scanning the office instead of my face.
He definitely felt guilty about what he was going to do tomorrow.
“ I wanted to let you know that I quit,” I said succinctly.
His eyes widened. “ What ? No !”
“ Yes ,” I said. “ My sister is trying to ruin my life, and y’all are going to become collateral damage. I want to say that I appreciate y’all giving me a job when I moved here and riding the waves when those husbands of the jilted wives tried to make trouble. However , if I don’t leave, y’all are only going to be dragged into something that you shouldn’t have to be a part of.”
He tilted his head, mouth opening and closing.
“ I know that my sister accused me of having drugs in my room,” I said. “ She tried this when I was in college, too, and actually succeeded in getting me kicked from my dorm room. She nearly got me kicked out of school completely, but since my parents were generous donors to the college, the board decided to allow me to continue to go to classes.”
He blinked.
“ Anyway ,” I stood up. “ I moved out today. The room is empty. Nothing is in there. I would suggest sending up a housekeeper to get it cleaned, because I suspect my sister will try to get in sometime tomorrow to plant the evidence.”
He blinked some more.
“ Have a good one,” I said as I walked out of the office and out to my car.
I checked my watch.
I was definitely much later than I’d anticipated.
The drive to Atlas’s place took less than thirty minutes.
It was a miracle.
As I’d driven, my mind had gone through my next steps.
I’d called Maven to ask if I could move into the apartment above the bakery, just in case she wanted to change her mind, and she’d squealed in delight.
After that call, I’d called my brothers to tell them all about Sage’s escapades since I’d last spoken to them, and they’d agreed with my decision to leave before Sage made everyone’s lives a living hell.
The rest of the drive was spent thinking about what kind of job I would find next.
Hopefully one that paid as well as the hotel had.
I had to have two jobs to be able to pay as much as my brothers did on my father’s care.
I was so lost in thought, thinking about my next step, that I didn’t see the man walking down Atlas’s driveway until he was literally right in front of me.
I screeched on the brakes.
“ I’m sorry,” I apologized as I got out. “ You’re wearing all black and I didn’t see you.”
“ No worries,” he pointed at himself. “ I do blend in.”
I studied the youngest Carter’s face and wondered if he realized how exhausted he looked.
He waved and started to cut across yards to his house, but I called after him.
“ Hey ,” I said to him, looking warily. “ I need a favor from you.”
Garrett raised his eyebrows. “ What is it?”
I gestured to my car, then inside, “ Can you come inside and let me explain? I want to tell it to you and Atlas at the same time.”
Garrett fell into step beside me, and instead of knocking at the front door of Atlas’s house, he walked right inside.
We were greeted by a ton of toddler laughter.
Garrett and I made eye contact, and we pushed farther into the house.
We followed the sounds of toddler laughter, and the deeper laugh of the father, to the back door.
“ Quincy is so going to kick your ass,” Garrett mused.
Atlas whipped his head around to see the two of us standing there.
His features, which had been tight a moment before, softened.
“ You came,” he said to me.
I nodded. “ I had a few issues.”
My gaze went to the back yard, and I frowned. “ Are those raccoons?”
“ They are,” Garrett chuckled. “ Probably the ones that keep going through Quincy’s trash, too.”
“ If he put it into a normal trash can, it wouldn’t matter. But he keeps putting it beside the back door because he’s too lazy to walk outside at night to put it into the trash can,” Atlas pointed out.
“ Yeah , you can’t do that,” I said. “ We used to live out in the country, too. We’d feed our outside cats, and if the cats didn’t eat fast, they’d get kicked off their food bowls by the racoons.”
“ What are your issues?” he asked as he stood up, bringing Forest with him.
We all walked back into the kitchen as the oven dinged, indicating something was ready.
He opened the oven door to reveal spaghetti.
Garrett grimaced and looked away.
“ You don’t like spaghetti?” I asked.
“ Hate it,” he grumbled. “ It reminds me of blown up brain.”
I gagged. “ That’s gross.”
“ It’s accurate.” He shrugged.
“ Garrett ,” Atlas grumbled. “ Why are you still here then?”
“ This one asked me to come inside,” he gestured at me. “ Said she had a problem she needed my help with.”
Atlas spared me a glance as he dished up the food for his son, who was still on his hip.
The domesticated way he was taking care of his baby and providing made certain places inside of me sing in rejoice.
Why was a man providing so sexy?
And why the heck couldn’t we have figured our shit out before this new development arose?
Mostly , I started feeling bad for myself because I’d wanted him for what felt like forever. Now , when he was finally starting to be nice to me, and maybe sharing some of my own feelings, his world had been turned upside down.
There was no way on God’s green earth that I was going to push a relationship with him now.
I was going to be perfectly respectable.
I was going to be the best friend ever to him.
I was going to be a Monk … Nun ?
Thoughts morose now, I looked around for a spot for Forest to eat and found a bunch of encyclopedias to stack on the chair closest to the wall.
He gave me a thankful nod and placed his son on the books before placing the food in front of him. “ This is hot. You have to be careful. Watch .”
He picked up a bite of the food with a small baby fork, then blew on it.
Forest watched intently, then snatched the fork from him and blew on it.
It had all of one piece of meat on it after his exuberant snatch job.
He took a bite and said, “ Yum .”
Again , my heart did that melting thing.
Plates for the adults were made next, and Garrett sat down, enjoying spaghetti even though he’d previously told Atlas he wasn’t hungry.
I studied the youngest Carter .
He looked… haggard.
If we’d had a better relationship, I’d have asked him what was wrong.
But we didn’t have that kind of relationship.
Hell , even Atlas and I didn’t have that kind of relationship.
“ So what happened now?” Atlas asked, sounding hesitant.