Chapter 9 Gwen #2
Waving her off, I walked past her through the stainless-steel door.
No one waited in line at the checkout. In one of the booths, a man sat with his laptop on the table and a cup of coffee in hand.
At another in the center of the room, a woman was at the edge of her seat, scrolling social media.
A couple teenagers were around one of the other booths, a woman with a toddler in another.
I had a moment to catch my breath and get something to eat.
I grabbed a pepperoni roll from the pastry case, then a cold brew coffee from the fridge. I topped it off with some cream and cold foam.
I doubted it would cure my exhaustion, but hopefully it would get me through the remaining nine cakes. After a big gulp, I chomped into the pepperoni roll. Then winced as it went down my throat. Not the best flavor combination.
My phone buzzed in my pocket.
Fishing it out, a dozen notifications bombarded me. A voicemail, a few texts, judging by the message emblem in the top left corner, but flashing across the screen now was Simone.
I answered it with, “Everything okay?”
“Yeah, everything’s fine,” she said. “I’m gonna try to talk carefully, because I’m pretty sure you’re at work.”
“I am indeed.” Another bite of pepperoni roll. “What’s up? Did Margaret get Junie from school?”
“She did, yeah. She’s gonna watch her for the next few days,” Simone said.
“Do you think you could pick me up when your shift’s over?
I thought about renting a hotel somewhere, but then I thought maybe it was best if I just stay at your place until my face heals up.
Going to a hotel might look suspicious if anything comes out later. ”
While she wasn’t wrong, if anything did come back to us and someone looked into the lash extension class Simone claimed she was taking right now, that wouldn’t look good either. But I couldn’t say that at the moment. That, we could discuss later.
“Sounds like a good call,” I told her. “What did Rhiannon say?”
“That it was probably best for me to get away for a couple days if I was having a hard time. Apparently, it seemed like I was last night.”
“I can’t disagree with that.”
“It sucks.” A long sigh echoed through the speaker. “Staying away from Junie these next couple of days sucks. Everything that happened last night, that sucks a lot more. Everything just…”
“Sucks?” I washed down the bread and pepperoni with a gulp of coffee. “Yeah. Tell me about it.”
I could practically hear her frown. “I’m sure it sucks a lot more for you. I’m sorry you got wrapped up in all this, Gwen. That wasn’t how it was supposed to go, you know? I was just—”
“I know.”
As unfortunate as it all was, I didn’t blame Simone for any of it. Except for maybe my sore back. If she’d woken her ass up, she could have helped me lift his body. But everything else?
“Shit happens,” I said. “We’re dealing with it. When I get to you though, I need you to drive, because I’ll probably fall asleep at the wheel.”
“Yeah, of course,” she said. “Least I can do.”
“I’d say so,” I said, tone teasing.
She laughed. “We’re going to hell, aren’t we?”
A gust of cold wind blew in from the double glass doors. Through them walked two familiar faces. Sebastian, in his usual jeans and T-shirt, and Lizzie at his side.
Just the sight of him brought those flapping wings back to my belly.
Why the hell did my mind even travel there right now? There were bigger fish that needed frying.
Lizzie stood just around five feet tall, long blonde hair wound into a high pony at the back of her head. Her facial features were soft, delicate. A tiny ski slope nose, two big innocent blue eyes, and the widest, most joyful smile.
“Hey, I think I’d like the heat better than the knee-high snow,” I told Simone. “But I’ve got customers. I gotta let you go. We’ll talk later.”
“Sure. Let me know when you’re on your way.”
“Will do.” I shuttered the phone and shoved it into my pocket. Sebastian and Lizzie were only a few steps from the counter now. “Sorry. Haven’t had much time for a break today.”
“I can tell,” Sebastian said. “You look like shit.”
Yeah. I was getting way too far ahead of myself thinking this man had any romantic interest in me.
Lizzie gasped. Shoving her elbow into her uncle’s ribs, she shot him a look. “She looks beautiful. Watch your mouth.”
Laughing, I headed to the espresso machine for their usuals. “Tell him, Liz.”
“I didn’t mean that you literally look like shit,” Sebastian said quickly. “You look good. You always look good. But you look tired.”
“You’d be tired too if you were working on eighteen cakes in a four-hour shift.” As his java brewed, I propped my hands on my hips. “And managing the front at the same time.”
“You deserve a raise.” Lizzie leaned against the counter, trying her best to get a better view inside the pastry case. “Are those eclairs any good?”
“Delicious,” I said, starting that way. “How many do you want?”
“Three, please,” she said. “Sebastian told me we were rehearsing together tomorrow. Right?”
I had completely forgotten about that. But like Simone said, it was best not to alter our schedules right now.
“That’s the plan,” I told her. “What are we working on again?”
“That’s the thing. I don’t know. I have to decide on a song, classic or current, and prepare a performance. How do you decide that sort of thing? Like, when you’re preparing a set and choosing which songs to play, what are the deciding factors?”
Collecting all her eclairs into a pastry bag, I raised my shoulders. “It depends.”
“On what, exactly?”
“What style are you going for?” I handed her the bag of eclairs over the pastry case. “What do you enjoy the most? Is there any particular song you can’t get out of your head? Something that means a lot to you that you want to show to other people?”
She nibbled her lower lip. “I could probably think of a couple.”
“Pick three, and we’ll learn them all.” I returned to the espresso machine and finished up Sebastian’s Americano. As I passed it to him over the register, I smiled at Lizzie. “Once you have them nailed, then you’ll have a few to choose from for your recital. How’s that sound?”
Light shined in those big blue eyes. It reminded me of her uncle, but his had a shroud of something over top. A subtle gauze of darkness that I doubted he would ever share with the rest of the world.
Smiling wider, Lizzie nodded. “That sounds perfect. I’m excited.”
“She really is,” Sebastian said, laying a twenty on the counter. “Hasn’t shut up about it since I told her.”
Lizzie narrowed her gaze. “You’re annoying.”
“Must be where you get it from.”
A roll of her eyes. “Whatever. I’m going to wait in the car.” A smile for me. “See you tomorrow, Gwen.”
Returning the smile, I waved. I went back to counting out Sebastian’s change, and he cleared his throat.
Was I the one making this interaction weird? Or was it him? To distinguish, I said, “You good?”
“Uh. I wasn’t trying to be an asshole,” he said. “You really don’t look bad. I just—You look great. I mean it. You always look great.”
This was what they meant when they said mixed signals, wasn’t it? “Thanks?”
Judging by the slump of his shoulders and the tight line he pressed his lips to, that wasn’t the response he was hoping for. “I just meant you look like you’re having a hard day. I was trying to give you an opportunity to vent about it.”
Usually, Sebastian and I talked about my dog, or one of Rhiannon’s sick cows, or a piece of art, or current events, or whatever drama there was at the ranch this week. From time to time, we would bitch about my broken-down car or that he was in a rush to pick Lizzie up from school.
But we didn’t talk about ourselves all that much. Our feelings. Maybe that was a good thing about our friendship. Maybe it wasn’t.
One way or the other, though, I couldn’t tell him about the man I’d killed last night.
“Andrew left early. Molly had to get to class. My shift was supposed to end at 6, but I still have almost a dozen cakes to finish decorating.” I rubbed my eyes with my thumb and forefinger. “I’m just in a mood.”
That must’ve been the response he was looking for, because his shoulders softened just a bit. “Why did he leave?”
“Probably has to figure out where he’s gonna live now that Julia kicked him out.”
“No shit.” His hazel eyes widened. “What happened there?”
“No idea. Molly’s sister saw her throwing his shit onto the lawn though, so can’t be good.” Taking a big gulp from my iced coffee, I sat on the stool behind the register. A sigh of relief escaped me. “Damn, that’s nice.”
“The coffee? Or the seat?”
“Both. Can’t really sit when you’re decorating a cake,” I said. “But enough about me. Anything going on with you?”
“Same shit, different day,” he said. “I better stop holding you up. I gotta get Lizzie to her dance class by 6. But thanks again for helping her out. She’s really looking forward to it.”
“So am I. It’ll be fun.”
“As long as she’s nicer to you than she is to me.”
Coffee in hand, turning to head for the door, he gave a smile, but it was different than usual. Rather than his smart ass, crooked grin, his cheeks were warmer, and he had a hard time holding my gaze for too long.
The pepperoni roll roiled in my stomach. I had been trying to get past the nausea that romance brought. Rhiannon said I needed to. That dwelling on the past held me back from my future.
Once, I had craved love and companionship. A best friend to share my life with. That’s why I’d gotten married at nineteen. But Troy wasn’t my best friend or a partner to walk through life with. He’d never loved me. Not really. Not in the way I needed.
That didn’t mean a partner like I’d wanted, like I’d thought I was getting then, didn’t exist. Just that now I knew what red flags to look for.
She kept saying, You can have a partner and a best friend who loves you more than anything, Gwen. But you have to open yourself up to it.
It wasn’t that I disagreed with her.
But I couldn’t tell what was happening here.
Clearing my throat, I just said, “She’s always nice to me.”
“So far,” he said, continuing to the door. His smile was a bit more genuine now that there was more distance between us. Maybe I was wrong. Maybe it wasn’t a date. “Good luck with those cakes.”
“Good luck with the dance moms.”
“Oh, and I take it back.” He stood outside the door now, holding it open with his hip. “Heart. That’s my favorite. Not All’s Well that Ends.”
Damn those butterflies and that jaw aching smile.
Heart by Rainbow Kitten Surprise was a love song. A beautiful, bouncy, almost jazzy ballad that spoke purely, simply, about two people madly in love.
Was that his way of confirming where this was headed?
There was no stopping the skip in my chest. “It’s a good one.”
“Made me think of you.” His eyes twinkled. A wave accompanied it as the door floated shut. Through the windows, we smiled at each other until he was out of sight.
My heart all but stopped.
And I had to get it together, because I was at work, my feet were killing me, and I had literally killed a man last night. I didn’t have enough emotional bandwidth for all of this right now.
Like anyone else in the modern era on a break at work, I swiped open my phone. A few texts from Simone, discussing what she had mentioned on the call. Another from Molly, thanking me for being so understanding, and then three I didn’t recognize.
It was a 406 area code number. Not unusual. Girls at the ranch passed each other’s numbers around frequently. Maybe someone had given mine to the new girl, Delilah.
I clicked the message.
Unknown; What did you do with the car?
Unknown; Left the wallet and phone in his pocket.
Unknown; If you’re gonna do it, do it right.