EPILOGUE #2
I smile at her, “No, Harp. I have a job, I immediately got another job, and I am working remotely for them while I’m here helping. It’s fine, I’m fine.”
Janie snorts. Harper nods in her direction as if to say, yeah, sure, you’re super fine.
“Okay, so, I am in a little bit of shock. I never expected to see him here in Juniper Falls, not in a million years.”
“Well, he’s here for Aiden, right? The Main Street job? He’ll be here for the next few months, won’t he?” Janie asks Harper. My sister nods, eyes wide.
I wave a hand, “It’ll be okay. Thomas won’t stay here to oversee the job himself. Even if he did, he is always the consummate professional. He’ll be polite and we’ll just avoid each other. It’s okay, really.”
“Yeah, your body immediately rejecting all of its contents at the sight of him screams how okay this all is,” Janie snipes. “Was that guilt or was that…”
Love.
“Ugh, I don’t know!” I cry to the ceiling.
“No. It has to be guilt. It’s been a whole year!
I have Seth now, we’re good. I’m good! Finally!
I haven’t even been thinking about Thomas lately, which is saying something because as his assistant, basically all I did was think about him. It was my job to think about him.”
I stand up and shake myself off, “And thank God it’s over. No, this is not about feelings. Other than embarrassment at how I ended things. Professionally.”
Janie and Harper stand and nod too, because they are the best. They’re with me, on my team, and good to go.
“So,” I pep talk them, and myself. “I’ll go out there and apologize and wish him the best on this development.
It’s actually a big win for him. He’s been trying to get on their radar for years, East Coast money he calls it.
The Rockfords, the Vanderwells, founding father types of families.
I wonder if he reached out to—no! No, I’m not doing this.
” I put my hands to my eyes. “An apology and a congrats. That’s it. It’s two sentences. Let’s go.”
“Are you sure?” Harper asks quietly.
“Yup,” I say, already opening the office door.
I walk straight through the back to the register with my chin high. I clock Aiden and Thomas sitting at the corner table. I lift the counter partition without hesitation and walk straight to him.
Aiden’s dark eyebrows rise as I approach. Thomas has schooled his features, of course. He’s in CEO mode right now.
“Thomas,” I say, looking at his face, then away.
So what if it’s awkward, just do it! You’re a professional!
“I apologize for the way I resigned. I was surprised to see you here, especially knowing I owed you this apology. So. I’m sorry.
And congratulations on this bid for V.H. That’s great. I wish you the best.”
I extend a hand.
Thomas stands slowly and I brace myself for the contact. We did not touch very often in our years together, by design. Because touching him always sent electrical currents through my whole body, then went up into my brain and fried any and all trains of coherent thought.
He doesn’t reach out though.
I look up into his eyes.
Rookie mistake.
He’s so freaking gorgeous. Always. Old school charm, like the fiancé from The Notebook, who I will always argue was way hotter than Ryan Gosling.
My former boss has thick, dark brown hair but not too dark. Chiseled jaw but not too chiseled. Hazel eyes that change color based on which button-up he’s wearing. Strong, clean-shaven features ready for his perfect smile.
He’s perfect.
But he’s not smiling right now.
He’s…angry? I gulp. I don’t think I’ve ever seen him frown like this in public.
His eyes don’t leave mine as his deep voice says, “What you owe me, is a conversation.”
I cough involuntarily, “Right, okay, sure. Of course you’re right. It should’ve been a conversation, not a text. Sometime we can—”
“Now,” he cuts me off. My mouth hangs open. He’s being rude? Out in the open? In front of Aiden Vanderwell?
I fight the urge to give him one of our secret signals.
Usually it was small things. I’d let him know he had something in his teeth or he’d mispronounced a name.
Occasionally, during negotiations, I had to tell him to keep his cool with my eyes, for the sake of the deal.
But if he wants to blow his big contract right here and now in the bakery with the whole town watching, that’s not my problem anymore.
“I’m working right now, but—”
“You’re the owner, Lillian. You can step away. Which is what you’re fixin’ to do,” his inner Texan slips out at the end of his sentence. He really is pissed. At me.
And where exactly does he get off? So I quit my job! So what!
“You know better than anyone, that’s not how it works. When I have enough staff to step away this afternoon, I will.”
“Then I’ll wait,” he says, crossing his massive, wonderful arms that pull his suit jacket to the point of almost ripping the back wide open.
I give him a polite smile, “That’s silly. I’ll just text you when I’m done.”
His eyebrows reach up as if trying to touch the vintage chandelier overhead, “Oh, so your phone does still work then?”
I inhale, then exhale the words, “It does, and like I said, I apologize.”
“Well, I don’t accept,” he scoffs.
I scoff back, “Excuse me?”
“I don’t accept. Not until we have the conversation you owe me. Here, today.”
I plaster my professional smile back on my face and dip my chin, “Of course. I’ll text you as soon as I’m free.”
Before he can say another word, I turn and make a beeline for the safe space behind counter. I start on a latte no one ordered. Harper appears out of nowhere beside me.
She whispers, “You’re in love with that jerk wagon?”
“Was,” I whisper back. “And he’s not usually like that.”
“What’s he usually like?” She asks.
I sigh, “He…he was perfect.”
Instantly, I’m transported back to the day of my interview. The day I looked into those hazel eyes for the first time, watched his smile light up his office and fell.
And man, I fell hard.
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