“He told me that he was going to tell me whatever was happening if you couldn’t make it out. But he said he was honorbound to let you talk to me first.”
Cara scrunched her face up, discomfort skittering down her spine.
“You know, the last time I had a conversation like this, my husband was divorcing me. You’re not divorcing me, are you? Because I thought that I got to keep you as my sister-in-law.”
She was teasing, Cara knew that, but she still felt upset and uncomfortable. “No,” she said. “Of course not.”
“Is everything okay?”
“Maybe we should just get our table.”
“Okay. We can do that.”
Marlowe logged out of the computer she was standing in front of and then walked out from around the desk. But she paused and pulled Cara in for a hug. She released her and held onto her shoulders. “I love you,” Marlowe said. “And I’m here for you. No matter what. I know that what I got from you, the support that I got from you, that’s something that a lot of people would take for granted, but I’m never going to take it for granted. I didn’t have family until I married into yours, and the biggest concern I had when Aiden said that he didn’t want to be with me anymore was that I would lose you. That I would lose our family.”
“You never will,” Cara said.
“I know,” Marlowe said. “But do you?”
That was a good question. Because while the kind of abandonment that Marlowe had experienced in her life wasn’t exactly what Cara had experienced, her life very much had loss in it. Someone could be here one day and gone the next. Herein body, but gone in spirit. So maybe she had more of an issue with that than she realized.
Maybe there was a little bit more fear there than she realized.
Marlowe led them past the hostess, into the restaurant, and toward a table that was back in the corner, right near the kitchen, and away from the other diners.
Laney, the head chef, popped out of the kitchen, grinning at the two of them. “Menus?”
“Bring us whatever’s good,” Marlowe said. “And wine.”
“Sure,” Laney said, nodding and heading back into the kitchen.
It didn’t take long for the kitchen staff to return with wine glasses and a bottle of a local rosé. Then, four plates of appetizers were brought out to the table. Marlowe took a long sip of the wine. “So,” she said. “Now, can we talk?”
“I feel like… This has become a way bigger deal than it was supposed to. I actually mostly feel weird about it because I couldn’t tell you in the first place. But I’m… I… I’m seeing Zane.”
Marlowe looked up, then back down at Cara, and nodded slowly. “Well. I’m not actually that surprised by that.”
“What did you think I was going to tell you?”
“I don’t know. That you were pregnant, but then you took the wine, so I figured probably not. Or maybe that you were leaving, or… I don’t know, something that Cody would have information about that I didn’t, so I was thinking maybe business.”
“He saw Zane and me together today. I would’ve told you right away, but Zane didn’t want anyone to know. Well, he didn’t want Cody to know. Because apparently Cody warned him off of me, and Zane said that he wouldn’t touch me. Then he did.Multiple times.”
She laughed. “Oh. Well. Is that why you didn’t want to go out with Jackson?”
“Yes. I’m really sorry that I lied to you. Except what I said was true. I’m not interested in him like that. I’m not interested in him in any way at all. Because Zane is the only one that I’m interested in.”
“Wow. That is a lot. I’m assuming that this is a…”
“Sexual relationship,” Cara said softly. “It’s not going to be anything more than that. Not ever. He’s… He’s broken. I’m just kind of figuring everything out.”
The word broken stung her lips. It felt wrong. She felt bad. Like she had fundamentally betrayed him in some way, like giving his whole backstory might have been better.
“Well, he certainly is a tough nut to crack. I’m not surprised because I could tell that you had a crush on him from the moment that he started working in your bakery.”
“Do you know he thought I was paying him with pastries?”
“What?”
