“Is it?”
“Yes. I’ve wanted them forever. And… You know that.”
“I do. But my brother is a douche.”
Marlowe snorted. “You said it, not me.”
“Are you going to marry Cody?”
Marlowe smiled. “Yes. I am. He hasn’t asked yet, though.”
“Well, what’s he waiting for?”
“I think he was waiting for me to be actually divorced, and then I think he was trying to wait for a reasonable amount of time. It hasn’t been a reasonable amount of time. But it feels like I’ve known him forever. It just feels right. You know?”
“I don’t. I mean, not personally, but I agree that it’s right with the two of you. He’s wonderful.”
“He is. I want to have his babies.”
“Are you going to run this hotel with a baby on your hip?”
“I damn well am. I’m at the point where I want all of my dreams to come true. Because why not? I didn’t want my life to be demolished, but it really clarified a lot of things, and I’m much happier on the other side of it. Sometimes, really difficult things lead to the greatest things, and then you’re braver. So you can do even better things with what you have. Does that make sense?”
She nodded slowly. “I suppose.”
“Well, I just think… If I had met Cody without all that stuff happening with Aiden, I don’t think I would’ve been as brave. But I’ve spent a lot of years marinating and just okay, and I’m over it. Done with it. I’m not doing it anymore. Neither should you.”
She blinked. It was uncanny the way that Marlowe read what she was thinking. “I’m going to get out there. I want to have new experiences.”
“Good.”
“Jackson Carey has kind of been sniffing around my bakery, he got my number. But honestly, watching Walker deal with Addison over the phone is making me feel wary of that.”
Marlowe laughed. “I don’t blame you. I haven’t had direct involvement with it, but I’ve heard him and Laney moaningabout the situation with the menu for both the bachelorette and the wedding, because she keeps changing it. It isn’t only her, it’s her father. He’s bound and determined that it be the best wedding the town has ever seen. You know, he used to be the mayor.”
“I gathered that.”
“Now she’s running for mayor. I get the feeling she’s their ultimate princess. So maybe Jackson isn’t so bad. Maybe he’s not fully involved in all of that. Sometimes the favorite child is the worst one.”
“Speaking from your best experience with siblings?”
Marlowe was an only child.
“No. But speaking of somebody who works in hospitality and sees a whole lot of family dynamics. Maybe you should say yes. Let him call you, let him take you out. Do something wild, Cara. Because you only get to live once. So, you can be like me, sitting around waiting for the brilliant thing to happen to you, and then end up having life jolt you out of your safety and comfort, or you can get ahead of it.”
“For now, I think I’ll just set up the petit fours.”
She didn’t leave until the table looked perfect, but Marlowe’s words were lingering in her mind.
Was she just repeating her same patterns here? She knew that she was. Defaulting tonight at home, knitting, but she had just had a sprained ankle. It wasn’t like she had been able to be out and about. She had tried, it was the reason she had the sprained ankle.
She chewed the corner of her fingernail as she walked back into the bakery.
She probably just needed to worry less. Marlowe had said the other day that it was understandable things hadn’t changed overnight.
Yes, part of her had hoped that she would be flipping a magic switch on her life and moving into a wholenew place, who didn’t wish for things like that sometimes? But she could be realistic.
This meant that she got to start her survival lessons with Zane soon. She was pinning a lot on those.
