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This time her laugh was loud and genuine. “I might have believed you if it hadn’t taken you a week to come up with that answer, Grant. I’m not upset.”
“You’re not?”
“No. Maybe a little disappointed that things ended so soon and so abruptly, but I’d rather they end now before I end up falling for you.”
“Would it be so bad if you fell for me?”
“Yes, Grant. It would be because you wouldn’t fall for me. You wouldn’t love me.”
“I could.”
“I believe that because you are a kind and sweet and passionate man, Grant Lopez. But the truth is that you wouldn’t. You won’t.” She let out a soft sigh that hit me right in the chest. “I have to go, Grant. Bye.”
She ended the call before I could come up with another response, another point that might make her reconsider, because dammit I missed her.
Brenna
I stood in line at Bread Box, tapping my foot and nibbling on one of newly painted hot pink nails, impatient as ever while waiting for a group of tourists to finish jaw-jacking to Mara. Why in the hell were there so many tourists in town today, anyway? Pilgrim was a town that loved to have festivals, concerts, carnivals and any other reason to get together with food, booze and baked goods. I loved that about this town, but right now, I resented these non-locals keeping me from my pastries.
“Next!” Mara’s loud voice had my sneakered feet advancing to the counter and I ignored the worried dip of her brows. “What’ll it be?”
“A box of mix and match, a dozen please. Wait, no, better make it the eighteen pack. Yeah, that’s what I want. Eighteen mix and match, please. Thanks.”
Mara tilted her head to the side, staring at me like I just parked my spaceship in front of the bakery. “Everything all right, Brenna?”
“Yep, just peachy. Why do you ask?”
Mara let out a bark of laughter. “Maybe because you’ve been tapping your foot like a fiend since got in line and now, you’re asking for enough pastries to feed you for a week. Wanna talk about it?”
Nope. Absolutely not. “Nothing to talk about, but thanks.” When I was down, I indulged in sugar and butter and flour, of all varieties. Cakes and cookies and pies, tarts or cupcakes, I loved them all.
“Right. Give me a second,” she said and disappeared into the kitchen before I could tell her I wasn’t going anywhere until I got my box of goodies.
A few seconds later, Shannon pushed through the doors with a worried smile on her face. “Hey, let’s chat while Mara gets your order together.”
“Not necessary, but sure.” I turned back to Mara and glared. “Narc.”
“Unapologetically so,” she said with a shrug and a wink.
I followed Shannon to a table close to the counter just in case another rush of tourists came in and dropped down. “What’s up?”
“You’re upset about Grant.” It wasn’t a question and it didn’t need to be, because clearly I was upset. “Talk to me, Brenna.”
“Nothing to talk about. We talked about it and agreed that we should be friends.” That was a loose interpretation of what happened but in time, Grant will come around to my way of thinking. I was sure of it.
“You both agreed?”
“Basically, yeah.” He didn’t get it now, but in no time there would be another woman warming his bed. “It’s no big deal, Shannon. Really.”
“Eighteen pastries is a big deal, Brenna, at least admit that much.”
“Fine, I’m wallowing but only for today and then I’ll be done with it. Over it. Like it never even happened.”
She sighed as she sat back and rubbed her growing baby bump. “That’s not really a thing, you know that right?”
“What I know is that I’m trying to be adult about this. It stings, but only a little bit right now, so I’ll do the girly thing and eat my weight in sugar and when the sun rises tomorrow, I’ll push my shoulders back and the world will be like it was before.” Before Grant.
“Or you could just give Grant a chance to prove he is who you think he is.”
I shook my head. “No, I can’t do that. I’m done making bad decisions because I hope they’ll end up being good decisions. He didn’t want me for anything more than some fun before he found out about his daughter, and if I gave this, us a shot, I’d always wonder if I was there because Mariana needs a mother figure. I can’t do that to myself.”
“Sometimes Brenna, men are stupid. They don’t know what they want.”
“Believe me, I know that. But I also have a bad habit of believing what I want to believe when it comes to my type of man, regardless of what his actions say.” I shook my head and stood. “I appreciate the advice Shannon, I really do, but I have to do it this way. For my own protection.”
