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ChapterTwenty-Nine
GEMMA
It had been a month since I got back from the Poconos, and I was still wallowing. I still didn’t have a job, and I was barely selling anything in my shop. I could have used the new logo. It was amazing, but I didn’t want to be reminded of Felix or how much he hurt me.
“Have you talked to him?” my sister asked.
“No,” I muttered as I drank more beer from across her kitchen table.
“I think you’re being unreasonable,” she said.
I shook my head. “He told me he would choose his sister over me, but the fact I wasn’t even a thought to him proved I was wrong about him.”
“Gem, he made a mistake, and he’s trying to own up to it. You should talk to him.”
I shook my head.
“Will you at least take the job?”
“Avs! I can’t go back there and have to see the man who broke my heart day after day.”
“But you love the brewery!”
I loved the brewery and had been excited about starting my new career as the marketing director. It had also excited me that Felix and I were finally together. But then everything fell apart. Like it was the universe’s way of telling us it wouldn’t work out. I should have listened to Felix when he said we could only have a summer fling. Having something real with him just wasn’t possible.
Avery frowned at me. “Look, there’s a cool art show event at the brewery today. We should go.”
I quirked an eyebrow at her. “An art show?”
That didn’t sound like something Nolan and Declan would go for. That was the sort of event I would have pushed them to do. They would have grumbled about it and only agreed to it to get me to shut up. Who’s idea was that?
Avery showed me her phone to show me the promo post on the brewery’s Instagram account. I wanted to sigh because it looked like April posted that. She didn’t even use hashtags again. How would people even know about it if we didn’t have visibility on the platform outside of our followers?
“Let’s go!” Avery urged.
“Why?”
“Because I’ve been cooped up in the house with the baby for two months, and I need to get out!”
I sighed. “Fine.”
She grinned at me, and I should have been suspicious of her motives. I finished my beer while she got the baby situated. Nolan was already at the brewery, so Avery put Norah in her stroller, and we walked out of the house.
I didn’t want to go to the brewery, but if my sister needed to get out of the house, I’d appease her. I still felt bad about not being there for her last year when she needed me. I think she knew it too, so I couldn’t fault her for guilt-tripping me today.
“Hey, I heard Sullivan’s might sell,” she said as we walked down the street.
“Really?” I asked, but it didn’t surprise me. I vaguely remembered asking for a job, but Kelly Sullivan said they couldn’t afford to hire anyone else. That bummed me out. Sullivan’s was a staple in Drakesville.
She nodded. “Kelsey, their oldest daughter, is a history teacher at the school with me. She said her parents are getting too old to do it, and she and her husband can’t afford to take over. Her sister lives in California and is getting married soon, so it doesn’t seem like they can keep it in the family.”
“Oh no.”
Avery frowned. “I know.”
“Poor Declan!”
She pinned me with a confused look. “What about him?”
