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Chapter Two
Five Years Later
Cassie rushed through the bookstore, ticking items off her to-do list as she weaved through shelves, display tables, and plush chairs.
“Thanks for closing up,” she called to her only employee. “I’m sorry you had to change your schedule.”
Jana waved off her concern. “No problem. Classes are winding down. I can study for exams between customers.”
Cassie paused and studied the young woman. “What am I going to do when you graduate next semester?” Jana had worked for her since she’d opened the store almost five years ago. How would she manage to juggle her business and her life without the co-ed’s steady presence?
“You’ll find someone,” the girl assured her. “I’ve already told everyone you’re the best boss ever.” She grinned.
Cassie rolled her eyes. “Suck up.”
A gentle vibration shook her butt cheek. She pulled her phone from her back pocket. Just a text from Sophie. Whatever her friend wanted could wait. What couldn’t, and wouldn’t, wait were her daughter and the Christmas tree hunting excursion the little girl insisted be donetonight. Cassie would have preferred to have had the tree purchased and erected the Saturday after Thanksgiving like she’d done every one of her twenty-eight Christmases, but Ryan had had to work out of town over the holiday. Cassie had tried to convince Ellie that the two of them could pick out and put up a tree without him, but the girl had wanted her daddy. Although she wanted to, Cassie couldn’t blame her. Cassie would give anything for just one memory of decorating the tree with her own father. So, now she rushed out of her bookstore on the Monday after Thanksgiving to meet Ryan and Ellie at a local Christmas tree farm.
Glancing at her watch, she cursed then sprinted out the door. “I’ve got to hurry.”
“Bye—”
Cassie pulled the old, worn wooden door shut, cutting off anything else her employee may have said. Shivering from the chill in the winter air, she jogged down the wooden stairs, off the front porch of the old house. Her tall boots thundered over the boards. Before she could reach her car, parked in the small gravel lot behind the old house, her phone rang.
Sophie.
What the hell? Although not known for her patience, her friend usually gave her more than five minutes to respond.
Accepting that if she didn’t answer Sophie would just keep badgering her, she answered the call. “Hello.”
“So? When did he?” Sophie launched into a conversation she’d apparently begun without Cassie.
“When did who, what?” Starting the car, Cassie switched the phone to speaker.
“Ryan. Your baby daddy. That vee thing. When did he get that?”
Only half listening, Cassie pulled out of her spot and onto the two lane road. “What vee thing? What the hell are you talking about, Soph?”
On the other end of the line, her friend let out an exasperated sigh. “You haven’t seen my text, have you?”
“No, I’m driving. I have to meet Ryan and Ellie to cut down a Christmas tree.”
“Call me back when you see the picture. Then we can discuss Ryan, his vee and why you haven’t had sex with him in five years.”
Cassie groaned. This was an old discussion, one she’d frankly grown tired of having. Just because she’d given in to the temptation to sleep with Ryan once, didn’t mean the two of them should keep doing so. Co-parenting their four-year-old caused enough strain on their struggling friendship without adding sex to the mix.
“If I get a chance,” she replied to her friend with no intention of doing so. She’d look at whatever Sophie had sent, try to figure out what the hell she prattled on about, then find a damn Christmas tree - one that should’ve been cut down and put up days ago.
Oblivious to Cassie’s antagonistic thoughts, Sophie assured her, “You will.”
Trying to steer the conversation to safer territory, Cassie asked her friend, “Are you at the preschool?” Sophie’s son, Aiden, and Ellie were in the same class at School Days, a locally owned pre-school.
“No. Ravi’s picking up today. Why?”
Although her friend couldn’t see, Cassie shrugged. “Ryan’s supposed to pick Ellie up, but I’m not sure if his plane got in or not. I haven’t talked to him. I’m afraid he had too much work and —”
Sophie began coughing. Choking really.
“Are you okay?” Cassie didn’t need her friend choking to death on the phone right now.
