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Despite how quickly she turned to leave, he saw the grin on her face.
****
“Now are you going to tell me what’s going on with you?” Ellie and Caro settled at an outside table in front of the café.
Caro hadn’t been all that hungry until they stepped inside and the scent of espresso mixed with yeast and cinnamon assaulted them. At that point, she would have robbed the place for one of the oversized brioche buns on the counter.
She took a deep breath and decided to approach it like a Band-Aid rather than draw it out.
“Peter and I are getting a divorce. All I have left to do is sign the papers.”
Ellie stared at her in shock before she reached out andcovered Caro’s hand with her own. “Oh, Caro. How come you never told me you two were having problems?”
“I mean, I guess I didn’t really think we were having issues—not serious ones anyway.” She tried to articulate what had been going through her mind every second of the last couple of months. “I just assumed Peter loved his job, and that given a little more time, things would slow down and he’d be ready to start a family. But … he just kept pulling away more and more. He moved into one of the guest rooms about eight months ago, saying he was working on an important account and didn’t want to wake me up when he came home late.”
“Sweetie, why didn’t you talk to me about this?” When Ellie squeezed her hand, Caro looked up and met her gaze.
“I guess I just felt like such a failure, Elles.” She sighed. “Am I stupid? I seriously didn’t even think he wanted out until he told me he’d drawn up the papers. I feel like a fool for not seeing it sooner.”
“Hey, you’re not stupid at all. Don’t even think that.” Ellie scooted around the bench and gave her a hug. “I always thought Peter was a bit of a cold fish, the way he was never openly affectionate with you, but I thought if he made you happy, then that was all that mattered.”
Then Ellie pulled back to look at her. “Were you ever truly in love with him, Caro? Like passionately, head-over-heels in love?”
Her first instinct was to be offended at her sister’s question. She should be, shouldn’t she? But Caro took a moment and thought back to when she’d first met Peter. They’d been children then, so they’d had no idea what passion even was. Then they’d been best friends and partners, both busy finishing school and university. Secretly, she’d always dreamed that their comfortable affection for each other would blossom into passion—but that was naïve, wasn’t it? Didn’t it usually happen theother way around? Passion and lust first, then if you were lucky, love would follow?
Jesus, were we more like business partners or roommates than husband and wife? How could I not have noticed that?
“Honestly, I don’t know, Elles.” Caro felt defeated. How had she screwed her life up this much? “I kept hoping that it would turn into more, that Peter would—I don’t know,wantme, I guess? I feel like I created this entire relationship in my head, and he just followed along because he couldn’t be bothered to say no.”
“I’m so sorry, Caro.” Ellie hugged her tight. “But you’re here with me now, and you’re welcome to stay as long as you’d like. Truth be told, I’d love it if you decided to never leave.”
Caro gave a weak laugh. “Sure, like having your big sister across the hall won’t put a damper on your date nights with Bennett.”
Ellie snickered. “Won’t bother me if it won’t bother you! Now let’s finish up this giant cinnamon bun because I’ve got something fantastic to show you, and now I’m more excited than ever.”
Caro looked at her sister, and she knew coming here had been the right decision.
“Hey, big sis.” Ellie smiled. “Things are going to be okay.You’regoing to be okay. I promise.”
For the first time in a long time, Caro thought she could possibly start to believe that.
Chapter Seven
“You’re smiling, Boss.”
Craig looked up to see Diego’s smirk from the desk across from his own. “Some rule against smiling now?” he muttered.
“Nah.” Diego laughed. “It’s just that you normally don’t appear to have such a good time filling out budget requests.”
“What can I say, the budget is looking mighty promising.”
“You should ask her to come to the street fair this weekend. Ladies love that kind ofHallmarkromance movie shit.”
Craig had to laugh. Diego was leaning back in his chair, throwing nuts in the air and trying to catch them in his mouth.
“How do you fool so many women into falling all over you again?” he asked as a peanut bounced off the other man’s forehead.
Diego laughed as well. Nothing much could ruin that wolf’s sunny disposition. “Fool them? Honesty is the answer to that, my friend. I’m completely honest with them about what I’m looking for, and they can’t get enough of it.”
