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If Ellie didn’t know about Melanie, that meant her father had kept our conversation between us. I respected the hell out of him for that. “I’m not sure. Melanie said she was taking the time to travel, and she hasn’t said where she is. I think I need this time with Kendall to figure out our relationship. If Melanie was here, it would be different.”
Ellie opened her mouth, and I rushed to add, “I get that Kendall needs her mother, especially at her age, but I don’t think she’ll be gone forever. Maybe just the summer.”
“Is that what she said?” Ellie asked, and there was nothing but genuine concern in her voice.
“Not exactly.” I found that the news was more easily accepted if I said her mother was only gone for a short time, but I honestly had no idea how long she intended to be gone. When I said I was moving Kendall home, she hadn’t argued, which was a bad sign.
Ellie bumped her shoulder with mine, and said, “Well, you’ve got the Hendrixes on your side.”
“I don’t think I deserve your loyalty, but I’m grateful for it.”
“You were around when we were kids. Helping around the house. Protecting us from bullies. And then you were just gone.”
My stomach dropped. I hadn’t realized I’d meant so much to Sophie’s sisters.
She held her hand up. “You had to do what you had to do, but we missed you. You were important to us.”
“Your family was everything to me, too.”
It felt good to say that, to acknowledge it out loud. My mom meant well, but she never crossed my dad. He had the final say when I really needed her to stick up for me. To tell him it was okay to let me play sports or have interests outside the family business. He hadn’t liked me dating Sophie, but it was one thing he didn’t try to control.
Looking back, he probably hoped she’d keep me here, but even she hadn’t been enough. The thought of living here and working for my dad at eighteen crushed my soul. When my dad issued his ultimatum after graduation, there wasn’t even a choice. I immediately contacted the Army recruiter and never looked back.
I mistakenly thought Sophie would understand. That she loved me enough to come with me, but I’d been wrong. I wouldn’t make that same mistake again.
ChapterNine
SOPHIE
It was the end of the day. The shop itself was closed, and Mark was working on the shelving unit. He’d sketched a design of the space, delivered the wood in his truck, and now, he was measuring and cutting the pieces outside. He kept the door to the back closed so the dust wouldn’t get in the kitchen.
He’d said he’d build it outside and then move it inside one piece at a time, so as not to disturb the customers but also to keep construction materials out of the kitchen.
He’d even hung a tarp between the hallway and the kitchen in case sawdust drifted inside when he walked back and forth to ask me questions.
I only allowed him to work when the baking was done for the day. I wouldn’t take any chance that the construction would make its way into the dough. I thoroughly cleaned each night after he left. It was more work for me, but I enjoyed having him nearby, and I was beyond excited to have workable storage space.
Each time I checked on him, he was one hundred percent focused on his task, a pencil perched behind his ear, a tool belt of some sort slung low on his hips, and the tantalizing smell of sawdust drifting around him. Each time I heard the door open, my heart rate picked up, and my skin tingled with the anticipation of seeing him.
He didn’t seem as affected as I did, but then I wasn’t the one wearing a tool belt. At the bakery, my hair was either up in a bun or in a ponytail. I never wore makeup because the heat of the kitchen would just melt it off, and I wore my uniform shirt, leggings, and sneakers. There was nothing attractive about being covered in flour, but Mark working with wood was undeniably sexy.
He had me imagining all sorts of scenarios, like him taking a break to press me against a wall and rolling his hips so I could feel the delicious friction. I wiped the sweat off my forehead. I should be planning my menu for the week, not imagining Mark fucking me against a wall.
I dropped my forehead onto the table. When was the last time I’d had sex?
“Is my dad here?” a voice asked uncertainly.
I looked up to find Kendall standing in the doorway, her arms loaded down with books. “Courtney let me in. She said he was back here.”
“He’s cutting wood behind the shop.”
Kendall glanced down the hallway but didn’t make a move to leave.
“You find any good books at the library?” I asked her.
Kendall dropped the stack on the edge of my desk. “There are so many good ones I couldn’t choose.”
“I didn’t know you loved reading so much.”
