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“You could give them to me,” she said. “Or I’ll talk to my parents. Never mind. This was a mistake. I get it. I shouldn’t have thought I could do something like that.”
“Where are you going?” he asked.
“Home,” she said. She’d stood up and was walking away. She felt like such a fool right now and didn’t want to stay here.
Plus, she wanted to go home and find out why Duke almost seemed angry over this conversation. It’s not as if she said she was going to take it from him. She only asked what he thought if he decided not to buy it. Nothing more than that.
She didn’t see the big deal.
“Why?” he asked.
“I don’t think you want me here,” she said. “And maybe I don’t want to be. I feel like an idiot right now.”
She grabbed her purse and keys and left before he could say anything else. He didn’t stop her and his lack of action told her exactly what she needed to know.
It wasn’t just that she felt like a fool talking to him about the business, but now how she was starting to feel about him and their relationship.
There was part of her that knew damn well she was falling in love with Duke and now she knew he didn’t feel the same way.
He’d all but said the way he was talking to her and treating her was how he was with everyone. There was nothing special about her and she was crazy to ever think there was.
She pulled in the driveway with her mother’s car and wanted to cry.
She was living in a tiny rental unit in her parents’ backyard, driving their car while hers was in the shop, slowly chipping away at massive credit card debt, trying to build a cake business that was barely coming to life, and yet she thought she could just take over and run a pub that she’d worked at for a few months.
Talk about naive.
“Hadley.”
She turned and saw her mother come outside. “Hi,” she said.
“You’re back earlier than we thought. Is everything okay?”
“Yes,” she said, moving toward the unit. She realized she left her clothes at Duke’s from last night too. All she did was grab her purse and keys and leave in a hurry. She was nothing more than a walking mess.
“Then why are you crying?” her mother asked, coming down the deck stairs and following her into her place. “Did you and Duke have a fight?”
“No,” she said.
Her mother shut the door behind her. “Are you sure? Something is upsetting you.”
She had no idea how this morning got out of hand and knew she’d have to find some answers. She was sick of just sitting back as everyone told her she’d done for years. This went back to Duke asking her about regrets.
“Do you know about the agreement with Duke and Southside?”
“I do,” her mother said. “Your father and I own it together. Why?”
“Tell me about it,” she said.
“Why do you need to know?” her mother asked. “It’s not that big of a deal.”
“It seems to be,” she said. “I know he has like six months to decide if he wants to buy it after managing it. I never thought I’d have so much fun working there and doing what I am. The baking and the promoting, the ideas I’ve had that Duke said were great. He’s been so encouraging. He’s told me I should say what I want in life and today I just asked him something and, well, I feel like an idiot and don’t even know what happened.”
“What did you ask him?” her mother asked.
“I asked if he thought I could manage Southside. I wasn’t asking him to give me a management position. There isn’t one there. That is what the owner does. I just said if he decided he didn’t want to buy, if he thought I could step up and manage it if you kept it. It’s running so smoothly with all his changes. The chefs know the menu. I’m doing the desserts. I’ve been training the servers and hostesses. I’ve had ideas that have been successful. I’m doing the promotion. I didn’t think it was that farfetched thatifhe didn’t want it, I could just slide in and keep it going.”
“Oh dear,” her mother said.
