AllFreeNovel
Share Us
It was below him to leave the posh area up by the resort. The one his parents founded.Whatever.
It wasn’t below me. Never was.
“Yes. The lifts might start a week early,” he replied. “How’s your little shop?”
I rolled my eyes and grabbed a new bag of coffee beans from the display and gave it a squeeze, envisioning it was my father’s neck.
“Thelittleshop is doing well,” I replied. “It is only ten miles from home. You can come down and see for yourself.”
“Evelyn,” he chided, using my name in that tone that was meant to shame. It used to work, the disappointment I felt in any decisions that didn’t match theirs, but no longer.
“I’ve connected with a local inn to exclusively sell my beans for their restaurant, the small café, and placement in the rooms with the coffee makers.” That should make him happier, telling him of the growth of Steaming Hotties. It was a big contract.
While I’d been friends with Bridget for a long time, it was her boyfriend who I’d proposed the business arrangement to a few months ago. Maverick James, of the mega-big James Hotel chain family, was building a high-end inn in the area and stopped in frequently for coffee. I thought I had a little bit of a role in the two of them getting together, Bridge having spilled coffee all over the guy when they first met. Right here in the shop.
Thelittle shopthat my parents thought was me amusing myself before I settled down with Cheney Douglas.
My boyfriend since senior year of high school.
The one who our parents matched together.
The one who I was expected to marry, my fate decided–by them–when I was seventeen.
The one who I dumped a year ago when I realized–yeah, my head had been really far up my ass–he expected me to play with my coffee shop for a little while and amuse myself before returning to the resort side of town and become his stay-at-home wife.
The one who also kept pestering me aboutwhenmy play time was going to end.
The one my father was going to mention in about thirty seconds.
That Cheney Douglas. I had no idea why he wanted to marry a woman who didn’t like him.
Oh yeah. Money. I had lots of it. I was a Hunter, after all. Yeah, Hunter, as in Hunter Valley. To my parents, I was the wild child, although not really wild. I just liked to wear dangling earrings. Cowboy boots. Jeans with rips in them.
Yeah, totally wild. Not a pearl earring or matching sweater set in sight.
“Ah yes, your magical beans.”
If smoke could really come out of my ears, the fire alarm would be going off right now.
“Yes, most people think they’re magical when they drink their first cup every morning,” I countered. As if I was peddling something like magical mushrooms instead of the brew he had two cups of every morning.
“As I’ve told you before, you need to ensure that you–”
“Do not start mansplaining how to run a business when you are not employed,” I snapped. He might be a Hunter by birth, but he didn’t work for the resort. He didn’t work, period.
He tsked me. “Evelyn, I–”
He was cut off with a rustle and the sound of a phone scuffle.
“Evelyn, dear.” My mother stole the phone away. I wasn’t sure if it was to keep the peace or because she couldn’t wait a second longer to meddle herself. I could see her in her dress, either in pink or pale blue, with her grandmother’s pearls about her neck. “I spoke to Cheney’s mother and she said Cheney hasn’t heard from you.”
Definitely to meddle.
“That’s because we’re not together,” I reminded. “I have no reason–or interest–to talk to him.”
“Does he know that?”
“I feel confident that my ex knows he’s an ex,” I grumbled. I’d told him face-to-face. In voicemails. Texts. Again face-to-face.
