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“Come with you where? Mount Pierce? I can’t afford that place.”
The mountaintop resort wasn’t exactly a local hotspot. Most of the residents of the Notch could barely afford the fancy train that pulled tourists up the mountain, let alone a stay at the resort, with its Michelin-starred chef and fancy spa.
“My treat. Late birthday gift. Don’t make me go on a romantic weekend retreat alone. I need you.”
“A romantic weekend retreat?”
“Sort of an early Valentine’s Day weekend thing…” Thea squeaked out, a wary grin on her face.
“You planned to bring Chase to Mount Pierce for a romantic weekend?”
“It seemed like a good idea at the time!” She dropped her head back against the couch. “And yeah, I spent way too much on it, but I thought…I don’t know. That this was a step on the way to getting married? Having a kid?”
“You couldn’t even commit to moving in with the guy.”
“I was panicking! You can’t hold this against me!” She smacked the laptop shut, placing it on the coffee table and scooping up her pizza. She shifted in her seat, turning away from the home renovation show droning on in the background. She set her legs on my lap and shot me a puppy dog frown. “I got bad news. I was distressed.”
The edge of actual distress filtered into her voice, and I stiffened. “What kind of bad news?”
Nothing earth-shattering, but certainly something that didn’t involve Chase.
“Mrs. Evans—” My breath caught in my throat before she pushed the rest out. “is moving to Ohio. She wants to spend more time with her grandkids.”
The relief washed away again as Thea’s eyes clouded. I balanced the plate of pizza on her legs and wrapped an arm around her. “Sorry, Thea.”
“It’s fine. She should have gone years ago.” A tear rolled down her cheek. She wiped it off with a laugh. “I’m fine. This is better, right?”
I nodded, holding back questions about what Thea planned to do with the shop or hiring. She’d figure that out once she stopped being sad about Mrs. Evans leaving.
She rested her head against my arm, exhaling loudly before picking her dinner back up. “You need to come with me.”
“Come with you?”
“To Mount Pierce,” she said, taking a bite.
“You just dropped that news to coerce me into coming?”
She nodded. “But don’t act like you were going to turn me down. It’ll be fun. There’s even a couple’s massage.”
Of course there was a couple’s massage. And crystal flutes. And live bands. And rich couples with business cards. And tuxedos.
A romantic weekend where I’d feel out of place, wearing suits that strangled my neck and talking to people who wouldn’t have any interest in me after finding out what I did. But Thea wanted me to go, so I’d go.
CHAPTER7
Thea
Two weekslater and I sat at the counter of the thrift store, bag packed, waiting to close the shop and spend a romantic weekend in Mount Pierce.
Well, maybe not romantic.
The rest of the couples attending Mount Pierce’s annual Valentine’s Day getaway would have a romantic time. Ben and I would have fun.
The sting of breaking up with Chase had quickly faded, leaving me wondering how I’d convinced myself we had a future together. Sure, we had fun. Lots of fun, but we had nothing in common.
He hated Franklin Notch and I couldn’t see myself ever leaving. We were both ambitious, we both loved dancing and jazz, and we looked nice together, but a future? No. Absolutely not.
And I should have seen that, but with the focus of a marriage and a family on the horizon, I’d tried to skip the step of meeting someone new and force Chase into that space.
