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Chapter Twenty-One
Clarissa once again rolled her suitcase toward Cherry’s front door. Her heart thumped heavily in her chest for some reason. “She’s your sister. She has two extra bedrooms. You can stay here for a while.”
She could, yes. She just didn’t want to. She was thirty-five years old, and she felt like she’d gone backward a couple of decades. She didn’t have anywhere to live, and this past week had been such a whirlwind of packing, trying to continue running the shoppe, and dealing with Daddy and Lee, that she hadn’t even been able to put out more applications or look for an apartment.
“You’re here now,” she said, putting her foot on the first step that led to the porch. “You’ll have time.” Right now, in fact, as Cherry was at work on this Monday, and the house should be empty except for her cats.
Clarissa reached the top of the steps, sweating as she heaved her bag up every bump. She found the front door open, and she went right inside as if she owned this house. Her chest felt so tight, and she knew it was because of what she’d left behind in Sweet Water Falls. Not what. Who.
Spencer.
She sighed as she closed the door behind her, and she towed her suitcase down the hall to the bedroom she’d stayed in a couple of weeks ago. No evidence of felines existed, besides the food and water bowls in the kitchen, but Cherry had three cats.
Clarissa called their names as she went into the office, where Cherry had a couple of cat towers. She saw a pair of eyes inside one of the compartments, but she didn’t approach the cat. She knew better than that.
“Okay,” she said. “I’m here, and you can come sit by me if you’d like.” She lifted her laptop slightly. “I’m going to be looking for a job.” If there was anything more demoralizing than that, she didn’t want to know about it.
She settled on the couch and went to her job boards, searching for the new listings. In the past, she’d searched for chef positions, at restaurants. But now, she expanded the search to include anything in any kitchen. She’d work at a fast casual place to get experience. A diner. A café. She couldn’t expect to go from spreadable cheese to filet mignon overnight—and that was exactly what she’d been trying to do.
An image of that disgusting macaroni and cheese infiltrated her mind, and she pushed it away. “Not dwelling on negative today,” she muttered. The two-hour drive from Sweet Water Falls had been the time for that, and she was ready for a break.
She applied for job after job for hours, all the way until Cherry walked in wearing a pair of cute black and white heels, the pencil skirt Clarissa had wanted to wear to her interview, and a stunning dark purple blouse that made the outfit. Her sister was so good with clothes and fashion.
“Hey,” she said with a big smile. She put her oversized purse on the table beside the front door. “How was the drive?” She glanced around. “No feline friends?”
“I think they think I’m a cat killer,” Clarissa said, closing her laptop and standing. “I’ll get dinner started.”
“Oh, we had lunch in the department today,” Cherry said. “I’m still stuffed.” She reached down and took off one heel and then the next. “Let me change, and then you can tell me how it went this morning.”
Clarissa simply nodded, though she didn’t particularly want to talk about the good-byes from that morning. Daddy had been stoic, and Clarissa had realized that he hadn’t actually thought she’d leave. She’d told him she was, but when her moving date had got pushed back, and she didn’t have a job…
She swallowed against the sting in her throat. He hadn’t truly believed she’d leave the farm.
“But you did,” she whispered to herself, and that gave her a sense of pride and accomplishment she hadn’t felt in such a long time. In the back of her mind, a voice whispered,Yes, but at what cost?
* * *
Four days later,with a few applications out for single-bedroom apartments and an interview at a fast-casual restaurant that needed a cook, Clarissa rolled out of bed.
A cook. The listing had specifically saidcook, notchef.
She tried not to get all tangled in the semantics, but deep down, they mattered to her. She still didn’t know if she’d made a mistake by leaving Sweet Water Falls Farm or not. She knew Spencer had awakened something inside her that had been missing all these years. Maybe something he’d put inside her heart nine summers ago and had brought back to life.
As she stuffed her hair dryer back into her suitcase, she frowned. “Why couldn’t he have shown up a year ago?” Why did everything seem to happen at once, when she least expected it?
With everything finally out of the bathroom and back in the guest bedroom so as to not further clutter Cherry’s house, she headed out the door. This was her first interview, despite the many applications she’d put out. She had yet to hear on an apartment, and Cherry said the rental market in San Antonio was crazy right now.
Dozens of applicants for every place, within hours, she’d said.
Helplessness crowded Clarissa’s throat, and she couldn’t help feeling like she’d done something wrong. But she could only tackle one problem at a time.
“Interview first,” she muttered to herself as she got into her car. “Apartment second.” She couldn’t afford much, and that was why she had so much competition with others looking to rent.
And Spencer?The voice in her head had been plaguing her for four days now, and all it seemed to be able to say wasSpencer, Spencer, Spencer. When are you going to deal with Spencer?
She didn’t know how to deal with him. So she’d felt the earth move every time he kissed her. It didn’t mean she should change her plans to see if they could make a real relationship work this time around.
Take a chance, he’d said. Wasn’t that what she was doing right here in San Antonio?
