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“Mr. Tucker was telling me about his best friend who makes amazing cupcakes,” she says. Her words are like a sharp needle to the bubble holding every fantasy I’ve ever had of the man.
“What else has he said about me?” I ask in a teasing way with a hint of laughter in my voice.
It’s the only thing keeping me from crying.
I read way too much into the time we’ve spent together. I’ve let wants and fantasies make me delusional. Cash has said nothing to me to make me think that things should be different between the two of us. Hot, enthusiastic sex doesn’t equate to plans to build a life together.
“Not much else,” she says, her smile still firmly in place.
It appears victorious to me, as if we were in some sort of competition, and I lost before the starting bell even rang.
“I have no doubt the two of you will be close friends,” Cash says, as if he needed to hit the end of the nails that have already been driven into my heart. “I have no doubt Eastyn will be down at the bakery numerous times a week.”
Cash always made a point to visit me throughout the day if he had time, but that’s just one more thing that has changed in recent weeks. He only shows up when he wants a piece of mybody. As much as I liked feeling like an addiction he couldn’t control, it makes me feel smarmy right now.
“Well,” I say, that practiced smile still firmly locked in place. “I better get going. I’m helping Sage prep for her book and dinner event.”
It’s a complete lie. I haven’t spoken with Sage about those plans since I suggested she reach out to Riley Wilson.
“It was lovely to meet you,” Eastyn says, and I hate that she sounds genuine. She may not be from Lindell, but I can tell from the light twang in her voice that she comes from a southern town.
I let my eyes assess her just a little longer. She’s pretty and seems several years younger than I am.
Her clothes are well made, designer, if I had to guess. The watch on her wrist looks expensive, not something someone who needed a barely above minimum wage job would wear.
“Have a good day,” I tell them all.
“You’re really going to hire her?” Chandler asks, as if he didn’t know that was Cash’s decision until the woman was introduced to me.
It’s another line in the sand, one that feels like the resurrection of a concrete wall between the two of us because Cash is too busy introducing them and explaining her job duties to chase after me.
I manage to keep my head held high as I climb into my car, but it nearly guts me to see Cash offer her the only vanilla with chocolate frosting in the entire box. He’d peel Chandler’s skin off his entire body before letting that man eat his favorite cupcake.
He doesn’t bother looking in my direction as he smiles at the woman when she takes her first bite of the treat meant for him. I look over my shoulder to back out of the parking spot before he manages to drop his eyes to her mouth.
My heart is fully broken by the time I’m in my driveway.
There’s no going back. The damage is done. I let myself get too involved. I let hopes and dreams get tangled around an agreement we never should’ve made. I should’ve listened to that voice in my head, telling me that this would end terribly rather than letting it cling to the hope Madison mentioned.
I shake my head. I will not place the blame for this on anyone else. This is solely my fault. Madison let her own happiness leach over into my life, and she couldn’t help it. People happy in love want that for everyone else they know. Her wanting me to find my happily ever after, after she found hers, is no different from the harassment I get from my parents and brothers about finding mine. Although, Ronnie and Donnie are incredibly picky and tell me often that there isn’t a man who walks this earth worthy of me.
I debate heading inside my home, but I know I’d just curl into a ball once I got there.
Instead of climbing out of my car, I put it in reverse and back right back out of the driveway, Mr. Hinkle’s horn blaring when I almost pull out in front of him.
He frowns at me when I lift my hand in apology, his head shaking back and forth, no doubt questioning why women were ever given the right to operate motor vehicles in the first place.
With my heart pounding from the near collision, I use more caution when I finally do back out. Instead of heading to my mom’s or dad’s, I shoot to the far side of town, just outside the city limits, where my brothers live.
They live together, which I guess has always been a given since they literally do everything together.
A car I don’t recognize is parked in the driveway, and a frisson of excitement threatens to lessen the pain I feel about Cash as I park.
I climb out of my car, turning my head to peek into the window of the car to try and get a read on who owns it, as I walk by.
“Why are you here?”
I frown as I look up and see Donnie standing on the front porch.
