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My eyes dart down to her stomach.
“Did you take a test? Are you—”
Her eyes snap to mine, a warning to keep my mouth shut. Although I won’t say it out loud, I stare right back at her, telling her that I need an answer.
“It’s too soon to know,” she says, breaking eye contact with me once again. “I can’t test for another week.”
“I should’ve been around more this week. I want to apologize for that. It’s been a crazy week at work, and I—”
“It’s fine, Cash. Honestly, I haven’t given it much thought. We aren’t attached at the hip or anything.”
That stings more than it should. I’ve spent hours missing her, and she hasn’t even noticed my absence.
I nod despite that ache I had in my chest earlier kicking back up. “I’m glad you’ve had a good week.”
Silence floats between us which normally wouldn’t be an issue, but it’s heavy and awkward right now.
“Did you start that new show? I’ve seen it’s been getting great ratings. I figured we could get a couple episodes in tonight and the rest—”
“I watched it already.”
I swallow down my disappointment. “Okay, then back toThe Walking Dead. My place or yours tonight?”
I have a few ideas on how I can pull her out of whatever this funk she seems to be in right now, but I can follow through with that at any place that offers a little bit of privacy.
“I think I’m going to pass tonight. I just want to go home, get a hot shower, and go to bed.”
“Adalynn—”
“We made tuna, and ham and cheese,” Robin calls from the dining room.
“We better go in there,” Adalynn says.
I catch her by the arm once again before she can walk away from me.
She looks down at the connection as if I’ve burned her before raising her eyes back up to mine. She only locks her gaze with mine for the briefest of moments before she looks away again.
“I forgot about something at the office. I’ll have to take a rain check on tonight.”
She doesn’t say a word, doesn’t ask me if it’s something that she can help me with. She doesn’t tell me to grab a sandwich to go because she’s worried about me getting too busy and not eating. All things she would’ve done before we lit the fuse to a friendship that I was always too lucky to have had for the time I did.
I press my lips to her temple, and for the first time in my life, it feels like a real goodbye.
Chapter 26
Adalynn
The last time I stood in the kitchen in my bakery and couldn’t stop sniffling was because I attempted a recipe with habanero powder. Accidentally breathing some of it in cleared my sinuses like smelling salts would.
Today is different. Today my heart is more than a little broken.
As if the world is out to see just how much pain and heartbreak I can manage, the last several days have been a series of blows that individually wouldn’t make me bat an eye, but altogether, it seems like too much to handle.
One of my ovens went out, but it’s under warranty so it’s being replaced. I’ve had to reduce my output for the bakery, which isn’t a big deal, but several customers have left unsatisfied because I’ve had to slow production, preventing me from carrying the variety I normally carry.
Old Man Hinkle got super annoyed yesterday, asking me how I can call it a variety pack when I only have five flavors.
The air conditioner for the kitchen decided to back up, and the clogged drainage pipe led to a mess I had to clean up when I first came in this morning.
