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“This is the last one, and then we’re getting to work,” I warned. “If you don’t like it, slap a filter on it and get over it.”
“You’re grumpy in the morning.”
“Morning, ladies!” Dad burst through the kitchen door carrying a tray of fresh doughnuts.
“Everything looks great, Dad.”
“Smells great, too,” Mallory chimed in.
“Thank you. We open in ten minutes!” He arranged the doughnuts onto a glass serving dish and covered them with a lid. He whistled as he headed back into the kitchen.
Once I flipped the sign on the door to Open, the day flew by. We were understaffed, and I was grateful when two women came by to fill out applications. We survived the morning and lunchtime rushes, finally able to sit for a minute when the constant flow of customers died down in the evening.
“My feet,” Mallory exclaimed as she hopped onto the counter next to the register.
“My back.” I clutched my lower back as I eased onto the counter beside her. I slid my phone out of my apron to check the time, and saw a text from Gabe:
Gabe: Haven’t heard back from you all weekend. Should I take the hint and leave you alone?
Me: Had phone trouble this weekend. I’m sorry.
“Let me see Tanner’s texts. I bet he texted you a bunch of times.” Mallory leaned over my shoulder.
“I deleted them.” I hopped down and turned my back to her, pretending to wipe down the counter.
“All of them?”
“Yup. No sense keeping them.” I couldn’t allow myself to trust that Tanner could control his anger. Hearing the rumors was one thing. Seeing him in action was another. I had been hurt by the hands of a sadistic brute who took pleasure in causing pain to innocent people. I wanted nothing to do with anyone who was capable of doing something like that to another human being.
Tanner
I tried to contact her the entire weekend. Charlotte sent my calls straight to voicemail and left my texts on Read—all thirty-seven of them. All I wanted was for her to answer with something. Anything. Curse me out. I didn’t care. I just needed her to know that I was sorry for the way I’d acted. I needed her to forgive me.
Today was the grand opening of her dad’s bakery, and I knew she would be there. This was my Hail Mary pass. If she saw me in person, she wouldn’t be able to ignore me. I walked into the bakery, but she didn’t turn around when the bell smacked against the door. She was in the middle of talking to Mallory. Mallory’s eyes grew wide when she saw me.
“No sense keeping them,” Charlotte was saying. “I don’t want to be involved with somebody who has that much anger inside. If he can’t have self-control with a drunken idiot at a bar, what’s stopping him from turning his rage on me?”
“Is that why you’re ignoring me?”
She spun around, her mouth half open.
I stepped forward. “You think I would hurt you?”
She ignored my question and pointed to the door. “Leave.”
“Please, let me apologize.” I was close to begging.
“I don’t want your apology. There’s no apologizing for the way you behaved. That kind of violence is unacceptable.” She folded her arms across her chest. “Maybe you should be giving your apology to Shawn instead.”
I couldn’t stop my face as it twisted in disgust. “That asshole put his hands on you. I did what any other guy would do in that situation.”
“He’s got a point,” Mallory said. “If a guy slapped my ass, I would expect my man to put him in his place.”
She’s on my side. Maybe there was hope for me after all.
“Tanner is not my man, and he almost choked the life out of Shawn.” Charlotte’s eyes stared straight into mine. “You were out of control. It scared me.”
Her words cut me like a knife. I scared her. She was afraid of me. “Charlotte, I am sorry that I scared you. You’re right. I was out of control. I need to get a handle on it.” I walked toward her and pressed my palms onto the counter. “But I need you to understand that I would never hurt you.”
