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I glanced toward Auden, who let up on the squeeze of my hand. “What’s going to happen there?”
“What’s going to happen is he’s not going to come anywhere near you,” he said. “You’ll keep staying with me. We’ll get the DNA test done ASAP. And we take it one step at a time.”
I swallowed my nerves and my questions.
They didn’t have the answers I sought, and the only people who did couldn’t be informed yet.
“Okay,” I breathed. “Okay.”
“So, I’m assuming by this most unfortunate news that you’re going to need some time off before you start?” Chief Brooks asked, staring at Auden.
I answered for Auden.
“Absolutely not. One, my ‘father’ doesn’t know where I’m at. Not officially. Two, I have a bakery to open. Three, we’re not putting our lives on hold because of this.”
Athena looked at me then. “But don’t you want to wait to put in a new business? I mean, what if you want to go home?”
I was already shaking my head, worried that Athena wasn’t going to like the answer.
“Home is here, Attie,” I told her. “Home is where you are.” I looked over to where Auden was. “Home is where Auden is, too.”
Auden closed his eyes at those words, and it was then that I realized maybe he was somewhat worried about what I was going to do with this new information.
“Oh,” Athena looked down.
I reached for her hand with my free one and said, “When you find your sister, and she makes the same decision, we’ll work through that together.”
Athena looked at me with hope in her eyes. “You promise?”
“I promise.”
All men are not the same. They’re all disappointing in their own way.
—Maven’s secret thoughts
MAVEN
“Would you rather leave me alone in the woods with a man or a bear?” I asked sleepily.
It’d been a full day.
I’d gotten delivery of all my house and business belongings via the Carter Moving Company, and while they moved stuff in, I positioned things.
I also got word from Pepper that not only was she more than willing to follow me to Sunnyvale, she’d also fully intended to keep opening for me as long as I got all the food baked or prepped the day before.
Needless to say, today had been a very full day.
And I hadn’t even been doing any heavy lifting like the man lying at my side.
The man who’d told me to stay with him for just one more day while they installed a state-of-the-art security system in my new workplace as well as the apartment area.
Oh, and I’d signed the lease sometime in between truck loads.
In forty years—unless I paid more than my monthly payment—I would be the proud owner of a bakery.
Auden stilled, twisting his body so that he was facing me in the dark. “I mean, I would never leave you alone in the woods, with a man or a bear. So this question is irrelevant. Why are you asking?”
“This is a new trend that women are asking their men.” I smiled at him, not surprised in the least with his answer.
