Page 115 of Someone You Deserve

Sighing, I rest my head on his chest and close my eyes. The exhaustion and stress from the day hits me all at once as the warmth of Penn’s body relaxes me. I don’t know how fast I fall asleep, but when I wake up, I’m covered by a blanket on the couch and Penn is gone.

Chapter nineteen

Penn

“I can’t believe you’re leaving me,” Mrs. Hansen says for the hundredth time since I gave her my two weeks’ notice last week. After we talked, we agreed today would be my last shift as long as I helped her hire someone to replace me.

“You act like you won’t still see me.”

“It’s hard to find good help, Penn, to find people you can rely on.”

“I know, but it’s time for me to go out on my own.”

She huffs. “Yeah, I knew this day would come sooner or later. You sure I can’t persuade you to stay through the holidays?”

The fact that I still have two more hours left is already making me itchy. “I’m sorry. I have plans and things I need to take care of.”

“You’re still going to help me sit in on interviews for your replacement, right?”

I stare at the pile of applications. “You act like you don’t know every person in that stack, Mrs. Hansen.”

“Not the young ones, and I think that’s what I need. Some teenager that has the energy to do what you did for us.”

How I’ve managed to keep up everything I do for two jobs and my own obligations is beyond me because my age is starting to catch up to me now, especially when I get shitty sleep because my mind won’t turn off.

“Yes, Elizabeth. That is what we agreed to.”

She claps her hands together once. “Just wanted to make sure.”

Once she walks away, I go back to restocking the shelves before moving to the lumber yard out back to unload the delivery we got this morning. As of two hours from now, I’ll only be here to purchase the lumber, never to stack it again. And I can’t fucking wait.

But my life took a turn yesterday I wasn’t expecting, and now the confidence I felt about Astrid and me has been shaken.

She and Brandon were going to get a divorce.

I still can’t fucking believe it, even though last night I spent hours going over memories, trying to pick up on clues as I held Astrid while she slept on me on her couch. She cried herself to sleep in my arms and when she finally settled, I didn’t have the heart to move her. Honestly, I didn’t want to. I can’t imagine the weight she felt lifted by finally telling me the truth, the truth I wish she would have had enough confidence in me to confide in me the first place.

Astrid must have been an actress in another life because she was phenomenal at putting on the face of a happily married woman. And Brandon? Well, he was dedicated to his country, to his title as a Marine, and that part of his identity always took precedence, I guess.

She sacrificed for him. She gave him two beautiful kids. And when she wanted something for herself, he didn’t support it. Heactedlike everything was perfect, though.

If he were here right now, I’d probably punch him in the face.

Which is exactly what Astrid was trying to avoid by not telling me the truth. She didn’t want my memory of him ruined because of the choices he made when he was alive.

Now the question is, what do I do with this information? Because no matter how busy I try to make myself, my mind keeps ruminating over the revelation on repeat.

“Didn’t you hear? The widow moved on with his best friend.” Chatter in one of the aisles catches my attention. I take a few steps from behind the counter to try to hear the conversation better.

“No she didn’t!”

“Well, if I had the chance to be with a man who looked like that, I’d probably take it too,” one of the women says as she and her friend huddle close in front of the painting supplies.

My pulse starts to pick up because if I didn’t know any better, I’d say that the topic of their conversation is Astrid and me. But I might just be assuming.

“Still. She was married to the man, and to pursue his best friend?” Woman number one shakes her head. “That’s just scandalous.”

“I always wondered about them, though. The two of them were always together, and word on the street is they were spotted kissing at the grand reopening of her bakery. I honestly wonder if they’ve been fooling around for years.”

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