Page 78 of Someone You Deserve

“Well, we eat what we have.”

He slams the door shut and heads back toward his room. “Ugh. I just won’t eat then.”

Taking a deep breath, I blow out my frustration and remind myself that he’s just a kid, even though sometimes my children can feel like mental terrorists, eager to see just how far they can push me until I snap. And as I wait for my mother to arrive to take them to school, I wonder whether things might be easier if I had someone by my side to help handle it all, someone who’s been there through everything anyway and knows what this life is like. Someone like Penn.

***

“What are you doing in here?” The chime above the front door of the shop rings just as Willow steps inside.

“What? Am I not allowed to come visit you?” Her voice is almost an octave higher than normal, so I know she has an ulterior motive. We may not have been friends for very long, but I’d say I already have a pretty good read on Willow.

“You are, but it’s Monday, and I usually see you on Saturdays for your weekend supply of blueberry muffins.” I move toward the case, ready to fill a box for her, but she stops me.

“Fine. I’m not here for muffins. I’m here to see how it went with Penn last night.”

“Willow!” My eyes dart over to the customers sitting at the table in the corner. I don’t recognize them, so I’m pretty sure they’retourists, but I don’t want to take any chances. “Don’t say stuff like that out loud,” I chastise through a whisper.

“Why?”

I wave her behind the counter and motion for her to follow me back to my office. Tanya and Anthony are frosting a cake for a special order, and Vanessa is washing dishes. “Vanessa, can you please watch the front for a few minutes? I’m going to talk to Willow really quick in my office.”

“Sure, Astrid. No problem.” She wipes her hands dry and then heads out to the front of the shop.

When Willow and I are securely behind my office door, she turns to me, her arms crossed over her chest. “What’s going on?”

I look up at the ceiling in contemplation. “I just don’t want to talk about Penn around other people.”

“Why not?” And then her eyes widen. “Oh, God. Did things not go well?”

I fight back my smile. “No, they did. But we’re keeping things quiet for now.” And avoiding talking about the elephant in the room, but I can’t go there just yet.

Willow claps her hands together. “Oh my God!”

“Shhh! I don’t want Anthony and Tanya to hear you.”

“Sorry, but can I just tell you how excited Dallas and I are?”

My smile falls. “What? Dallas knows?”

“Yeah.” Willow stares at me with a pinch in her brow. “Did Penn not tell you?”

“Tell me what?” My pulse is wild as I wait for her to continue.

“Dallas was the one that told him to, in his terms, ‘shit or get off the pot’ where it concerns you. Penn was about to punch Richard Cockwell in the face when he came into the restaurant one night,and that’s when Dallas told him he’d better do something about his feelings for you before he lost you.”

My hand comes up to my mouth. “Oh my God.”

“I told you, Astrid…we all saw it. We knew how he felt about you, which is why I thought it was so crazy that you didn’t.”

“I didn’t allow myself to see it,” I admit in a whisper.

“Now you do though, right?”

“Yes…”

“And you two are going to see where it goes?”

“Yeah.” I swallow hard, still not resolute in how I feel. I know what my heart and body want, but my head is having a hard time catching up. “But like I said, we’re keeping it under wraps for right now. With the grand reopening next week and Penn starting his new business, we don’t want our personal lives to interfere with our business and reputations. You know how people can talk in this town.”

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