Page 112 of That One Heartbreak

Thank God she was busy.

“Who’s ready for an adventure?” Kate shouted out, forcing a smile onto her face. “Because I don’t know about you, but I think we should go on a bear hunt.”

Thirty little kids started cheering. And that’s how her morning went.

As exhausting as it was, her busy morning meant she didn’t have to think about Marley, their argument, or the fact that he sent her a message at ten o’clock that morning, with the same words as yesterday.

How’s Ethan doing? – Marley.

Again, no mention of the grill or the middle of the night attempt at snatching it away. Or their heated discussion and his sudden declaration that he couldn’t be in a relationship with her anymore.

And dammit, she wasn’t going to answer him this time. If he didn’t want a relationship with her, then he needed to stop messaging her. And she needed to stop caring.

By the afternoon her energy was waning. The Stitch and Snitch gang were firmly ensconced in the activities room, though she couldn’t hear a lot of stitching going on. And yes, she’d put her ear to the wall to listen to them, because of course they’d heard about her argument with Marley in the middle of the night. Mary Cooper was telling them that the same neighbor who’d told her this story had seen Marley climbing Kate’s wall at night.

So much for being discreet.

She’d been the topic of conversation for exactly two minutes before another stitcher started telling everybody about the hot new bearded man at the hardware store and suddenly they were all exchanging stories about leaking pipes and rusty doorhandles, agreeing that a trip to the hardware store was needed very fast.

“Okay, you two,” Shana said to Addy and Ethan who were lying on the cushions in the toddler area, both on their iPads. “What do you say we go for an ice cream run?”

“Ice cream?” Addy said, pulling her eyes away from the cartoon she was watching. “Mom?”

Shana shrugged at Kate in a kind of ‘sorry, not sorry’ way.

“Sure, ice cream would be fine. If you both promise to be good.” She knew Shana was trying to rebuild the easy friendship between her and Ethan again. And she knew that Ethan wanted that. “Why don’t you go for sundaes at the diner,” Kate suggested. “My treat.”

“No, it’s my treat.” Shana rolled her eyes at Kate. “But sundaes do sound good. Want us to bring you back anything?”

“I’m fine.” Kate flashed her a smile. It was almost three. When Stitch and Snitch was over, she’d clean up from the activities and get everything ready for tomorrow before locking up.

Not that she was working tomorrow – it was her day off. And Kate had promised Ethan and Addy a trip to the pool, which was going to be an experience in itself.

“You haven’t eaten your lunch,” Addy piped up. “It’s still in the frigrator.”

“Refrigerator,” Kate corrected her. “And I’ll eat it later.”

Shana shot her a look. “Go eat now.”

“No. I’m fine.” She’d made herself some salad, but she wasn’t exactly in a salad kind of mood. She wasn’t in any kind of a mood. She just wasn’t hungry.

“You have to eat, Kate,” Shana whispered in her ear.

“I’ll eat later,” she promised her friend. “Now you guys go have some fun.”

Ten minutes later the door to the activity room opened and one by one the stitchers filed out. A few of them hurried out of the library with breathy farewells, late to pick up their grandchildren or meet their husbands or whatever else they had planned.

A couple of others started to peruse the shelves, and the rest stood in the lobby next to the desk, carrying on their discussion about the new hardware assistant.

“I hear he’s single,” Gloria, one of the older stitchers, said. “Think he’d like a cougar?”

“The car or the cat?” one of the other ladies asked.

“Me, you dumbass.”

Kate shook her head and looked down at her computer screen, trying to work out how many toddlers were booked in for reading hour tomorrow. Maybe that’s why she didn’t notice the sound of the doors opening. Or the fact that every single person in the library had stopped talking until she heard his voice.

“Kate.”

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