Page 87 of Trouble Walked In

“Nah. Carter will take it in a few minutes. He has practice today.” Carrie narrowed her eyes. “So what’s up? You aren’t usually here for this part.”

Lizzie shrugged. “Nothing. Just up, that’s all.”

“Uh-huh.” Carrie narrowed her eyes in suspicion.

Lizzie took another sip of coffee.

“Okay. I get it.” Carrie breathed the long, drawn-out sigh of a long-suffering friend. “You’re not ready to talk about it yet. That’s fine. I can wait. I’m notoriously patient.”

Lizzie snorted at that. “I didn’t think you even knew the word patient.”

“Of course I do. I’ve even been patient once or twice. But I’ll let you wake up before I badger you. I’m considerate like that.” Carrie grinned.

“Thanks,” Lizzie said. “I love it when you show restraint.”

“No, you don’t.” Carrie sauntered to the coffee pot and poured more into her cup. “Oh, the key for the Rose Room is back in your desk.”

Lizzie started. “What?”

“I found it on the island. I figured Renic had an early flight. It’s a long drive to Rochester.” Carrie took another sip of coffee. “Mmm, I love this blend. Rich and chocolatey.

“Renic left?” Lizzie couldn’t wrap her head around that. She’d expected him to check out at some point today. She’d been up all night wondering what she’d say when he left. She hadn’t anticipated he’d run out in the middle of the night. It just didn’t fit. Renic never ran from anything.

Carrie eyed her from over the rim of her cup. “He didn’t say goodbye?”

She sighed into her cup. “No.”

“Oh.” Carrie lowered her cup. “I take it the office chat didn’t go so well. Sure you don’t want to talk about it?”

Lizzie stared at the marble island. “There’s nothing to talk about. He had to get back to work. So do I. The bride and groom are set to leave by eleven, and then we have the teardown.”

Lizzie set her cup in the sink and walked to the office door before Carrie spoke again.

“Lizzie?”

She glanced over her shoulder. The look of concern on her friend’s face almost undid the tight rope of control she had wrapped around her heart.

“I’m sorry it didn’t work out.”

Lizzie shrugged. “No big deal.”

“Uh-huh.” Carrie sipped her coffee and watched her with a knowing look in her eyes.

Lizzie quietly shut the door to her office.

“I made the right decision. It’s for the best,” she told the empty room.

The clothes were gone, and the uniforms were all stuffed into a laundry bag. Someone had picked the papers up off the floor and placed them in a pile on the corner of the desk. It would take her hours to organize them, but at least it gave her something to do that didn’t involve thinking about Renic.

A knock at the door nearly startled her out of her chair. The sky had changed colors from dawn gold to brilliant blue, and the pile of papers was once again neatly split up into stacks of invoices, to-do lists, and future event plans.

“Come in.”

The door flung open, and Carter sauntered in. His hands were shoved in his jeans pockets, and he was doing his best to look casual, but Lizzie could tell something was on his mind by the way he didn’t meet her gaze. “Hey, Lizzie. The lovebirds are gone. Want me to take down the lights?”

She glanced at her phone. It was eleven thirty. She’d spent the entire morning planning events that wouldn’t happen until next year instead of finishing up the one that ended last night. “I’ll help.”

Lizzie followed Carter to the barn and helped him carryplastic storage bins to the backyard. The two of them methodically moved from one bush to another, pulling down lights and wrapping them carefully around wood panels before placing them neatly in the bins.

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