Page 137 of Lavender Lake
“Nope. I’m good.”
“All right, well, I’ve got more stock to grab. Want to be prepared for tonight.” He ambled toward the back and disappeared, leaving me and Wyn alone.
“So really, what’s going on with you?” Wyn demanded. She reached out and touched my tresses. “You have no product in your hair and not even a hint of lip gloss on. Hadley is distracted with her wedding, and Poet is constantly trying not to break down into tears, so that leaves me. And Inoticethings.”
“You think it makes sense to wear high heels and pencil skirts when I live on a ranch?”
“I think you’re deflecting.”
“Did I tell you I got into a fight here a couple of weeks ago?”
“Definitelydeflecting.” She sighed. “And no. What happened?”
I breathed an internal sigh of relief that Wyn was just tipsy enough to take the bait even though she knew it was bait. I quickly explained about Amber.
“Oh man, I wish I’d been here to see that,” Wyn said, laughing. But then she sobered. “It just reminds me that I won’t ever get to see that.”
“See what? Me getting into a bar fight?”
She nodded. “You’ll be here and I’ll be back in New York.”
“Just a plane ride away.” I took her hand and gave it a squeeze. “I’ll have to come back to New York to pack up my stuff.”
“Poet and I could do that for you. Like we did for Hadley.”
“No, I’ll take care of it,” I insisted. “That reminds me that I have to talk to my boss.”
“You haven’t told him yet?”
I shook my head. “I’ve been avoiding it. Jack’s been good to me. Took a chance on me—feral, insane me, even though I don’t have a college degree.”
She stared at me. “You really do want to stay, don’t you?”
“Yeah, Wyn. I do.”
“I owe Poet twenty bucks,” she muttered. “She bet you’d decide to stay.”
“If it makes you feel any better, I’ll give you the twenty.”
She wrapped an arm around my shoulder and put her head against mine. “No, it doesn’t make me feel better. I’m going to miss the hell out of you.”
“You could move here,” I suggested.
“And do what?”
“What you do now. Be a nanny.”
“I can’t leave Poet in that city,” Wyn said. “She needs a Viking in shining armor. Her job is chewing her up and spitting her out right now . . . I couldn’t.”
“She’s like Hadley,” I said. “She doesn’t belong in that city. She’s got such a good heart and she’s so sensitive.”
“Yeah, she’s not street like us,” Wyn joked. She dropped her arm from around my shoulder. “Let me suck this drink down, and then I want to see the Ridge.”
“You forgive me?” I asked.
“For living your life and making the best decision for yourself?”
“Yes.”
