Page 43 of Trusting Fate (Hope Falls: Brewed Awakenings 2)

“They offered you partner,and you just quit?” Ava asked with no judgement in her tone, but her expression looked like Grace had just told her sisters that she was going to go over Niagara Falls in a barrel.

“Yes.”

The table was so quiet you could hear a pin drop. That was unusual when the Wells sisters were all together. But that’s exactly what was happening as they sat at Sue Ann’s Café. Grace had always loved the small-town eatery. It was pretty much the only place to eat in town, so over the years of vacations she’d spent there she couldn’t count the number of meals she’d had. Tonight, they were even sitting at her favorite table. It looked out over the downtown area, and she had been right. The town did look like it was plucked right out of a Hallmark Christmas movie.

Grace was hoping that coming here to tell her sisters about her plans would be easier. She’d thought that maybe, just maybe, she’d feel her mom’s presence since Cora Wells had loved the little café and always wanted to be here during this time of year.

But she didn’t. And not even the promise of Sue Ann’s comfort food was making this easier.

All of her sisters were looking at her like she belonged in a straitjacket. Grace was used to being the one that they all looked up to. The rock of the family. The one that held everything together, literally. She’d been the one to step in and take custody of her sisters when their mom died.

So to see them all look at her like she had a screw loose was upsetting. Especially because she wasn’t convinced she didn’t.

“Why the fuck did you do that?” Viv always had a way with words. She really got to the heart of the matter. “You’ve been talking about being a partner for…hell before you even passed the bar.”

Grace knew that her sisters were going to have questions and she was trying not to be defensive, but that was proving to be more difficult than she’d originally thought. “I realized it wasn’t what I wanted to do.”

“So what do you want to do?” Audrey asked.

If her sisters had been ready to commit her before, Grace feared this would put them over the edge.

“Well, I went to see Lauren today to look at houses and it turns out they are casting a new reality show.”

All the sisters nodded as if that was common knowledge.

“I sent in an audition, so if that—”

“You have to have a partner to be on that show,” Viv interjected.

“Oh, right, that’s what Lauren said at book club,” Ava chimed in.

“I have a partner.” Grace wasn’t being intentionally vague to build the suspense or add drama, she was just buying herself a little bit of time.

Earlier today when she was talking to Easton about not revealing the deal that they’d made to anyone, it had seemed like a no-brainer. But putting it into practice was a different beast altogether.

It’s not like Grace had never lied by omission or even flat out lied to her sisters before. Before they knew that their mom was sick, she’d lied to them all the time. Mom’s at work. Mom’s out with her friends. Mom has a cold.

She lost count of how many different stories she’d told them to explain why their mom was gone so much for doctor’s appointments and in bed all the time.

But this felt different. This time she was lying about herself. She had no clue that she’d have a problem doing it, but apparently the practice of law hadn’t stomped out every ember of integrity she had.

It’s not technically lying, she told herself.

She and Easton were a couple, they were just sort of the opposite of friends-with-benefits. They had a relationship-with-no-benefits.

“Who?” Viv asked as she lifted her arms up. “Who is your partner?”

“Easton Bishop.”

At the mention of his name, it was clear that while her sisters might not have made an impression on Easton, he had clearly made an impression on them. The two that had met him, anyway.

Both Audrey and Viv’s jaws dropped.

Grace expected Viv to start shooting rapid fire questions at her, but it appeared her news had rendered her outspoken sister speechless. At least for the moment.

Ava, who had only moved to town about six months prior, looked between all three of her sisters. “Who is Easton Bishop?”

“He’s the hot one,” Kelly, a waitress at Sue Ann’s and friend of Viv’s supplied as she dropped off their meals.

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