Page 59 of Unforgiven in Cheshire Bay

“It’s the PDA thing, isn’t it?” He sighed and ran a hand through his hair. “I just don’t show any signs of affection at work. Like none at all. Can’t let anyone think I have a soft side, I prefer the tough, no-nonsense business side.”

“Having a soft side doesn’t make you a bad person, David.”

“No. But I get better responses out of my staff when I’m a little hard-edged.”

I snorted and tore my gaze away. “If you say so.”

He reached for my hand but thought better of it. “See you tonight. You’ll be ready?”

“Absolutely.”

By the time six o’clock rolled around, I had fed my daughter and sister, cleaned the kitchen, and had my bag packed by the back door. There was no sign of David. I’d texted, checking in to make sure everything was okay, and it went unanswered. Having only been the recipient of a firing once, I knew the emotional distress it did to the person being fired, but would it do the same to the person doing the firing? Maybe that’s what had happened to David?

“I’m going out to the shop,” I said to anyone who was listening.

Francesca barely waved, she and Vera were grossly engaged in a head-to-head match of Candy Land.

“I’ll let you know when I’m leaving.” I walked out to the shop.

Since I was dressed in relatively nice clothes for ourBrewing under the Starsevent, I wasn’t going to work, but I could attend to some paperwork. Shrugging out of my sweater, I sat at my makeshift desk and scrolled through the open spreadsheet file I had going with the updated email accounts I had created, along with possible passwords, a myriad collection of hashtags I’d used, and the social media accounts I thought were tagged to each email address. What was once a small tree, was turning into a giant forest, and I was so fucked. So far, I had accounted for roughly seventeen email accounts and had recently asked for password resets, since I couldn’t remember the stupid things. A smarter person would’ve used the same password for all the bogus accounts, but that hadn’t been me apparently. The list was growing longer by the day, and each email address I discovered pushed shame deeper in my shoulders and pounded against my brain. I had been beyond stupid to go to such lengths.

I printed it out and set it on the desk so I could give it to Lily.

Needing to beat myself up further, I opened David’s invoice for the booth pieces and double-checked his invoice against Chloe’s, feeling more guilt as I held the two papers in my hand and compared. Each booth piece was slightly smaller than Chloe’s, yet the price was vastly higher. A giant increase, in fact, multiplied by seven. A deep current of shame rivered through my soul. How petty was I? I was the lowest order of the human race to keep exacting revenge on a guy and a business years after the fact.

With a heavy sigh, I set the papers down. I wandered over to the mural and gave it a solid look over. My pricing on it had been marginally higher, however, now that I knew the guy, I was going to put in extra effort and make this my big deal. Every artist had that one piece, the one they put their heart and soul into, well, this was going to be mine. My magnum opus.

The doorbell chimed on my phone, and a moment later, David knocked and entered the shop.

Naturally, he looked stunning and had changed out of his dress shirt, opting for a nice pair of pants and a looser-fitting button-up. Still, he was dressed like a million dollars.

I met him halfway and gave him a solid once over. The warmth had returned to his eyes, and there was a slight spring in his step.

“Hello, gorgeous.”

“Hey.” My heart fluttered like a teenage girl, which was crazy because I was twice her age.

“Sorry I’m late. I had a few last-minute things to handle and then we were short-staffed, so I had to step in—”

“David, it’s okay.” I reached up and kissed him. The way we had started in the parking lot of his restaurant.

He swept a hand down my cheek. “Well, you keep kissing me like that, and we will really be late getting to the brewery.”

I wiggled my brows. Maybe I didn’t care too much about that. All I wanted was to spend time with David, that could be here, there, anywhere. I wasn’t picky.

“Let’s go.” I held his hand. “My bag is at the back door, and I’ll just say goodnight to the girls.” We walked to the shop door. “Oh, let me grab my sweater.”

It was hanging on the chair by my desk.

“I’ll get it,” David said, already there before I could stop him.

As if in slow motion, he scanned the desk, his focus lasering on the stack of printouts scattering on top of my desk. My heart plummeted to the floor.

“What the hell is this?”

Chapter Nineteen

I flicked off the iPad and dropped it onto the stack of papers, trying to cover the most damaging one of them all. “It’s nothing.”

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