Page 65 of Break Me Like a Promise (Oak Valley)

Olive laughed, and Ruby added her meeting with June to her calendar. She started researching and writing down initial ideas for the bookstore.

She could do this. She could work up here, in Oak Valley, while taking care of her mom and living on her own. Her bus was already laid out — she was taking care of plumbing and having solar installed that weekend. She could turn lemons into lemonade, and she could do it alone.

She certainly didn’t need Colton Taylor to help.

54

Colton stepped out of the airport and into the crisp San Francisco air. A light breeze was rolling off the Bay and the sun was just starting to set.

Yeah, this beat Oak Valley any day.

He’d left two days after his fight with Ruby, saying goodbye to his friends and family before quickly dipping out. He didn’t need to risk running into Ruby on the street or at the grocery store.

It helped his new job started tomorrow, evidence for everyone that he actually did have to leave town sooner rather than later. His dad wouldn’t look him in the eye, and his mom had cried but with a smile on her face. He’d privately given Katie the paperwork for her new plot of land. Which she was pissed about and refused to do anything with it, citing how when she asked for help she didn’t mean spend over two million dollars and put investment capital into it. But that was hers to do with what she willed — there was a relief in not being in control of her well-being, not when she had everything at her disposal.

No, this was good. This was right where he needed to be, and as his car drove him to his new, high-rise apartment, he was overcome with excitement. This was truly a new start. He didn’t have team obligations, he didn’t have to worry about making the hour and a half trip from his place in Englewood Cliffs to Oak Valley to see his family, he didn’t have to worry about randomly running into Ruby on New York City streets.

The car stopped outside of Avalon Valley Apartments, the modern facade looking more like a hotel than an apartment building. Colton had managed to fit everything that mattered into one large suitcase and a carry-on, and he wheeled them into the lobby. The front desk security checked his ID and handed him two sets of keys, and he made his way to his old luxury lifestyle.

His two-bedroom apartment on the twentieth floor was an open-floor plan filled with large windows, brightly colored walls, and a washer and dryer in-unit. The kitchen was updated, white cabinets and stainless steel appliances. It was bright and welcoming and, with enough time, Colton could make it his home. He unpacked his suitcases, enjoying the navy blue on the master bedroom wall, and shoved the cases to the back of the walk-in closet before standing in the middle of the living room and looking around.

He wasn’t ready for the quiet.

It’d been well over a year since he’d had that level of quiet where he lived. For two months before his injury, he’d been traveling with the team and staying in hotels, where it was almost always rowdy. Then his family’s home, his mom humming in the kitchen or Katie-Cat yelling down the hallway, his dad stomping up the stairs.

He pushed missing the noises of comfort, familiarity, from his mind, asking Alexa to play music while he poked around the apartment. Might as well start to get familiar, even if the time change was starting to get to him. He checked his phone. 8 p.m. here was… 11 p.m., plus travel. Colton sighed. Normally he’d go to Dragan’s or…

Ruby.

No. Don’t think about her.

Colton shook his head. Maybe it’d be worth taking a shower and getting to bed early. Pierre had said work started at 5 a.m. and ended at 6 p.m., with the weekend schedule being slightly different, with team rotations. But the first week was prep, to make sure every hire could fulfill their position. His knee twinged at the thought.

Yeah, there was a lot he needed to try and ignore.

Or forget.

He hopped in the shower, using his micro-fiber travel towel until he got around to buying new linens. He stared at the bed — at least the apartment came furnished, well worth the extra expense — but he was also missing bedding.

Fuck.

He wandered around, finding a throw blanket in the living room ottoman and taking that back to the bedroom. Turning off the music and adjusting the thermometer, he tried to sleep. Colton wasn’t sure what time he passed out, but he knew he missed Oak Valley right before he did.

The alarm blared, waking him with a jolt. Sitting up, he looked around at the unfamiliar room, a thin blanket tossed to the sky. But being greeted with the silence that came after the alarm brought it all back. He’d made the move to San Francisco, and it was his first day at his new job.

And he was alone.

The thought followed him into his wake-up shower, when he opened the fridge and was disappointed, when he tried to figure out how to lock the door from the outside because the key was weird. He walked down the carpeted halls and was hit with the feeling that he was in a hotel, not an apartment, and wondered if he’d ever get to know his neighbors. Maybe he should host a house-warming.

Colton decided the twenty-minute walk to work could be good, breathing in the slightly chilly sea air rolling in from the Bay. There was a slight fog hanging in the air, the street lights illuminating it before the sunrise could. It was a pleasant walk, the buildings slowly going from modern to graffiti’d and mural-ed as he made his way back to the Sucre in the Mission District.

The door was locked and Julien opened it with a smile. Adam ran in behind Colton, and as soon as the door shut, Eliza pushed it open. They gave each other smiles and greetings, the nervous excitement of a first day sitting between them. Julien led them to the back, where Pierre and Annette were waiting.

“Good morning, everyone!”

“Good morning, Chef!”

“I will supply you with two chef uniforms to take home, but in the meantime you will find chef jackets in that cupboard —” he pointed to the far wall, “— please be sure to choose a cubby in that locker and make it yours. Annette and I will show you the morning prep, and then we will get started on croissants, brioche, chausson aux pommes, pain aux raisins, and abricots à l’anglaise.”

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