The Wrong Mr. Right (The Queen's Cove Series #2)(100)

He headed off to his room and I stared at the ceiling, my head spinning from the booze. I remembered the soft sighs she made as she rested her head on my chest while she was still sleeping in the morning. The way she blushed and smiled when I kissed her neck. The way she brushed her fingers on my arm when she passed by me, a small touch to connect us for a brief moment.

I thought about my aunts, and how the illness had ripped everything from them. How temporary it was despite their best efforts. My chest ached and I rubbed it. Reminding myself that things with Hannah were temporary was supposed to make this part easier, but it still felt like she had pulled my heart out through my throat.

I should have known better the entire time. Or maybe it was right to let it happen. I didn’t know anymore.

You’re being stupid, Holden had said.

There was one person who had been in this situation before, and I was going to pay her a visit.





32





Hannah





“Hannah?”

My head snapped up and straightened up from where I stood behind the desk at the store, staring off into space. Liya tilted her head at me, waiting.

“Yes?”

“Where are the new big bodied heroine romances?”

I tilted my chin to a shelf near the door. “I put them in the new release section.”

Liya hustled over and pointed the shelf out to a customer.

It had been three days since the big blowup with both Wyatt and my dad. At home, my dad wasn’t speaking to me, but I wasn’t speaking to him either, and it was so tense and awkward that I spent most of my waking hours here at the store.

It had been three days of trying to forget about Wyatt Rhodes. I think it was getting easier. I wasn’t crying anymore.

The bench near the window caught my eye, where Wyatt and I had sat after we renovated the bookstore, while everyone ate pizza and listened to Emmett narrate a spicy hockey romance.

The memory stabbed me in the heart.

Maybe it wasn’t getting easier.

Be brave with me, bookworm.

I swallowed and searched for something to do. A stack of books sat on the desk. I picked them up and wandered around the store, shelving them.

Liya poked her head around the corner of a shelf. “Do you know where those books on the desk went?”

I turned and her gaze dropped to the last book in my hand. “Uh. Sorry. I thought they were to go back.”

She gave me a tight smile. “That’s okay.” She offered a sympathetic expression that made my blood boil. “Why don’t you take the afternoon off? I’ve got it covered here.”

“I don’t need to.”

She shrugged. “You deserve time off, same as everyone else.”

So I could go home and do what? Stare at the walls of a bedroom that hasn’t changed since I was a teenager? Make dinner and read my book across from my dad like old times, like nothing had changed?

Everything had changed.

My gaze flicked around my bookstore, so fun and unrecognizable. A book spine stuck out on the shelf so I nudged it in line with its neighbors.

“I’m bringing down the mood, aren’t I?” My voice was soft as I ran my fingers over the Alien Romance section.

“No, you’re just…” Her words trailed off.

She didn’t want to say it, but I knew I was right. “You’re okay for the rest of today?”

She nodded quickly. “Yep. Casey will be here in a couple minutes.”





When I got home, I spotted my dad through the kitchen window on the patio with a glass of something bubbly and a book. I poured myself a glass of water and he lifted his head.

“Hannah?”

I drained half the glass before I replied. “Yep.”

He appeared at the patio door, watching me with hesitation. “You’re home early.”

I nodded but didn’t offer an explanation. When I moved to leave the kitchen, he gestured over his shoulder to where he was sitting. “Do you want some cider? It’s from Salt Spring. I found it here at the liquor store.” He cleared his throat. “It’s elderberry.”

I raised an eyebrow at him. For as long as I remembered, he drank red wine, one glass if I had brought a bottle home or he picked something up at the market, but never cider.

And now he wanted to sit down and have a drink with me. I could see the peace offering in front of me, but without an explanation or apology, I didn’t want it. Not like this.

I shook my head. “No, thanks. I’m going to have a nap. I didn’t sleep well last night.”

He shot me a concerned look. “Okay.”

When I stepped into my room, a noise of disgust and disdain scraped out of my throat. I threw myself down on my bed and stared at the lavender walls.

I hated this room. I didn’t fit here anymore. I needed to move out, like I had said a few days ago to Wyatt.

Instead of napping, I pulled out my laptop and scrolled through rentals in Queen’s Cove. Now that summer tourist season was over, there was a lot more selection.

One bedroom, furnished, patio, pets allowed, price a little high but I could make it work now that I was paying myself a salary again.

When I checked the location, my stomach pitched. Down the street from the breakfast food truck.

Which meant it was down the street from Wyatt’s place.