Well Met(82)

“I’m not. Well, I guess technically I am. I’ll be a phone call away, or an email, or a text. But I was hoping you’d be able to take over for me while I’m gone.”

“Take . . . over . . .” I was having a hard time making those words make sense in my brain. “So you’re not firing me?”

Chris almost spat out her coffee. “No! Why would you think that?”

“But . . .” I gestured over to the coffee counter. “You had me train Lauren. You know, to help out in the fall. She’ll be doing my job.”

“Exactly. So you can do mine. Why do you think I hired Lauren? And started teaching you the accounting system and how to handle the online ordering?”

I took a sip of my latte because I didn’t know what to say. Chris wasn’t firing me. Simon hadn’t been saying goodbye.

“So what do you think?”

“I think I’ve been a paranoid idiot for the past couple days.”

Chris laughed. “About the job,” she said. “Are you in?”

The future stretched out in front of me, suddenly clearer and brighter than it had seemed in a while. A full-time job. A town I liked. I let a slow smile spread over my face. “I’m in. Of course I’m in.”

We spent the rest of the day hashing out the details of my new position—store manager, that sounded nice—and we determined I’d spend the next few days finding any shortcomings in my training so far. By now I pretty much knew the ins and outs of the place, and like she said, she’d be a phone call away. But I’d never been given responsibility on this kind of scale. I didn’t want to screw it up.

But I wasn’t going to screw it up. I could do this. I could help not only Chris, but myself as well. For once I wasn’t compromising for someone else’s benefit. My whole life had fallen into place over the course of one conversation. I had a job. A future. Family. And . . .

Now I started to grin. And I had Simon. Not only did I have a future, but we had a future.

I couldn’t wait to tell him.



* * *



? ? ?

Thankfully I didn’t have to wait long. Simon was due to meet me at the store after I closed up and we were walking to a nearby restaurant for dinner. It had to be an early night, of course, since we both had Faire the next day. His timing was perfect; he arrived as I was locking the door.

“Hey. You look . . .” After kissing me hello, he took in my appearance and broke into a smile. “You look happy.”

“That’s because I am happy.” I wasn’t surprised that my emotions showed on my face; I practically bubbled over with excitement. And relief. When I looked at him now, all the doubt I’d had for the past few days fell away. He hadn’t gone behind my back to help Chris hire my replacement. How could I have doubted him? “I have so much to tell you.” But I wasn’t sure where to start. How much did he already know? Knowing this town, probably everything. I went with the obvious. “Lauren came in today for training.”

“Oh, yeah! I’d forgotten about that. How did it go, will she work out?”

“It went great. She’s going to work out fine.” I nodded enthusiastically. I was doing everything enthusiastically right then, down to holding his hand. Our fingers were threaded together, and I swung our joined hands between us as we walked. I loved this. Walking down the street of what had become my town, holding hands with this man who, in such a short period of time, had come to mean so much.

“Well, if hiring a new employee makes you this happy, maybe Chris should have done it sooner.” He looked down at me with amused delight.

“There’s more,” I said. “Since we have Lauren now, I got a promotion. I’m going to manage the store for Chris while she’s away.”

“Away?” Alarm lit up his eyes. “Where is Chris going?”

Oh, so he didn’t know. I needed to back up. “Florida. She’s going down to stay with her mother, help take care of her. Which means I’ll be sticking around for the foreseeable future. So you’re looking at the new manager of Read It & Weep.”

“What?” He shook his head like he hadn’t heard me right, a look of dismay spreading over his face.

“Don’t worry,” I said. “Her mother’s okay. I mean, she has some medical issues, and I guess she needs more care now, which is why Chris is going down there, but—”

“Chris is leaving?” He stopped walking now. “She’s . . . she’s leaving?”

Something prickled at the back of my neck. I thought he’d been upset because of Chris’s mother, that maybe he knew her. But that wasn’t it. “Yes . . .” Did he not hear the part where I was staying?

Evidently not. “Okay, but is she coming back? Ever? Or is this a permanent thing?”

“Just for the winter.” He looked so distressed I wanted to reassure him, even though his reaction made no sense. I had no idea he and Chris were so close. Why hadn’t she told him about all this, then? “She’ll be back in the spring. I think they’re going to be splitting their time between here and Florida from now on.”

“Oh. Okay.” He blew out a long breath, relief clearing his expression. “So she’ll be back in time for Faire.” He nodded. “That’s good.”