Three Little Words (Fool's Gold #12)(74)

He pulled her close and kissed the top of her head. “I don’t want to have to have this conversation again.”

“Of course not.”

As he hugged her, she felt the vibration of his chuckles. “You’re good at this,” he said quietly. “How do you feel about escaped prisoner and the warden’s wife?”

She grinned. “I think I could get into it.”

“That’s my girl.”

“Actually, we might need to reverse those roles. Your mom called me again to set up a one-on-one.”

“Talk about a buzz kill!”

“I know. There’s only so much longer I can put her off.”

He kissed her. “I have to get back to work. See you tonight?”

“I’ll be the blonde.”

“Thanks for clarifying.”

Isabel walked into Paper Moon and sighed. Her fake-dating situation was getting complicated. The obvious solution was to end things, but she just plain didn’t want to.

Before she could return to the back room to help Madeline with the rest of the gowns, her cell phone rang. She pulled it out of her bag and pushed Answer without checking to see who was calling.

“Hello?”

“Hey, Isabel.”

“Sonia.” She crossed to one of the chairs and sat down. “I haven’t heard from you in a while. Did you get my messages?”

“Yeah. Sorry. Life’s been crazy here. I’ve been meaning to call.”

“I’m glad you did. We have a lot we need to be doing and talking about.”

“I know. Well, sure. That’s why I phoned, so we could talk.” Her friend cleared her throat. “Look, I don’t know how to say this. It’s why I haven’t returned your calls. I’ve...” Sonia paused. “I’ve gone into business with someone else.”

Isabel stiffened. “What? What are you talking about? We had a deal together. We had plans.”

“I know. I know. I should have said something before. It’s just...I didn’t want to wait. You’re not coming back until February, and that’s a long time.”

“It’s five months. With everything that has to be done, it’s not that long at all.”

“Right, but there are other things. She has more money to put in the business. We can start bigger and not take so long to get noticed. I want that. This is my dream, Isabel. I have to do this. I’m sorry if you’re disappointed.”

“Disappointed? I came back here to earn more money to put into our business. I came back to brush up on retail so I would be more of an asset. We discussed that. We discussed everything.”

“I know that but retail is risky and this is a better bet for me. Do you really have to be so harsh about it? I was hoping we could stay friends. Can’t you just be happy for me?”

For her? Isabel wanted to ask about her own dreams, but she knew Sonia didn’t care about that. She had made it very clear she didn’t care about anyone but herself.

“Good luck with everything,” Isabel said, knowing she sounded bitter but unable to care. She ended the call before Sonia could respond.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

FORD STARED HELPLESSLY as Isabel wiped away tears.

“It’s so unfair,” she said, her lower lip trembling as she spoke. “All of it. Now I know why she’s been avoiding me. She knew. All this time she knew she was going into business with someone else and she never said anything.”

They were in the living room of her house. A relatively large room with big windows, but Ford felt as trapped as if he were locked in a five-by-five cell. He didn’t know what the hell he was supposed to do to make her feel better and he couldn’t walk away.

Madeline had called him less than half an hour ago. She’d said Isabel had gotten a call and had left the store in tears. Madeline hadn’t known what had happened, but she’d been worried about her boss. Ford had come running, only to find Isabel as devastated as Madeline had suggested.

“I can’t believe it.” She crushed the tissue in her hand, then looked at him. “I can’t believe it.”

There was raw pain in her eyes. He desperately wanted to fix the problem, only he couldn’t begin to figure out how.

“I’m sorry,” he said, dropping to his knees in front of her. “I’m really sorry.”

She nodded. “I know. It’s nothing about you. It’s me. God, what’s wrong with me? First Eric and now Sonia.”

“You’re not the reason either of them acted the way they did.”

“I know that in my head, but my gut tells me something else.” She lowered her head and he saw tears fall onto her fingers. “It’s like the death of a dream.”

She raised her head. More tears spilled from her blue eyes. “No. It’s not like the death of a dream. It is the death of a dream. We had everything planned. It’s why I came back.”

She shook her head. “Okay, part of the reason is Eric. I wanted to get away from the city, but still. I thought...” She swallowed. “I believed in her. In what we were going to do, and she dumped me for someone with more money.”

He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her close. He knew there was something he was supposed to be saying—he just didn’t know what it was.