The tears swirling down the drain had nothing to do with pain and everything to do with fatigue. My heart was tired, and after almost seventeen years, I should be used to it, but something told me I never would be.
Three
Haylee breezed through the door from the back of the bakery, grasped my hand, and helped me to her office. “Um, it’s lunchtime. Who’s going to watch the store?” I asked as she pointed at the chair across from hers in the tiny room. It was once a broom closet, literally.
“Brady. He said he’s ready to schmooze the old ladies into buying some bread and buns.”
I laughed and leaned back in the chair, sipping the lemonade she had waiting for me. I smacked my lips when I swallowed. “Thanks, I needed that. The question is, can I trust Brady with the cupcakes left in the case? He’s always stealing them.”
“You know you can’t trust him with the cupcakes, but we’ll overlook the ones he eats since he’s helping us out. You need a break, and I need to talk to you.”
I leaned forward and motioned for her to speak. “Whatever you need,” I said instantly. “Is something wrong?”
“Not with me, no,” she answered, a brow up in the air.
“You’re implying there’s something wrong with me.” It wasn’t a question since that would have been unnecessary. It was obvious she was talking about my leg.
“You’re the one who mentioned needing to talk to me before your date the other night. Here it is Saturday, and you still haven’t talked to me.”
I tapped the desk twice with my finger. “As a matter of fact, I have another date with Bishop tonight.”
“You do?” she asked, and I could tell she was trying not to sound too excited, but she was totally failing at it.
“Well, it’s like a working date, but it involves food, so...”
“A working date?”
I grimaced and held up my hands where the red dots from the splinters were still visible. “He’s going to take our fence out today. Since I knocked down half of it the other night, now the rest of it has to go. I promised to help as much as I could, but mostly I’ll be grilling steaks while he does the grunt work.”
“Your dad finally agreed to pull that old thing down?” she asked with surprise. “I swear he thought it was an antique or something.”
I laughed and shook my head, letting my eyes drift to the ceiling. “I think he was hoping it would come down with a heavy snow or wind storm, so he didn’t have to work too hard at it. It gave way the second I leaned on it, so I don’t think Bishop will struggle to get it out. That eyesore has got to go.”
“What are we really talking about here, Amber?” she asked, her head tipped to the side.
I glanced around and then back to her face. “Uh, the fence? It needs to go now that I smashed the front half of it.”
“I’ll send a cake for dinner tonight with my thanks to Bishop,” she said dryly.
“I detect sarcasm.”
She held her fingers close together. “Just a tiny amount. I want to know what happened the other night. You haven’t been forthcoming.”
“I told you, I fell on the fence and had to cancel the date.”
“What you aren’t telling me is why you fell on the fence. Though, I’m pretty sure I only need one guess.”
I sighed and leaned back in the chair again. “I was tired after a long day on my feet—”
“And you didn’t bring your crutches with you.”
“They wouldn’t have saved me,” I said quickly. “I knew I should have canceled the date, but I didn’t have his number.”
“Then, you discovered he’s your neighbor.”
“Imagine my surprise,” I added, playing her sarcasm card. “Good chat,” I said, standing.
She pointed at the chair like I was a child. “It’s not over.”
I sat again and rolled my eyes, remembering in the nick of time not to cross my legs. “I don’t have much else to say.”
She leaned over and folded her hands on the desk. “I think you do, but you don’t want to say it. You think you’ll just add to my already full plate.”
I pointed at her. “I will, which is why I haven’t said anything. It’s the same boring story.”
“Hasn’t seemed like the same story to me since at least February. What happened in February that made your leg so much worse?”
I rubbed my temple and bit my lip to keep from speaking while I thought my answer through.
“I’m not going to give you time to think of a workable lie, Amber.”
I huffed and crossed my arms over my chest. “Fine, okay. I hurt it in February. It’s not healing the way it should.”
“How did you hurt it in February? I don’t remember it being here at work. Did you fall at home?”
How was I going to tell her the truth now without making her mad? I wasn’t. She was going to be angry, but I didn’t have much choice. She’d see through every lie I came up with and make me sit here until I was left with nothing but the truth.
“I got into an altercation one night. I thought the leg was okay, but I’m starting to think I probably did more damage to it than I originally thought.” That was such a lie. I already knew how much damage I did to it. I simply didn’t want to tell her the truth.
“You think? You can barely walk by the end of the day. What kind of altercation are we talking about here? You aren’t the argumentative type.”
“This was more of a self-defense type situation. See, I was dating this guy,” I started, and she stood, walking around the desk to squat next to me.
“And you needed to defend yourself against
