No, not possible. Didn’t he listen to me at all? “How can that be? I oversaw the making of them and I know the difference between the two types. Besides as I already told you, they don’t grow here.” She closed her eyes and wished she was somewhere else.
“I can only go on what our labs tell us. It was positive for cap mushrooms. If you dispose of it, you can open the doors again. I’d suggest keeping any mushrooms you haven’t purchased in a proper outlet off your menu from now on too, just to be on the safe side.”
“Thanks.” She hung up, past caring about whether she opened the restaurant again or not. Her heart was still breaking over Simon’s death and they had the funeral to get through tomorrow before she would give any thought to her own life and what she was going to do in the future.
She glanced up when a knock at the back door interrupted her train of thought. Adam stood watching her, sympathy in his eyes and her cheeks heated with shame. What was one more thing to make her feel like crap?
“Hi, come in.” Lena put her phone down on the table. “Guess you heard that then.”
“Enough to gather it was the health inspector. What did he say?” He walked up to her and reached out.
Lena moved out of reach. “It was the mushrooms.” She gave him a bitter laugh. “It was the only thing I took from the restaurant I wasn’t allowed to keep. And look what happened. I think they call it karma and I was wishing it on Cole.”
“Somehow I doubt that. It doesn’t make sense to me considering you’ve used almost half of them and nobody else has complained. Why now? Why not before when you were in Sydney? If I’m correct, I ate those mushrooms and never got sick.”
She shook her head, wiping shaking hands over her face. Too late now. “You know, I really don’t give a shit about it right at the moment. My cousin is dead when he should be at home with his family and we’re discussing fucking mushrooms as though they’re the most important thing in the world. I don’t care, Adam.” Her voice dropped. “I just don’t care anymore.”
He stepped around the table and took her in his arms despite her protests. She gave in and collapsed against him, holding him tight.
Adam held her until she stopped trembling. Lena took a deep breath and pushed away from him. Her eyes ached from the recent tears and this was almost more than she could bear.
“I wanted to see if I could drive you to the funeral in the morning.” Lena tensed in his arms.
“I didn’t know you were going.” I don’t understand why you think you need to, you didn’t even know him.
“I think it would be a good idea; show some respect at least. I really thought we had a good chance at getting that appeal for him but it wasn’t to be. I’d like to offer his wife my condolences and to be there for you and Kyle.”
She looked up at him, puzzled by his words. “Kyle?”
“He came over to me the other morning in tears. He’s upset, Lena, and not just over Simon either. He’s worried about you and the restaurant. Scared you won’t open it again because you think it’s all been a big mistake. I think he’s even worried you’re not going to stay here, but go back to Sydney too.” He kissed the top of her head. “Things have been a bit rough for him the last few months. It makes sense that he would be effected by it all at his age.”
Lena took a deep breath and sighed. “He’s right though. I don’t know what I want to do anymore. Everything has gone wrong. It makes me sick in the stomach that I’ve failed so badly.” She moved out of his arms and he dropped his hands to his sides and let her go.
“You need to be kinder to yourself. You came from a terrible break up, and lost the restaurant you’d worked your ass off to build up to a slime ball of a husband. That takes time, Lena. You’re doing so well here, even with the hiccup of the mushrooms. It’s not the end of the world, you’ll get over it.”
Not the end of your world, no. But it could spell the end for me. “What if they sue, Adam? What do I do then, I don’t have the money for that.”
“I know a couple of good lawyers.”
She smiled, his small joke giving her a tiny sense of relief. “Can I thank you for looking out for my son and promise to give the restaurant some more thought once we get through tomorrow? I know I love it, but right now I think I need to stand back and take a really good look at how things are going for me.”
“I’m here for you. I’m not going anywhere. No matter how hard you try to tell yourself we’re not meant to be together because I know we are.”
She lifted her hand and stroked a finger down his chin. “I’d love a lift in the morning, thanks.”
Chapter 28
The drive home from the funeral was depressing. Kyle lay in the back seat with his headphones on and fell asleep before they left Sydney. Lena knew he was hurting, but she was finding it hard to give him the attention he deserved when she struggled to get through each day as it unraveled around her. Life had seemed so perfect before. How wrong she was.
Lena rested her head back on the seat and glanced out the window, watching the suburbs fly by. Adam had held her as Simon’s casket was lowered into the cold, dark ground.
