A half smile crossed Immanuel’s face. “Welcome to the team, JJ. You’re our first official overflow baker. We’ve already had an order of croissants and pain au chocolat come in for a local business meeting with realtors. Information is in the email I’ll send after you leave.”
“Thanks, guys.”
“Expect delivery tomorrow afternoon!” Immanuel called as I headed out the door. I waved to acknowledge it, but my mind was already spinning. How would Mark feel about me signing a contract on behalf of Adventura? He was the official owner. While I’d helped, the camp was in his name.
He’d certainly had plenty of crazy ideas of his own that I’d gone along with. He probably wouldn’t care.
I hoped.
“Everything go okay with your sister?”
Lizbeth nodded with a tight smile as she climbed into the truck. I almost invited her to sit next to me again, but she quickly put her seat belt on and looked straight ahead, her hands under her thighs and her lips pressed together in a thin line.
Something hadn’t gone well.
“Good,” I said for lack of anything else.
The engine roared as I pulled away from the café and headed down the highway and into the canyon. My concern over the café deal faded in the uncomfortable silence. My inability to read Lizbeth was a heady reminder that, for all my happy feelings about her, we still didn’t know each other that well.
“Were you glad to see her?” I asked just to break the ice.
She cleared her throat. “Yeah. It’s always good to catch up. I’ve missed her.”
“You’re close.”
She nodded.
Quiet fell over us again. I let it ride this time, unsure of what to say or how to ask what it meant. I’d forgotten how awkward relationships could be. Forgotten about the battle between what I wanted to say and what was probably safe to say. Then again, I could always channel my inner Mark and just say whatever the hell I wanted.
Sometimes that actually worked out for him, but I blamed ninety percent of his relationship failures on his mouth.
Instead, I let the silence accompany us back to Adventura.
We pulled in, and Lizbeth didn’t look at me when she said, “I’m pretty tired. I think I’ll go to bed. Thanks for the ride, JJ. I appreciate the chance to talk to Ellie.”
Before I could tell her to sleep well, she shut the door and walked around the outside of the office to head to her cabin. I stared at the dark spot where she’d disappeared. A heavy feeling told me something wasn’t right.
Shaking my head, I pushed that off. Mark and I had unfinished business to deal with now. I’d focus on that first.
Mark was sitting behind his desk, a perplexed expression on his face, when I stepped inside.
“Seriously, JJ, when did the office start to smell good?” he asked.
No papers or office supplies were scattered across his workspace. Not even three different pens and four colors of highlighters. He looked totally out of place in the clean landscape. The wood of the desk, which had been hidden beneath the layers of dust he’d allowed to collect, had turned out to be cherry. Now, it gleamed a gorgeous red.
“When Lizbeth started.” I peeled my coat off. “She lights a candle thing all the time.”
Mark glanced at my jacket as I hung it on a peg—a whittled bear—that had appeared on the wall one day after lunch. It had kept our chairs blessedly unburdened. They didn’t topple over quite as much.
“Oh,” he said as if he’d also just noticed that peg. “Where is she?”
“Just went to bed.”
The Zombie Mobile keys clattered when I tossed them into a multicolored clay bowl on the makeshift table. Himalayan, Lizbeth had said, claiming she’d found it under some junk in the spare room. I seriously doubted that, but loved the aesthetic all the same.
“I’m a little worried.” Mark peered at the desk as if it held the answers to the universe. “I’m running out of work for her. She’s been getting the website and investor dashboard up like a crazy person. She has a website for a spa that hasn’t even been approved yet. How wild is that? And it looks freaking good.”
“Oh?”
“Yeah.” He frowned. “I don’t really want her to go, do you? But if I can’t drum up something else, she’ll be gone soon.”
“How soon?”
“Dunno. By the end of the week at the latest.”
I almost choked on my tongue. “The end of the week? What?”
He nodded, his face a picture of concern. “Yeah. She’s been pretty great to have, don’t you think? Like, I actually have a desk now and someone who doesn’t put up with all my crap. What am I going to do? Just bulldoze over people again?”
“Probably.”
He sighed. “I’ll try to come up with something. Maybe I need to create a new business for her to run. Think she’d take the spa? Because that would be awesome. Wait, doesn’t she have a job coming up?”
“Not sure if she’s heard back yet.”
He eyed me. “Huh. How are things between you?”
Actually, I didn’t know. They’d been magical. Even romantic. But after our drive back tonight, I wasn’t sure where she stood. Lizbeth always had a sense of hesitation about her, but now it was amplified.
The couch groaned when I collapsed onto it.
“Honestly? I have no idea. I think they’re good.”
“Good, as in dating?” His grin lit up the office.
“Not necessarily.”
“So you’re not dating?”
“Well, not that, either.”
“You’re a friggin’ mess, JJ. Why did you wait so long to get over Stacey? Now you’re going to be all awkward with Lizbeth.”
I threw a pillow at him. He chucked it back, but I blocked it.
“Oh, I forgot to mention that I had an interesting offer come our way yesterday.” Mark stacked his
