Not Quite Over You

by Susan Mallery

  “You may think because of what you do for a living that you’re more verbal than the rest of us, but you’re wrong. And sarcasm isn’t going to help you out of this. We had a deal.”

  The last four words came out in a scream.

  “We had a deal,” she repeated, just as loud. “You weren’t to go near him.”

  “Your son needs a man in his life, Wynn. I’m sorry you don’t like that, but it’s true. If you don’t want it to be me, then fine, but it needs to be someone.”

  “He is doing just fine without a man in his life. He’s a good boy.”

  “He needs to learn how to be a good man. You’re a terrific mother, but your skill set is only going to get you so far.”

  “You don’t get to say,” she told him, her voice thick with rage.

  Her fury was so out of proportion with what had happened that he just couldn’t wrap his mind around the problem. “Is it me or all men?”

  “I don’t want him knowing about my personal life. I told you that.”

  “Yes, you did. So I have a question. How is he supposed to know how relationships work if he never sees one up close? How is he supposed to learn how couples navigate things if that never happens in his house? He’s never seen a fight or an apology or watched as someone other than you figured out a budget or a Christmas list. What are you so afraid of?”

  “You will not distract me from my point. I told you the rules and you violated them. We’re finished.”

  He’d had a feeling that if she found out about him and Hunter, she would do as she’d always said she would. Wynn was a woman of her word. Now, as what she’d said sank in, he waited to feel crushed by the news. Or at least experience a strong sense of loss. But there seemed to be only some sadness and the knowledge that this moment had been inevitable from their very first night together.

  “Just like that?” he asked.

  “The rules exist for a reason.”

  “Which is?”

  “That’s not your business.”

  “You’re breaking up with me, which makes it my business, but that’s okay. Here’s the thing. What I want to know is who hurt you so badly that you have to be this scared? There’s something in your past that makes you act like this. I know you could do a lot better than me, but let’s ignore that. On the surface, I’m a pretty decent guy. I’ve always treated you well. I don’t cheat, I don’t lie and I’m sure not after your money. As for Hunter, you’re right. I broke the rules, but you know what? I’m not sorry. Because however much you love him, it’s not enough. Hunter can’t grow up in your little bubble. He needs more, and when you keep him from that, you’re only hurting him.”

  For a second he thought he’d gotten through to her. Her mouth twisted and she looked like she was going to cry. But before he could say anything, her anger returned. Her whole body stiffened and she glared at him again.

  “Stay away from me and stay away from Hunter,” she said loudly. “We are done. I don’t want to hear from you ever again. Is that clear?”

  “I’m sorry, Wynn. Not about the breakup. We’ll both get over it quicker than we should, but about whatever you went through. I wish I could have convinced you not to be scared. I hope you find whatever it is you need to be whole.”

  One tear slipped down her cheek. She brushed it away angrily. “Go to hell.”

  “You’re upset. Be careful driving back to town.”

  She stalked off without saying anything. Jasper watched until she disappeared down the driveway, then he closed the door and leaned against it.

  His gut churned, but not because he missed her. He would, and then he would get over it. What got him was the realization that there were so many times he thought he was the only one in pain, the only one with ghosts. He had to keep reminding himself that everyone out there had a story. Some were great, with love and laughter and all things good. And some sucked.

  He walked toward his office, the end of his scene suddenly clear. He hoped Wynn could figure out what was wrong and how to fix it because hiding never worked. He knew that for sure.

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  THE BOXING WORKOUTS were always challenging, but Drew had a feeling there was something else driving Jasper. His friend went after the bag like it was the enemy and only he could defeat it. The punch combinations were lightning fast, and hard enough to break bone.

  Cade watched him, a worried frown drawing his brows together. “I’m not sparring with him,” he muttered. “Bethany would kill me if I came home with a black eye or split lip this close to the party.”

  Drew had no reason to worry about his face, but he wasn’t eager to spar with Jasper, either.

  Jasper stayed on the bag another five minutes, his blows sounding like machine gunfire. He finally stepped back and dropped his arms to his sides.

  He was dripping sweat and barely able to catch his breath. There was a look in his eyes Drew had never seen before—something bleak and lost. No, not lost—gone forever.

  “Want to talk about it?” Cade asked.

  Jasper unfastened his gloves and pulled them off, then he walked to the refrigerator and pulled out three bottles of water. After tossing them each one, he said, “Wynn found out I was friends with Hunter and she ended things.”

  Jasper didn’t talk much about his personal life but he’d mentioned Wynn’s strict rules when it came to her son. Hunter wasn’t to know that Wynn and Jasper were involved. Drew knew that shortly after Wynn and Jasper had started seeing each other, Hunter had approached Jasper. The two had become friends.

  Cade sank onto the floor mat and opened his water. “Let me get this straight. You’re friends with her son and that’s bad?”

  Drew and Jasper sat down. Jasper shrugged. “She didn’t want me involved with Hunter at all. She’d made that clear from the start. I guess I always knew this was going to happen.”

  “You okay?” Drew asked. He knew how bad he felt now that Autumn was gone. For Jasper, it had to be worse. He’d lost Hunter and Wynn.

  “I will be. I knew the relationship wasn’t going to last. It couldn’t. Not with Wynn’s ideas about Hunter. She didn’t want more than we had.”

  “Did you?” Cade asked.

  Jasper thought for a moment. “No. Sometimes I think about being in a real relationship, but that’s not going to happen. It can’t. I saw too much in Afghanistan. Things got broken and they can’t be fixed.”

  Drew didn’t know enough about Jasper’s background to agree or disagree with what he’d said, but he couldn’t help thinking that the human spirit was amazingly resilient. Jasper had changed since he’d first moved to Happily Inc. He was less reclusive, he had friends, he’d been seeing Wynn.

  “I’m sorry,” Cade said.

  “Me, too,” Drew told him.

  “Thanks, but I’m okay.”

  Drew looked at the battered boxing bag and wondered if that was true. He had a feeling even if it wasn’t, it would be, with time.

  Cade looked at Drew. “My mom’s being weirder than usual. I think she has something planned at the bank. About the chairmanship. Consider this a heads-up.”

  “Thanks, but I can handle whatever Libby has going on.”

  He was more concerned about Silver. Specifically his mother approaching Silver. Things were good right now—he didn’t want anyone messing with what he and Silver had. He wanted...

  He realized he wasn’t sure what he wanted—not completely—but he did know he’d already lost so much with her. No way he was going to lose any more.

  * * *

  THE SMALLER OF the trailers had been delivered and it was perfection on wheels. Silver went over every inch of it, loving how Walter had executed all their ideas. If she could have wrapped her arms around the remodeled trailer and hugged it, she would have. She settled on hugging Walter.

  “You’re the best,” she
said. “Thank you. The craftsmanship is amazing. I couldn’t be happier.”

  “I’m going to have my wife call you the next time I make her mad,” he told her with a chuckle. “You can explain to her that she’s lucky to have me so I don’t have to sleep on the sofa.”

  “Give her my number.”

  She handed him the check for the final payment and was honestly too happy to even mind the decrease in the company’s bank account.

  When Walter left, she practically danced around the trailers. There were three. Three! She had an empire and right this second, it felt magnificent.

  It took her about two hours to load the smaller of the trailers. When she was done, she ran her hands up and down the outside of the trailer, then sighed happily and locked it up. Wynn would secure the gate to the parking area before she left so the trailers would be perfectly safe. That evening, Silver would probably drive by to double-check on everything, but only because she was excited and not because it was necessary.

  She returned to her retail space and sat on one of the sofas. After the disastrous bachelorette party, she honestly wasn’t sure what to do next. She hadn’t booked anything—she just couldn’t face the prospect of another hideous party. Not that she didn’t like the local police force, but she would much rather go months and months without having to call them to shut things down.

  She got out her laptop and opened her spreadsheet program. She entered in the cost of the remodel, how much she paid in rent each month and the average profit she and Drew had come up with, based on the assumption there was no physical damage to the space. The numbers were exactly what they had been before. It only took a handful of parties a month to make a tidy profit. Using her retail space for the parties made financial sense.

  She and Drew had already talked about the three trailers. Georgiana would take one, they’d promoted another bartender to take the small one and she would handle the third. Drew would be available to help deal with any issues.

  But that was a short-term solution and she knew it. With three trailers, she needed three full-time employees—one for each trailer. The rest of the staff could be part-time. She should be managing things, not pouring drinks. Drew couldn’t be expected to keep every weekend night open in case he was needed. She should be booking events, handling ordering and prepping the trailers for each reception or party. And if she was doing all that, did she really want to also be throwing bachelorette parties?

  Her lease with Violet allowed her to sublet the space. She already had the trailers and her supplies stored at Wynn’s business. When her friend had expanded to the current location, she’d had more room than she needed. Silver’s rent check had made the move possible. Silver knew there were several small offices in the back that weren’t used. Why not rent one of those for a nominal sum and lease out this space to someone who would use it? Financially she would come out the same and she could focus on the part of the business she really liked.

  While the idea made sense, she had to face the uncomfortable reality of having a business partner. The decision wasn’t hers to make alone. Not that she was worried about what Drew would say, but there was someone else involved. Still, she had her three trailers and that was definitely worth having to talk things over with Drew.

  * * *

  SILVER’S CONFIDENT MOOD lasted until one-thirty on Saturday afternoon.

  “We can’t do this,” she said, trying not to sound as panicked as she felt. “Don’t take this wrong, but you’re not ready. Worse, I’m not ready.”

  Drew and Georgiana exchanged a look. Georgiana spoke first.

  “It’s going to be fine. I’m handing the big Alice in Wonderland wedding at Weddings Out of the Box. You know if I get into trouble there, I can ask Renee for help. She probably has three extra people stored in a closet somewhere that she’ll whip out to deal with the crisis.”

  Silver nodded slowly. “She is frighteningly organized. You’re right. It will be fine.” She looked at Drew. “But you don’t know what you’re doing. You’re a novice. Who’s going to make sure everything goes all right?” She pressed a hand to her writhing stomach. “We shouldn’t have booked three weddings right away. What if the small trailer hadn’t been ready on time? What if this is a disaster?”

  She thought she might be stressing a little too much and that Drew might be offended by her obvious lack of faith in him, but instead of getting upset, he chuckled.

  “I think I like you this way.”

  “What way?”

  “Off balance. You’re always so confident.”

  Was that how he saw her because honestly, she didn’t feel confident about anything.

  He opened the tablet he was holding. “My wedding is small. Only fifty guests. The cocktails are premade and chilling in the two-gallon containers. The only other choices are beer and wine. Even I can open a wine or beer bottle. I have two people helping me because I’m new. I’m to get there at five and leave at eight, although I suspect the party will go on without me. The bride and groom are bringing their own water and soda. It’s all good. You need to breathe.”

  “I’m breathing.” Maybe a little too fast and shallow, but she was breathing.

  “Okay,” she said, glancing at her watch. “I have to go set up.” Her wedding was early. A three o’clock ceremony with a reception going from three-thirty until whenever, although her services had only been requested until seven. The bride and groom had a limited budget and wanted a big blowout party. They were having both the ceremony and the reception outside in the park. The families had gotten together to make the food themselves. The bar was easy. Beer and margaritas. Silver had all the blenders in her trailer, along with two hundred margarita glasses, a couple of dozen cases of beer and two crates of limes.

  “Then we’re good,” she said, trying to sound more confident than she felt. “Okay, I’m heading out to set up.” She looked at Georgiana and Drew. “Call me if you need anything.”

  They exchanged a look, then both nodded.

  “We’ll be fine,” Georgiana promised her. “Go have fun.”

  Fun when there was so much to worry about? Not that she was going to tell them that.

  Silver drove to the edge of the park. Vehicles weren’t allowed past a certain point. She and the bride and groom had discussed the best place to position the trailer. She carefully backed the trailer into its spot, then rotated the solar panels to catch the sun’s energy. Once that was done, she began her setup.

  At two, the rest of her staff showed up. By the time the wedding started, they were ready for three hundred guests to descend. As the groom kissed his bride and everyone applauded, Silver began popping the tops off bottles of beer. The margaritas—both frozen and on the rocks—were in glasses and on trays ready to be offered to guests. Water and soda bottles sat in galvanized tubs filled with ice.

  There was the usual twenty-minute crush while everyone got their first drink. Silver was pleased that her guess on how many would go for margaritas versus beer had been dead-on. By four they were down to a steady stream of customers. That would continue until they were ready to shut things down.

  The reception was a boisterous, happy affair with lots of dancing and laughter. No one threw anything or started screaming. Even the kids were well behaved.

  Right on time, Silver and her crew started cleaning up. They loaded empty bottles into crates and put them in the back of the truck. Silver would drive them and all the others over to the recycling center Monday morning. The tables were wiped down and stored, along with the trays, blenders and dirty glasses. At seven-thirty, she pulled out of the park and headed back to Wynn’s place to stow her trailer.

  She hadn’t heard from Drew, which wasn’t surprising. There wasn’t great cell reception up at Honeymoon Falls. She debated waiting for him, then decided to go check on Georgiana. Her wedding was about the same size as the one Silver had staffed, but it
was more fancy.

  She walked in to find the party in full swing. Everyone looked more happy than stressed, which was good. The Alice in Wonderland theme played out in red, black and white. All the food was labeled Eat Me. There were decorative rabbits everywhere, along with huge playing cards. The tableware was all oversize or undersized, which must have made dinner interesting.

  Silver walked over to the trailer.

  “How’s it going?” she asked Georgiana.

  “It’s been good. We’re doing fine—people are drinking the usual amount. No one’s thrown up.”

  “Always a plus.”

  Georgiana smiled. “The bride’s father refused to walk her down the aisle. Apparently he hates the groom. He and the bride’s mother had a massive fight in front of everyone, but it’s fine now. One of the groom’s cousins has irritable bowel syndrome and insisted one of the bathrooms be hers alone. That didn’t make Renee happy. They settled the problem by giving her the bathroom in the bride’s room.” Georgiana shrugged. “You know, the usual. I have it handled.”

  “I can see that.”

  Silver excused herself and walked around. As Georgiana had said, the wedding was going well. Before she got back to the trailer, Drew joined her.

  “Checking things out?” he asked.

  She stared at him. “You’re back. How did it go? Everything okay? Is the trailer okay? What did you think?”

  He grinned. “This worry thing is so interesting. The wedding was fine. Forty people who hiked up to the falls rather than drive. It was very outdoorsy and nice and we left when they decided to go skinny-dipping. The trailer is back in its happy home.”

  Silver took a deep breath, her first in hours. “Thank you. So we did it.”

  “We did.” He put his arm around her. “Now what do you say we leave these people to their very odd reception and let Georgiana do her job? I have a bottle of red wine waiting at my place, along with a very nice cheese and meat plate I ordered. We’ll eat, we’ll drink, we’ll talk and later there will be sex.”