Harriet laughed. “You never stop thinking of the company, do you?” She reached across the table. “We’re lucky to have you.”
“But I’m right, right?”
“It’s a good idea. I’ll definitely look at it when I get back to the office.”
Viv grinned and punched the air. “I’ll volunteer to do the taste testing for it.”
They laughed some more before Harriet sobered and said, “So…the executive has been talking about what’s next for you. There’s a few months before Marietta will be fitted out again and what you’ve been through has been traumatizing so we would totally understand if you wanted to have some time away.”
Viv frowned. Time away? What the hell? To do what? This experience had been rough but sitting around doing nothing wouldn’t help. She needed to keep busy, to have something to do, to fill the void losing the Marietta store had created.
She needed to work. She’d always worked. For Delish.
“No.” She shook her head. “I want to work; I need to work. And then I want to come back here when everything is ready to go and get this store going again with Robbie and Mackenzie.”
Harriet laughed again. “Yeah, we had a feeling you’d say that. But you don’t have to come back here—we can send someone else.”
“No.” She shook her head. It had to be her. Viv’s time here had been cut short and she didn’t like to leave anything unfinished. “I want to.”
She already knew she was going to miss this town and, who knew, maybe she’d get a chance to settle some other unfinished business on her return? Like Reuben. But even as she thought it, a deep throb clenched tight in her chest.
“Okay, so…how about you spend the next few months doing some satisfaction audits for us? Check in on some stores who are having issues, do some trouble shooting, check the lay of the land? It’ll involve a lot of travel but we know how much you like that.”
Harriet grinned and Viv smiled back but it felt a little tight and the normal swell of enthusiasm she felt at the prospect of moving around was decidedly lackluster.
I thought maybe you needed to hear that it was okay to want to settle somewhere at some stage.
Gaylene’s words from Thanksgiving came back to her but her boss, who had given Viv her career and who she admired, was asking her to do something. And Viv knew how important it was to check in locally with the people running and working in their stores. So many potential problems could be nipped in the bud by discussing things face-to-face and finding out what people needed to do their jobs.
It was measures like that which not only kept the company successful but a place people wanted to work as well.
“It sounds awesome! When do you want me to start?”
“As soon as you’re ready.”
Viv nodded. “Okay then. I’ll leave tomorrow.”
*
She did a quick round of the town after Harriet left. She dropped in at Sage’s for a very big thank you and I’ll be back and at the diner and Grey’s and a dozen other places along the way. She called Robbie and Mackenzie and told them she was leaving in the morning but she’d stay in close touch and she couldn’t wait to return and set up shop again in the new year.
The new year.
It hadn’t really struck her until then that she’d be ringing in the new year somewhere that wasn’t Marietta. Probably in an airport or on the road, depending on the info Harriet was going to email. It wasn’t where she’d thought she would be but then, nothing this past couple of months had gone according to plan.
Not from the very beginning.
She hadn’t planned on being such a controversial figure. She hadn’t planned on having to prove herself to the town. She hadn’t planned on the fire.
And she hadn’t planned on Reuben.
Reuben. God…she was going to miss Reuben. But she tried not to think about how much as she packed her bag that evening and waited for him to come home. Gah! The cottage, damn it.
If she explored her feelings too much she might not pack any bags and be tempted to give in to Gaylene’s voice playing in her head and take that time Harriet talked about, lolling around naked with Reuben.
And that was just idle. And dangerous. To her career. To her dreams. She’d be back in a few months for crying out loud. It wasn’t goodbye forever.
But, she had to admit to being relieved when he called around seven to say he was going out to a multi-vehicle pileup on the interstate and he’d probably be back quite late. She’d never been a coward and wasn’t a believer in putting off until tomorrow but she was grateful for the reprieve from the conversation she knew she had to have. From the goodbye she knew wasn’t going to be as easy as she’d thought it would be two months ago.
And Reuben had the day off tomorrow. So they could have a leisurely breakfast and discuss things like adults. And he’d be fine because she’d always been going to leave. And so would she.
She’d walk out the door and everything would be just fine.
*
Viv had been awake for several hours the next morning when Reuben joined her in the living room. She was in jeans and her favorite baby-pink cashmere sweater and socks and had been working on her laptop in front of the fire, trying not to think about what would happen when he woke and realized her bag—Delish were keeping the cottage for her return so no need to worry about the other stuff—was at the front door.
Head office had directed her to Houston and she’d deliberately booked a flight out of Bozeman Yellowstone International at nine tonight, which wouldn’t touch her down until after the New Year’s shenanigans were over. She had zero desire to be in some bland business hotel when the ball dropped. She’d rather be sitting in business class with her laptop and noise-canceling headphones and forgetting that she could have been ringing it in with Reuben.
The smell of warm clean skin filled her nostrils as scratchy whiskers nuzzled into her neck. “Good morning,” he murmured, the stir of his breath adding to the avalanche of goose bumps breaking out both north and south.
Viv shut her eyes on a sigh, reaching behind her to ruffle his hair as her nipples stiffened to tight peaks. She adored his sleepy morning voice. “You’re awake,” she said, forcing herself to unhand him.
He dropped a kiss on her neck before straightening and stretching if the noises he was making were any indication. “I hope I didn’t wake you when I got in last night?” he said, rounding the couch and sitting on the opposite end.
All he had on was a pair of boxer briefs and despite telling herself not to ogle his almost naked body, her eyes betrayed her.
Damn eyes!
“No, I barely heard you.”
Which was a lie. He got in at two forty-six, his arm coming around her as he spooned into her and kissed her neck and she’d wanted nothing more than to turn in his embrace and get lost in him. The same as this morning when she’d woken. They hadn’t had sex since just before the fire and she wanted him so fiercely. But more than that, she’d wanted to disappear inside him for a while. Hold him for a bit longer. Create a send-off to be remembered.
But it had felt dishonest when she knew her intention was to leave—when the flight was booked and her bag was packed—and she hadn’t told him yet. If, after she told him, he wanted to take her back to bed and make her call his name all damn day, she’d be totally up for that but she owed him the truth first.