And then with a flick of her head and a loud huff the woman departed.
Viv’s eyes met Reuben’s. “What the hell was that about?”
“Oh shit.” He shook his head. “I’m so sorry. Are you okay?”
“Well that depends.” She was very aware of the curious looks being thrown in her direction but mostly Viv could feel the slow simmer of anger in her gut. “I thought you and your girlfriend had split before we’d slept together?”
Viv didn’t screw around with unavailable men.
Okay, sure, it had only been a couple of days before that according to Reuben and, if Viv had been after something more than a quick roll in the hay, she wouldn’t have touched Reuben with a barge pole. Men on the rebound were not good dating potential. But she hadn’t wanted to date him, which had made Reuben perfect one-night stand material.
It had been win-win for both of them.
“We had.” He sighed. “It’s a long story.”
Viv folded her arms. “I have time.”
Pressing his beer to his lips again, Reuben drained the bottle before placing it down in front of him. “Quite a few people who know me saw us together in Bozeman. They didn’t know about the breakup. So our Bozeman…liaison got around Marietta quicker than the news that Clem and I had split and some people put two and two together and got—”
“A million and six.”
He nodded. “Right.”
“And did your ex set them straight?” Viv was going to have a hard-enough time in Marietta with the whole Sage thing without being pegged as some kind of homewrecker as well. It was fine, she could abide anything for six months, but she still wasn’t keen on being the other woman.
“Yes. She asked me about the rumors. I told her I had hooked up with you on Sunday night two days after she’d dumped me. She said good for you, Reuben, and wished me well and tried to set the record straight but when she left town a few days later a lot of people assumed she was brokenhearted and that her denials had been an attempt to save face.”
“She left town?”
“Yeah.” He shrugged. “She decided to go on a six-week Contiki tour of Europe with some of her friends from California. She’d always wanted to do it and had never gotten around to it and she just…went for it.”
“So…not brokenhearted?”
“Nope.” He shook his head. “Not even remotely.”
“But still…you’re the one left behind here dealing with all the flak.”
“It’s fine.” He smiled then. “Let them talk. I know what happened. You know what happened. That’s all that really matters. And besides, the gossip had just about worn itself out. It will again.”
In other words, if she hadn’t shown up in town, this accusation against Reuben might have all died a natural death. But here she was, living evidence of his supposed indiscretion. She wondered how long that would take to get around town.
“I mean, my mom is still pissed at me. So is Clementine’s.”
Oh-kay. Cross them off as potential customers then. Possibly their friendship circles as well.
“Not because they believe the rumors,” he hastened to add. “But they’d been picking out china patterns for us for a while so they’ve taken the split kinda hard.”
China patterns? “I thought you said you and your ex weren’t really that hot and heavy.”
“We weren’t but…mothers…” He shrugged. “Whatcha gonna do?”
Viv’s mother had never pressured her to settle down or marry. She was already a grandmother five times over and she loved that Viv was a well-traveled career woman, something Viv always suspected her mom had dreamed about until a teenage pregnancy had pierced all those aspirations and life had taken her down a different path.
“Don’t worry,” he assured, “they’ll get over it eventually.”
Eventually. Right… Viv wasn’t worried per se—she was here for six months then moving on. But it was all the more reason for her and Reuben to keep things platonic. She didn’t want any overly invested momma pinning her hopes on Viv and being chased out of town with a rolling pin when her secret marriage-and-grandbaby-plans failed to launch.
Viv didn’t have a problem with marriage and babies—she’d just never seen them as part of her picture. Never met someone who’d even tempted her to rethink.
Picking up her wine she swallowed down the last couple of mouthfuls, the glass making a slight scraping noise as she set it down on the wooden tabletop. “Well, this has been—” Educational “—lovely. But…” She scanned the bar area quickly, the feeling of eyes on her not pleasant. “I think it’s time I headed back to the cottage.”
“Okay.” He pushed his empty beer bottle to the center of the table. “I’ll walk you.”
“No. It’s fine. It’s a five-minute walk.”
That smile was back on his lips as he made a chicken noise. “Bok, bok, bok.”
“Really?” Viv shot him an impatient look.
“I’m offering to walk you home like a perfect gentleman. That’s it. If you had schoolbooks I’d offer to carry them.”
Viv laughed at the old-fashioned notion. “You shouldn’t be seen out and about with public enemy number one and I think we’ve caused enough gossip for one day, don’t you?”
He gave a half laugh. “Look…this will blow over. Sure, Marietta has its share of gossip and those who peddle it. But, trust me, you’ll quickly find that it’s a really friendly little town that will welcome you with open arms. If you let it.”
Except letting people in was Viv’s problem. Her transient lifestyle had been antithetical to forming relationships and she’d become a self-fulfilling prophecy, holding herself aloof from getting too close to anyone.
“Okay.” She slid out from the booth and stood. To her relief Reuben didn’t push the whole walking home thing. “Opening day is Monday if you’re interested.”
“I can’t wait to sample your delights,” he said, his smile full of innuendo that gained him another eye roll.
But, the truth was, Viv couldn’t wait for him to sample them either. She just wasn’t sure despite their Vivian pledge that she was thinking about the chocolate.
Chapter Three
Monday was slooooow.
The slowest opening day Viv had ever been part of and this was her eleventh store in the past decade. She’d become their youngest ever manager at twenty-two. She’d applied to dozens of colleges near and far during her final year of high school. Denver had been the first to offer and she’d taken it without thinking twice or waiting for any other colleges to throw their hat into the ring.
Viv hadn’t cared where she went as long as she went.
She’d been in Denver for ten days when she landed a part-time job at Delish and had worked there all through her college years and, when she’d had her brand-new sparkling business degree in hand, she’d been promoted to assistant manager. A year later, the top spot had become hers when the manager had left permanently to have a baby.
She’d spent two years at the store and taken two trips to Belgium to see how the chocolate was made in that time and, when the second Denver store had opened and the regular new store representative had taken ill the night before, Viv had been the closest manager to step into that role and she’d done it with aplomb and pizazz and had been doing the role ever since.