Page 105 of Twilight Tides
“I love you both.” Cammie glanced between me and Nee. “But Taran deserves the best engagement and wedding journeyany bride has ever had. Ever. As her soon-to-be sister-in-law, I intend to protect her experience, even if it means pissing you two off. You are going to have breakfast together and hash out whatever this disagreement is between you before it turns into a proper rammy and ruins everything.”
I had no idea what a proper rammy was, but I could guess. My gaze moved to Nee who glowered at me. She gestured impatiently for me to take a seat.
“Good.” Cammie nodded and joined a somewhat amused Taran. I watched them cross the breakfast room, indeed finding a table as far away from us as possible.
Stomach fluttering with nerves, I sat opposite Nee and forced myself to meet her gaze. “I’m so mad at Murray for telling you something that I would have told you, eventually.”
My best friend huffed. “Would you have, though? I think that’s why he told me because he knew you have this fucked-up notion ofowingme.”
I scowled. “It wasn’t up to him to make that decision for me. And it’s about loyalty, Nee. You deserve my loyalty.”
“I deserve your goddamn honesty.”
“What did he say to you?”
Nee sat back in her chair, arms crossed defensively over her chest. Before she could respond, a server appeared to take our order. I just picked the first thing I saw on the menu.
Once the young woman had left, Nee continued, “I bumped into Murray at the harbor and asked him what he thought of me proposing a fine dining experience to you for the B and B. He told me to ask you. He was weird about it, which got my Spidey senses tingling. I pushed. He clearly didn’t want to lie, and that’s when I read between the lines that you weren’t happy working at my guest house. He didn’t deny it.”
This new information was confusing. “So … Murray didn’t, like, make a point of telling you?”
“No. Not at all. He suggested I talk to you. Because you should have been the one to tell me you’re not happy working for me.”
At her hurt tone, I winced. “Nee … it’s not that I’m not content. I’m just … truthfully, it’snotwhat I want long term, but I also don’t know what I want. I thought I wanted to be a chef, but now I think it just made me feel closer to the one relative who gave a shit about me.”
Understanding dawned. “Your nana.”
I nodded. “I liked working in a kitchen with a team. It was busy and social, and we felt like a family.”
Nee’s eyes widened. “Oh.Oh.”
Shrugging sheepishly, I admitted, “It’s not the same at the B and B. I love being near you, but we’re not in the kitchen together. I’m in there alone most of the time. And to be honest, the hours are kind of a pain in the ass.”
My best friend snorted. “Oh, I know.”
I leaned forward. “But Nee, I am so grateful for everything you and this job have given me. Working at the B and B literally saved my life.”
She reached out to take my hand, squeezing it tight between her cool fingers. “That doesn’t mean it now gets to become an anchor holding you down. Spoon, I just want the best for you. I can find seasonal chefs to take over at the B and B.”
“I don’t even know what I want to do with my life, though. I’d be walking away from a job to do what?” I shrugged helplessly.
She squeezed my hand tighter. “To find yourself.”
“That’s a luxury.”
“Well, you deserve a little luxury. And you married into money, Spoon,” she teased. “You can take the time to figure it out.”
“I didn’t marry him for that.”
Nee frowned. “I’m teasing. What … wait, did you have a falling-out with Murray over this?”
I slumped back in my chair. “I thought he’d approached you and was being controlling because it’s whathewanted. I …” Guilt suffused me as I remembered the hurt look on his face before he jumped in his car to race away from me. “I accused him of being like Nick.”
There was no denying the shock on Nee’s face.
“I fucked up, didn’t I?”
Nee grimaced. “Murray is so not Nick. And what he did came from a place of love. Of wanting the best for you. Hand on heart, I recognized that fully in my encounter with him. At no point did I feel like he was being manipulative or controlling or trying to, like, alienate us. That was not what happened.”
