Page 68 of Reckless (Adventures in Love 3)
“I wasn’t saying it to be nice,” I tell her, then introduce her to Cybil. “This is my best friend, Cybil; she and I own this place,” I tell her, then add: “I don’t have any applications right now, but if you want, we can go over the job we’d hire you for and see if it’s something you’d be interested in.” After Cybil and I worked the first two days, we both agreed that we would need to hire on another girl, and since all the women who have stuff in the shop are pretty busy most of the time, we knew we needed to hire from outside.
“Will I be making money?” she asks, and I nod. “Then it’s the job I want.”
“Have you ever worked retail before?” Cybil asks her, and she shrugs.
“I’ve worked in a couple of clothing stores and a fast-food place before; does that count?”
“That counts,” Cybil says, and I notice Donna watching me closely.
“I don’t want to intrude, and I know it’s not my place, but it looks like you’ve been crying.”
“Guy trouble,” I admit, and her face gets soft.
“Sorry.”
“It happens, right?” I ask, and she shrugs one shoulder.
“It used to happen to me all the time; then I found Ken out at dinner with you and kicked him to the curb. Since then, no more guy trouble, and I feel happier than I have in a couple of years.”
“Wait, you’re the cop’s wife?” Cybil asks, and Donna focuses on her.
“Soon-to-be ex-wife, but yes.”
“You’re hired.” Cybil grins at her, and Donna laughs. “No, I’m serious,” Cybil says, looking at me. “Right?”
“Absolutely, if you want a job here, it’s yours.”
“I’ll take it,” she says, so Cybil and I go over what we would expect, which isn’t much more than checking people out and making sure things stay tidy around the shop. And Donna tells us that she’s familiar with the computer system we use, which will make it that much easier to get her trained.
By the time she leaves, I’m wondering if Ken is kicking his own ass for doing a woman like Donna wrong. I hope he is; I hope he goes to bed at night wishing he would have done everything to keep her, and if I’m honest, I hope that Maverick goes to bed every night wishing the same thing.
Chapter 21
MAVERICK
“Wake up, you idiot,” someone yells while banging something. I jolt awake and flip on the bedside lamp, finding my sister across the room banging a wooden spoon against the back of one of the metal pots from my kitchen.
“Lizzy, what the fuck?” I rub my face, then push my hair back as I sit up.
“Don’t ‘what the fuck’ me, you idiot.” She sends the wooden spoon flying through the air in my direction, and I just barely catch it before it hits me in the head. “I got a call from Tanner.”
Fuck.
I should have known he’d call her; he and Blake have both been all over my ass the last few days, trying to sort out my shit, and I know they are worried.
“Lizzy.”
“He told me that you broke up with the first girl you’ve ever fallen in love with.”
“I never told you I was in love with her.” I toss back the blanket that is over me and get out of bed.
“You had her in your house. You told me you wanted to bring her to Thanksgiving to meet me and the boys. You didn’t have to tell me you were in love with her with words, you idiot; you spelled it out in black and white with actions.”
“Yeah, well, things change,” I mutter, grabbing a pair of my sweats and putting them on.
“Why’s that?”
“Because she and I do not want the same things.”
“You didn’t want the same things? What does that even mean?”
“I don’t want a wife or kids.” I move past her, giving her a wide berth so I don’t end up smacked upside the head, and walk to the kitchen to start a pot of coffee. With her I know I won’t be able to get back to sleep, not that I’ve been sleeping much anyway, and if I’m going to be up at God knows what time it is, I need caffeine.
“Wow, Mom and Dad really fucked you up.” She slams the pot she is still carrying down onto the counter. “Do you know how stupid you sound right now?”
“Lots of people don’t want to be married or to have kids, Lizzy.”
“You’re right, they don’t, but I know that you are not one of those people, Mav.”
“Maybe you don’t know me.”
“Oh, I know you, and I know that you not wanting to get married or to have kids has everything to do with our parents’ fucked-up relationship and our mother abandoning you when you were just a little kid and nothing to do with you not actually wanting those things.”
