All's Fair in Love and Chocolate (Marietta Chocolate Wars #1) - Amy Andrews Page 0,65

tonight.”

“Do either of you need a lift?” he asked the other two women.

“No, our cars are parked on 1st,” Robbie said.

And then they hugged Viv and told her they’d check in tomorrow and she nodded but she barely registered their departure as she stared around helplessly. “Come on, Vivian.” Reuben slid his arm around her waist. “Let’s go home.”

Home. Yeah. Tonight—finally—the cottage did feel like home. Like the place she escaped to at the end of the day with someone she…with someone who got her and who would hold her through what promised to be a long, hard night.

He didn’t talk on the short walk home for which Viv was grateful. Her brain was too full of all the things she had to do and fix and sort. Too full of voices. She didn’t need his as well talking for the sake of talking or trying to make her feel better. But she did need his arm around her and his calm, solid presence to stop that eerie feeling of being outside herself.

And she did need him telling her, “Go take a shower,” as soon as they walked through the door even though she couldn’t.

“I have to ring Harriet,” Viv whispered, her voice hoarse as exhaustion crept into every joint in her body. “She’ll want to know.”

He cupped her jaw, smiling at her gently as he stroked his thumb along her cheek. “Shower first,” he said. “Another fifteen minutes won’t hurt. I’ll make you a cup of tea.”

But it was more than fifteen minutes because he came in to check on her after five and Viv was sitting on the bottom of the cubicle, leaning back against the tiles, her knees drawn up to her chest crying her eyes out. She hadn’t meant to cry. She hadn’t even been aware that she was about to until suddenly she was and he took one look at her and shucked his smoky clothes right next to hers and joined her, slotting in behind, his arms coming around her shoulders and drawing her back and Viv cried harder.

He kissed her temple and nuzzled her hairline and just held her until she was all cried out beneath the warm spray.

“I don’t know why I’m crying so much,” Viv said, even more exhausted now the crying had stopped. “It’s not like it’s my own personal store.”

“Yes it is,” he murmured. “This one probably more than any of the others because you had to earn this one.”

The fact that he was so insightful, that he’d articulated what she’d been thinking earlier, made her want to cry all over again but she really did have to go tell the big boss that, for the first time in Delish history, a store had been destroyed by fire.

Yes, even if it was almost one thirty in the morning. On Christmas Day.

She was on the phone for half an hour going through everything and taking notes, which kept the ever-present well of emotion below the surface. Harriet was so concerned and so kind and Reuben hovered, bringing her tea and massaging her feet, sitting up with her while she chatted with the big boss.

God…the thought of leaving here and having to say goodbye to him was particularly hard right now.

And then after she ended the call he shepherded her into bed, convincing her to at least give it a try despite Viv being adamant she wouldn’t sleep. Her brain was just too busy. But, as he shuffled in behind her and every part of his front touched every part of her back and his arm tucked in around her, her eyelids started to flutter shut and she realized he was right.

She was so damn tired.

Which was Viv’s last waking thought before plunging into a deep, dreamless sleep.

Chapter Ten

Reuben wasn’t surprised that Vivian slept late the next day. She wasn’t some kid who’d been counting down the weeks, days, hours and minutes until Santa came. She was a grown woman who’d watched everything she’d strived and worked for the past almost two months literally go up in a puff of smoke. As his boss had said, she’d suffered a trauma and that kind of emotional exhaustion cut deep.

Sadly, he’d seen that in his line of work too often. But, the body was a remarkable thing, knowing innately the best way to recoup—physically and psychologically—was to sleep.

It wasn’t some kind of instantaneous cure all but it helped.

A fact backed up by Vivian who woke just before lunch, subdued, yes, but with color