All's Fair in Love and Chocolate (Marietta Chocolate Wars #1) - Amy Andrews Page 0,69
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.