Make Your Move - By Samantha Hunter Page 0,45

to approve your money. I couldn’t do that, and he wouldn’t change his mind anyway.”

His eyebrows went up as he turned for the door. “That would be unfortunate. It seems to me that maybe you are far more devoted to him than he is to you, but that’s your business.”

“Get out,” she said in no uncertain terms, her hand around the rolling pin again.

“I’m on my way. You think about it. You have until Monday,” he said. “Then your secret formula won’t be so secret after all.”

Jodie took a deep breath as the back door slammed behind him, and she rushed over to lock it, something she should have done in the first place, but her mind had been elsewhere that morning.

Just as she did, she saw Ginger pull into the lot behind the alley, and so Jodie stood in the doorway like a mother waiting for an errant child who had come home after hours.

“Where have you been?” she asked as Ginger walked up to the door. She knew she was being less than gracious, but her mind was fried from dealing with Jason, and her emotions raw. What was she going to do?

“I know I’m late again, I’m sorry but—”

“I can’t have this Ginger. I have a business to run, and I needed you here this morning. I can’t keep coming in and having to guess if you’re going to show up that day or not,” Jodie said again, knowing she was being too severe, but she was angry and Ginger’s excuses felt like one more betrayal.

One more person who put their life, their needs, their wants, before hers. One more person who asked her to understand while she shouldered the cost of it.

Ginger looked shell-shocked and exhausted. On some level, Jodie was concerned, but her own emotions were so frazzled, she couldn’t make room for Ginger’s at the moment.

Wouldn’t it be better just to have a reliable employee she could count on? Being friends with her employees maybe wasn’t the best policy, she thought darkly. All of her friendships, the one with Dan, the one with Ginger, were getting far too complicated and problematic. Still, what could she do?

Ginger shook her head, not coming through the door. “Jodie, I don’t know what to say. You’re right. I know I’ve been struggling with meeting all of these new things, the job at the hospital, finding time for Scott and Anna and working here. I’ve wanted to do it all, and Scott was saying he thought something had to give…” Ginger trailed off, searching for a tissue in her pocketbook.

Jodie’s heart seized up. She knew something bad was coming, and she held her breath.

“He thinks I should quit,” Ginger said in a choked voice, and Jodie froze.

Revved up from Jason, her emotions jangled and Ginger’s quitting did hit her as a betrayal.

“Do you want to quit?” Jodie asked stiffly, her fingers gripping the doorway so tightly they hurt. How had this good day gone bad so quickly?

“No! I love working for you. If anything, I’d rather quit the hospital. It’s so stressful and political there. With Scott’s income, I could work here and maybe eventually start my own physical therapy business. But…”

“But you can’t trust him enough to put your life in his hands that way. Not yet,” Jodie finished for her.

Ginger nodded. “I want to, and I want us to have a chance, but I don’t know what to do.”

Jodie sighed, her temper settling down, and she opened the door wider. “Come on in. You’re not quitting, but we are going to figure out how to make this work. You can’t just keep doing what’s right for everyone else, Ginger, and not for yourself.”

Back inside, they did talk it through, and Jodie was relieved that Ginger, who had become more friend than employee, wasn’t going to quit.

Ginger figured she could go half time at the hospital, lightening her load there, and keep the bakery job. She also promised to be on time more often.

And if Scott didn’t like it, he could get lost.

Jodie found herself hoping they’d work it out, and was surprised at the change in her own thinking.

“Are you okay?” Ginger asked, after she’d calmed down, happier that a solution had been reached. “You looked kind of upset when I showed up.”

“I…just have a lot on my mind,” Jodie hedged. Ginger had enough to worry about without Jodie adding on the worry that her business could be in real danger, depending on what happened with Jason.

Being