were on the lake, Ellie crouching under the blanket.
Lizbeth toyed with the end of her paperback, rubbing her fingers along a portion of the cover that had torn off. Her tears had dried. I wondered what it had been like for her to sit here, waiting in the quiet, alone. No matter how much I tried to protect them, I couldn’t save them from everything.
Would I be able to live with that?
I set a hand on her shoulder. “You okay, Lizbeth?”
She drew in a deep breath. “Yeah, I’m okay.”
“Really?”
Her welling eyes met mine, and she shook her head. “No. I . . . I don’t ever want to see him again, but . . . but I still feel sad. Some . . . some part of me does want to see him. I mean, he’s my dad. We weren’t really close, but he was still there, and there were some good times . . . and I’m so confused.”
“You might be confused for a while.”
“Yeah.”
“But you don’t have to be scared. He knows you’re here. He said he’d leave you alone until school started.” Panic flared in her expression, but I shook my head. “That gives us time to prove you can live here, all right? You’re going to be all right.”
“I’m sorry.”
“For what?”
“For coming. For shoving us into your life. I really thought your dad was here and that we could just stay for a few days until things blew over.”
“You don’t have to apologize, Lizbeth. Coming here was the right thing to do.”
She paused, then said, “I know about the motorcycle. About the debt. I know it’s not likely you can dig yourself out of debt to prove you can keep us.”
“What? How do you know?”
A guilty expression crossed her face. “I’ve been reviewing Maverick’s spreadsheets. His accounting is sound. Statistically, you do have a shot at pulling it all together, but it’s not a great shot. So . . . I guess . . . thanks. For giving up everything for us.”
“You’re worth it,” I said quietly.
Tears filled her eyes again. I folded her into my arms and let her shake softly against me as she cried. Her thin body trembled, gripping me hard.
I had two more months to turn this place around and secure their life with me.
I had to believe we could do it.
20
Maverick
This wasn’t good.
Not. Good.
Bethany fit into my arms like my body had built itself to accommodate her. Holding her against me had left me weak as a kitten. No deployment, surgery, board meeting, or sales presentation had ever taken my courage in the same way.
My feelings for Bethany had long ago crossed the professional line. Watching her stand up to Jim, saucy blue eyes narrowed like cold firecrackers, sent a thrill through me. Pride, too. She was all vulnerability and rage in the same breath.
She could take care of herself. She had taken care of herself. But I didn’t want her to have to do it alone. No, I wanted to step in. That’s how I knew that this had gotten out of hand. While I would have stepped in to protect any client, I wouldn’t have held them for that long. Imagined their soft lips on mine. Or forced myself to leave hours past closing.
I wanted to prove to Bethany that she wasn’t alone. That the burdens weren’t hers to bear. But how wrong would that be? In a few weeks, I would be gone.
And she would be alone.
I sat in my truck and stared at Grandpa’s house with a mental sigh.
Only a few weeks lay between me and completion on this project. A few weeks to prove my business idea, sell the house for some initial capital—not that I needed it, but it would help—and tell Mallory, Thanks, but no thanks. I don’t want to be your CRO.
If I could walk away. Not just from Mallory, but from Bethany, too.
The way things looked?
I stepped out and slammed the door behind me, the smell of her hair still burning my nose.
21
Bethany
That night, I stared at an empty binder.
Maverick said the new operations manual would be the beginning of the new Frolicking Moose, and I believed him. It was the place where we made coffee-tinged magic happen. Where profitability put more money into my bank account, and that money brought me a certificate to support my sisters and sell real estate.
But executing that new coffee shop required energy and time that the girls had been taking up.