Susan Mallery Page 0,120
she bounced from foot to foot until the older woman walked out to get her.
“Look! Look!” She waved the test. “I got a B plus! Can you believe it? Do you know how close that is to an A? OMG, I’m so happy.”
Ann smiled at her. “You worked hard and now you’re seeing the results of that. Come on back and we’ll go over your homework.”
“I knew I’d done better, but not like this,” Sunshine told her. “There’s been so much crap in my life lately. No, that’s not true. It’s my own fault and I’ve been dealing with—”
Ann turned to her. “Stop. Just stop. If you have a problem, talk to a friend. If you need emotional support, find a therapist. I do math. It’s my thing.”
The words were so harsh, Sunshine thought, feeling emotions rise to the surface.
As they walked into the small study room where they held their sessions, Sunshine fought against tears. She was about to complain when she realized Ann was right. This was the math lab, not group counseling. Ann was a tutor, not a friend or support buddy. Sunshine’s emotional state wasn’t her job.
“Are there counselors on campus?” she asked.
“You mean like therapists? I don’t know. Google it and find out. Now show me your homework.”
Tough love, Sunshine thought. If she wanted answers to dealing with her past, then she should do the work of finding them herself. If that meant getting professional help, then she should do that. Sulking and feeling bad accomplished nothing. Hard work got results—and she had the test score to prove it!
* * *
Declan had to admit, he was a big city guy at heart. Not a New York kind of city where high-rises dominated and museums were around every corner. He supposed he was more an LA or San Diego kind of city guy where the suburbs sprawled for miles, strip malls were high-class, and in the right part of town, there really was a taco truck on every corner.
He missed those tacos, along with the sun and his son and his bed and, what the hell, no one was going to hear him think this, he missed Sunshine most of all.
He’d been gone four days already and it felt like a lifetime. He and Heath were looking for ways to connect the hotel gardens. Still. It was the project that would never end, he thought grimly. So far they’d spent two days in Napa where they’d discussed using vineyards as the connecting element and then two days in Seattle. Salmon, it turned out, were not the answer. They required more space to swim than the hotel could offer. That led to an entire discussion on koi, but Jessica thought they were too common.
Their next stop was a miniature horse farm in Idaho, because why not miniature horses? He’d tried to explain that, much like the salmon, the small horses would need more space than was available, not to mention care and a zoning modification, but his clients were determined.
He poured himself a cup of coffee from the carafe in the small conference room he and Heath had reserved for their meeting with Jessica and James before the four of them headed for the airport to fly to Idaho. If the horses didn’t work—and they wouldn’t—the next stop on their never-ending journey was a rock quarry in some place he honestly couldn’t remember.
He crossed to the window and looked out at the gray skies and damp garden. From what he’d seen, it had literally rained every second they’d been in Seattle. The town was beautiful, but the rain got to him. He wasn’t sure how the locals survived winter.
He wanted to go home. He wanted to hang out with his son and talk to Sunshine. He wanted to do a lot more than talk, but thinking about anything else left him with a dilemma he had no idea how to solve.
“Where is the rock place?” Heath asked as he walked into the conference room.
“I was just trying to remember. It’s on our tickets.”
“I think I’d rather be surprised.” His business partner put down his briefcase and poured himself coffee. “The horse idea isn’t going to work.”
“I know.”
“Whatever it is, it has to be small and preferably not alive.”
“So the rocks.”
Heath swore and joined him at the window. “What’s going on?”
Declan frowned. “What do you mean?”
“There’s something. You’ve been distracted and not just by our clients’ inane conversation. Everything okay at home?”
Declan opened his mouth to say it