Time After Time (Sweetbriar Cove #14) - Melody Grace Page 0,79
the exit, but by the time he made it through the crowd of happy couples, the call had already gone to voicemail. He shrugged on his jacket, and walked across the street, waiting until a tree to escape the drizzling rain until the message had saved and he could listen.
“Hey buddy, who’s your favorite investment fund manager? This guy!” Mason’s voice boomed down the line. “Check your email, I got you a sweet package. All you need to do is sign on the dotted line. Talk soon.”
The message ended, and Aidan quickly clicked through to find an email waiting.
Wealthfront Welcomes You.
It was the job offer, just like Mason had promised, there in black and white. The contract letter was a few pages, and Aidan skimmed the dense type, looking for the catch, but everything seemed like the terms he’d been discussing with the other partners. Stock options, benefits package, a generous salary and commission structure…
More than generous, in fact.
Aidan stood there, stunned. He should have been thrilled, this was the kind of offer he would have killed for, an opportunity he thought was out of reach forever after his very public failure. He had a second chance at the life he’d thought he’d lost; he could step back into his old world, barely even skipping a beat, like he hadn’t brought everything crashing down.
Like these past few months in Sweetbriar Cove had never even happened at all.
“I brought you some cake.”
He looked up and found Luke standing there, with an umbrella and a plate of something chocolatey in his hand. “You mean, you know I don’t eat cake, so you took the chance to steal an extra slice?” Aidan replied, trying to collect himself again.
His brother grinned. “Same thing.” Luke sat on the bench beside him, and took a massive bite. “Not in the mood for a party?”
“Not exactly,” Aidan muttered, still thinking about the job offer.
“Too bad, I’m sorry about what happened with Stella,” Luke said beside him. Aidan tensed at the mention. “Do you think there’s any chance of you working it out?”
He shook his head. “She made her choice.”
Luke looked curious. “Really? Stella was the one who broke things off?”
“What, has the Sweetbriar Cove gossip network not sent out a play-by-play yet?” Aidan asked, annoyed.
Luke shook his head. “Not this time. And believe me, it’s not because nobody’s interested. You guys are front page news, but the only word is, it didn’t work out. I thought…” he paused, but Aidan knew the rest of that sentence.
“You thought I was the one who’d screwed things up.” He finished for him. “Gee, thanks.”
Luke gave him a sympathetic look. “C’mon, that’s not what I meant. You just, tend to keep things short and sweet, that’s all. And I just figured, maybe you weren’t ready for the responsibility. You guys are in pretty different places in life, you have to admit.”
Aidan shifted, uncomfortable. “I don’t have to admit anything,” he said, even though it felt like a lie. “She ended things. There’s nothing I can do about that.”
“Isn’t there?”
Aidan scowled. “I just said so.”
“I heard.” Luke sat back, annoyingly calm. “So, you’re fine about the breakup, then?”
“Fine enough,” he said, through gritted teeth. “No hard feelings. Why?”
“Because she’s coming this way.” Luke smirked. He nodded across the town square, and
Aidan’s heart stopped.
It was Stella, alright. Bundled up in that duffel coat of hers and a red knit cap that barely contained her flyaway curls, hurrying across the street with a bag of groceries in her arms, and her handbag trailing halfway down her arm.
That pickaxe slammed through his chest again.
She paused to chat with someone, looking luminous and natural, like the first day he’d seen her. The day she’d kissed him, and showed him the spark of pure passion he hadn’t even known he’d been missing.
The spark that she’d turned around and snuffed out for good.
Stella finished talking, and went on her way, but as Aidan watched, he saw something tumble out of her bag and fall into the gutter. Stella didn’t notice, she just kept on walking.
“She dropped something,” he told Luke.
“And?” Luke didn’t move.
“You should go pick it up.”
“Nope, I’m good.” Luke took another bite of cake, and Aidan cursed. Stella was heading towards her truck, oblivious to whatever she’d left behind.
“You’re trying to make me go talk to her,” he scowled.
Luke grinned. “Like you said, no hard feelings.”
Aidan cursed, but he was running out of time, so he reluctantly got to his feet and hurried over. It was