Page 112 of Bargain With the Boss

Pete waved that away. “She hired me back within three days at an increase in my salary.”

I laughed. “Are you serious?”

“As a heart attack. The holiday catalog was in shambles without me.” He winked. “Mrs. Keller has no idea what we do down here. I don’t care what kind of people she supposedly has shadowing us.” He glanced up at a camera that had never been down here before. He waved. “Hey Robert.”

“Who’s Robert?”

“We have some catching up to do, kiddo. Big time.”

“I guess we do.”

Lynn nodded. “Like I said, it feels like forever since you’ve been here.”

“The London store is having issues with finding a place to build.”

“I told her that wasn’t going to be as easy as she thought,” I muttered.

Pete snickered. “You did?”

“It was a moment of madness. She doesn’t understand that London shopping is not like American shopping.”

“Watching her fall on her face couldn’t happen to a better person.” Pete whistled a happy tune as he went back to his side of the room. “Nice to have you back.”

Was I really back?

A tiny voice in the back of my head whispered I wasn’t so sure.

Word of my return spread and I was inundated with questions and fires to put out. Everything felt a little off and the smooth department was now fractured thanks to my mother’s handiwork. She had ideas that shifted our usual process, messing up the timeline on some of our distribution schedules.

It took me the rest of the day to untangle her “ideas.”

The news of my return finally got to my mother, and she demanded a video call which I ignored.

When I faced the fire, I was going to do it face-to-face.

On my terms.

Chapter 26

Xavier

“What do you mean she left?”

Jude crossed his arms, barring my entry to his house. “She left. She went back to Seattle no thanks to you.”

“Me?”

Jude’s voice dipped. “Nessa is sleeping, or I’d rip out your tongue.”

I wasn’t sure what his sleeping daughter had to do with my tongue, but I took a big step back. “For what?” I’d wanted to face Sydney and now I had a growling best friend instead. “I wasn’t the one who lied.”

Jude reached out and grabbed me by the shoulder. “Get in here.” He pushed me through the kitchen to his office and closed the door after us. “What the hell do you think you know?”

“I went after you two when Sydney...” I trailed off and cleared my throat. “I heard you talking.”

“Is that right? Couldn’t have made yourself known?”

“I heard enough.” I could still hear her broken voice when she fessed up to Jude about why she’d come back to the Cove.