Page 22 of One Last Thing Before You Go

Jenn laughs softly before walking into the stockroom, shaking her head in disbelief.

Ungrateful little thing.

Adri takes her bag from me, but stops before heading out. “Hope to see you again soon, Knox.” And with another bat of her full eyelashes and a toss of her dark hair, she exits the store leaving as much damage to my psyche as a tornado.

“God, I’m so sorry about that,” I tell Knox. “She’s so embarrassing.”

Knox gently wraps his hands around my wrists, pulling my hands away from my face. “Hey.” I look up into his eyes and, for the first time since this morning, really let myself look at him. “You okay?”

“I—I… Yes, I’m fine. I just…”

He nods in understanding. “Sorry if that was uncomfortable for you. I was only teasing, but then⁠—”

“Yeah, the D word came up.” I wince, just the memory of the past five minutes making me nauseous.

“I didn’t mean that. I just meant how she…” He sighs and shakes his head. “But yeah. I didn’t know you were divorced.” The look in his eyes—is it pity or something else?—crushes me. It’s not enough that I’m thirty-four and barren (though he certainly doesn’t know that part). Add to that the fact that I’m divorced, and you’ve got a fully formed heap of damaged goods that could scare even the most persistent of men away. Because that’s what’s happening, right? That look in his eyes? He’s backing away. And though a part of me has been wishing for him to do so since having him come back into my life, I didn’t expect to feel so disappointed.

“Yes, I’m divorced. That’s what happens when you sleep with someone older than you, Knox,” I say, unable to help the curtness in my tone. “They tend to have more… history.”

“Why are you so hard on yourself?” he asks, voice gentle. “Having a past isn’t a bad thing.”

I pull my hands from his and pretend to busy myself by shuffling papers around the register.

“How much older, by the way?”

“What?”

“How much older are you? I just want to know whether you qualify for cougar status?” he jokes and I can’t help the way my lips quirk—or the way my heart swells at his distraction.

“Shoot me now.” I roll my eyes.

“C’mon. You can’t be that much older than me.”

“I’m not, but… Well. Let’s put it this way: ‘Just the Way You Are’ by Bruno Mars was playing on the oldies station the other day and it’s the song I lost my virginity to the night of my senior prom, so…”

“I remember when that song came out,” he smiles in encouragement, though I doubt he could even talk to girls back then. “I lost my virginity in the back seat of my mom’s RAV-4 when I was sixteen to Sadie Lawrence. It was awkward and weird and short.” He laughs in spite of himself, before stopping abruptly. “How long it lasted, I mean. Not my dick. You know what my dick looks like already, and it isn’t short,” he adds quickly.

I burst out into laughter for the first time since seeing him again, and I swear I feel about twenty pounds lighter. I shake my head, a smile on my lips. “Knox.”

“I know. The store. We can’t. Blah, blah, blah.” He waves his hand dismissively, his eyes roaming over my face as if memorizing every inch of it. “But if you ever wanna break this stupid rule, let me know. Because I’m more than up for it.” He smiles his trickster grin, and I can’t help but laugh once more.

“C’mon. We should prep for our meeting with the business manager today.”

CHAPTER EIGHT

KNOX

Two hours and a migraine later, Lottie, Jenn, and I finally finish reviewing every single piece of paperwork we could scrounge up from Walter’s office with Tracey, our new business manager. That, combined with the documentation left in Leroy’s care, is enough for her to tell us that we are well and truly fucked:

“You’re broke,” she says simply, pushing her dark braids behind her ear, eyes grave.

Jenn picks up one of the multiple sheets of paper on the desk, eyes roaming the numbers on the page. “I don’t understand. How can we be broke?”

Lottie reaches out and takes the paperwork from Jenn’s hands, brows pulling together. If I weren’t so confused by it all, I’d focus more on how adorable the little scrunch looks, how cute she is when she’s concentrating and serious.

“Makes sense,” Lottie says, voice cool and collected. “It shouldn’t be a surprise to us when you think about it. I mean, we work here; we can see we’re not selling out of copies every week, Jenn.” She reviews the page with the bottom line one last time, at once sexy and serious. I never would’ve imagined I’d be able to be more attracted to Lottie than I already was, but seeing her in her element like this? In full business mode? I’ve never wanted anyone more.

“We should’ve probably shut down ages ago, right, Tracey? I imagine that commercial real estate and taxes in this small town aren’t high, but my god, we’ve barely had any customers.”