Page 13 of Cruz

“Will your business suffer?” he asked.

Kate looked up. “No, I wouldn’t go into the shop today. I’d probably be snowed in. There will be online orders to complete, and I’ll get to them as soon as I am able. For now, with the phone lines down, the Internet will be down.” She wrinkled her nose. “My only worry is Tillie. I won’t be able to tell her that Belle is okay.”

“Where is Belle?”

“She came downstairs with me and settled into the sofa. She’ll probably get up when she has the zoomies or wants to go outside.”

Cruz laughed. “I have never known such a stubborn dog that does not like the outdoors.”

Kate laughed. “Tillie is always telling me that the walks with her take forever because Belle will be stubborn. I do believe on one occasion, Tillie was holding her in her arms, because she just refused to walk.”

He saw the joy in Kate’s eyes.

“You love her, don’t you? Belle, I mean.”

“Yeah, she is just so adorable. I always wanted to have a dog, but like I said, Mom was allergic, and that meant we couldn’t have one.”

He knew relations with her mother were strenuous.

“Do you hear from your dad?” he asked.

“Not for a long time. I know he had a new family, and for a short time, he wanted me to meet them. Then the cards slowed down and came to a stop. I knew Mom wouldn’t be happy with me going, and sometimes it was just easier to leave it all alone. Dad is in the past, and he’s got a new family now.”

“You’re still his family,” he said.

“I know, but I’m his old family, and he now has a new one. I don’t mind. It is what it is.”

Cruz didn’t like it.

“Do you miss him?” he asked.

“I used to. There were times, especially when I was given the shop, that I just wanted him to come and bail me out, but that wasn’t going to happen.”

“You didn’t ask for help?”

“No, I didn’t want to call him up out of the blue and ask him for money. So, I buckled down and figured it out.” She looked so sad.

“What’s wrong?”

“Just ... Mom ... and I’m so tired of fighting with her. I don’t know what she is going to do to try and take the shop from me.”

“Is there a chance she can?” he asked.

“No, she signed everything over to me, and I got a lawyer to check it all over when it happened. She messed it up, then left me to deal with it.”

Cruz sat back. “You know, no one knows this about her.”

Kate shrugged. “There’s no point in telling people stuff like this. It’s personal family stuff. You don’t go hanging out all your dirty laundry, do you, for everyone to see?”

He looked at her, and then he realized, for the longest time, Kate had been alone. Her dad was gone and was not coming back. Her mother set up a business and fucked it over. She was alone.

He’d hired Felicity because of her connection to Kate. He figured they had some issues, as he watched them from afar, but never knew quite how bad it was. He thought mothers and daughters had that unified bond, but clearly he was wrong.

“Do you like your work?” he asked.

Kate looked up. “Yeah, I do. In the early days, not so much. I wanted to get rid of it, but I just couldn’t bring myself to do it. Something kept pushing me to keep going. Then, Tillie came in, and the rest is history. Without her, I know I wouldn’t have been able to make it.”

Cruz nodded.