Chapter Four

After Cornelius had departed and Jack had gone to take a shower, Sarah was left with her sister and her cousin as they finished up organizing the wedding invites. She turned over the moment he’d called her Sarie in her mind again. For maybe the thousandth time. Her heart still tripped each time she recalled it. He hadn’t called her that in…twelve years? Not since he’d called her heartbroken and crying and wanting to get back together. It had killed her to stand firm and say no. When she’d hung up the phone, she’d crumpled into a ball and cried for the rest of that night. The depression that swept her up had lasted a year.

Yet here he was, calling her by that pet name and keeping his glasses. The glasses that still got her hot and bothered, as evidenced by tonight—one intense look as he’d called her Sarie and her panties were ruined. Sarah was ruined and she knew it. There was no lying to herself that she wouldn’t fantasize about that moment in bed later tonight.

“Hey, Sarah! Hello in there.” Becca waved a hand in front of Sarah’s face. “Are you still with us or are you too caught up mooning over Cornelius?”

“What?” Sarah coughed in a poor attempt to cover up her daydreaming. “What are you talking about? I was thinking about job possibilities.”

Becca snorted. “Sure you were.”

“Anyway,” Bridget said as she elbowed their cousin. “Would you be able to drop these at the post office tomorrow morning? I’ve got to open the store and I want these to get delivered as soon as they can.”

“No problem. I’ll stop by on my way over to Three Sisters. I have some ideas about updates to the website and maybe a social media campaign that I wanted to go over with you and Gran.”

Bridget wrinkled her nose. “I like the website updates, but a social media campaign? Is that necessary? I don’t want us to get too bogged down by online business that we can’t keep up with.”

“That means expansion and growth, Bridgie. All things any business owner wants.” Sarah threw her sister a know-it-all look.

Her sister tossed the same expression right back at her. “Not this business owner. Three Sisters Apothecary is meant to be a small, local business with the intention of serving those in the nearby area. Not a conglomerate that doesn’t give a crap about people and only cares about money.”

Jack walked up and wrapped his arms around Bridget’s waist as she went on her rant. “It’s an argument you won’t win, Sarah. I’ve had this conversation with my honeybee multiple times. She’s not budging.” He pressed a kiss to the top of Bridget’s head. “And that’s okay. As long as Three Sisters is going strong with the customers it has, then we’re all good.”

Bridget beamed. “Case closed.” She turned and kissed her fiancé. “This is why I love you.”

“Ugh, please stop,” Becca teased.

Sarah joined in. “Or at least get a room so we don’t have to bear witness.” The two of them were so in love and so damn cute. Sarah hated the jealousy that flexed its claws inside her stomach each time they got this way—which was daily. Sometimes multiple times a day.

Candle took this moment to come racing in from the hallway with a long yowl. Sarah laughed. “See, even your cat agrees with us.”

“Whatever,” Bridget said and scooped up her pet. Candle then proceeded to climb from her arms up onto Jack’s shoulders and lay there. “See, she loves her daddy, too.” She took Jack’s hand and led him down the hall. “As we were told, let’s go get a room, baby.” Jack called a ‘good night’ to both Sarah and Becca as he grinned at his fiancée.

Sarah chuckled and rolled her eyes. “Well, at least I won’t see them going at it and fingers crossed, I won’t hear it either.”

“I guess I should head home. The animals never let me sleep in.” Her cousin stood and stretched her arms over her head.

Sarah gave her cousin a hug when Becca dropped her limbs down. “It was good to hang out tonight. We should do that more.”

Becca arched one dark brow at her. “We could make this a regular thing if you stayed in Fallbank.” She raised her palms up. “I’m just saying.”

“I need a job!” Why couldn’t her family grasp that concept? The rest of them all had a steady income, but didn’t think she needed the same.

“Open your own marketing firm here. There’s tons of local places that would use your skills! And you and Cornelius could get over whatever it is and get back together. You know, live happily ever after? Instead of mooning over each other like lovesick puppies?”

“You’re ridiculous. Neither of us does that.”

“Liar. You both pine after each other like an angsty teen romance. Just get back together already.”

Sarah shook her head. Her cousin didn’t understand why they’d broken up in the first place and how there was no coming back from what Sarah had done. “You don’t get it. We’re not… Cornelius and I aren’t going to be a couple again. Ever. I know it might seem like a simple answer but—” Her words stuck in her throat as her eyes stung.

Becca flapped her hands in the air. “Don’t cry. You know I’m not good when it comes to someone crying. You’re the strong one, remember?”

She hugged Sarah tight and Sarah leaned into the support from her cousin. “Sorry, Becca.” She cleared her throat. “I’m fine. For real.” Sarah stepped back and flashed a smile. “I get that no one understands why we aren’t together, but trust me when I say first, it’s not his fault. And second, we’re not going to end up with an HEA.”

“HEA?” Becca scrunched her nose.

“It’s a romance novel acronym. Happily ever after.” Sarah laughed. “You said it earlier, so I thought you knew.”

Becca snickered along with her as they walked to the front door. “Whatever. I’m not into girly shit.” Becca shook her short blonde bangs out of her eyes. “Listen. If you ever want to talk about whatever happened with you and Cornelius, I’m always here. It feels like you should unload to someone, but I’m not here to pressure. And if you aren’t going to get your forever, then you can at least get a happy ending with him, if you know what I mean.” She wiggled her brows at Sarah. “The tension between you two is off the charts. Maybe it would help get things out of your system so you can both move forward. Hit it and forget it.”

“I don’t think that’s quite how the expression goes.” Sarah chuckled again. “I appreciate the advice, even if I don’t take it.”

 

* * * *

 

Cornelius glared as Jack sauntered in whistling the next day. Why was his friend always in such a damn good mood? It wasn’t normal.

“Good morning,” Jack said as he plopped into his chair.

“Morning,” Cornelius grunted. “Took you long enough to show up today.”

“I’m fifteen minutes late. What’s up with you, man?”

Cornelius shoved a hand through his hair and sighed. “Nothing. Just didn’t sleep well.” Not with dreams plagued by Sarah… Sarah teasing him. Sarah kissing him. Sarah stripping her clothes off for him. Sarah looking up at him from her knees while—

He gave his head a violent shake. With every toss and turn, he’d dreamed of Sarah and woken up with a raging hard-on every hour of the night. He’d slept like shit and was grumpy from the least satisfying shower despite his self-administration to get some relief.

“We need to talk about how we’re going to handle all of the upcoming jobs. I’ve gotten three new requests, all at least half million in lumber. We don’t have the crew to get them completed in time. I don’t want to say no and have these companies go elsewhere for their supply.” Best to deflect away from poking around why he didn’t sleep well and focus Jack on the business. That should keep the two of them occupied strategizing for a while.

“So we’ll hire new people. Easy solution. We can cover the extra salary and costs. Are you thinking temporary or permanent positions?”

Cornelius gaped at his partner. “It’s not that simple. I think we need to make permanent expansions to the crews, but where do we find workers? It’s not as if loggers are lining up outside the door looking for work.”

“So we advertise.” Jack shrugged. “There’s people out there looking for good paying work. We offer competitive salaries and benefits. We might not be other companies’ favorites after some of their employees come to us, but hey, free market. Ante up if you want to keep teams happy.”

“How do you suppose we advertise? Do you know how to write job descriptions that entice and catch someone’s eye? Where do you suggest we put these ads?”

Jack sighed. “Marketing. We find someone who can help put something together to show we loggers should come work for us.” He lifted his brows. “I might have a couple of connections with firms in Seattle.”

“I don’t want some fancy-pants company.” Cornelius waved an arm around him. “Look at this place. I know we updated the office, but we’re still in small-town Oregon and we aren’t bougie. Not to mention I’m not paying the price tag that comes with some big-ass firm like that. Even with your connections, they still expect to be paid.”

“All right. Calm down, dude.” Jack sat back in his chair and crossed his arms. “There is another solution, you know. Someone in town.”

“Here? In Fallbank? We don’t have…” Understanding dawned on him. Followed by instant denial. No way he wanted to include Sarah in TLC work. “Wait, no. No, we are not hiring my ex-girlfriend. Uh-uh.”

“She’s my future sister-in-law and why not? Sarah’s great at what she does. She’s local and wouldn’t charge her soon-to-be brother-in-law a fortune to work with him. Plus it might convince her to stay in Fallbank.” A grin spread across Jack’s face. “Bridget would be thrilled if her sister lived here again. And if I were the reason why? Yeah, that’s the plan. Hire Sarah and make her stay.”

“Look, you get laid enough as it is. I can’t stand your goofy, stupid-in-love-ness already. I don’t need to add to it. Plus, as I said, I don’t want to work with my ex.” It would be the most divine torture and he would snap.

Jack dropped his smile, leaned forward on his elbows and arranged his expression into one of seriousness that had terrified boardrooms throughout Seattle once upon a time. “I know you and Sarah have history. Yet both of you keep insisting you don’t have feelings for each other. You and she have to do wedding stuff together, so what’s a couple of extra meetings? Tell you what, you find us a better alternative in Fallbank and we’ll go with it. Otherwise, we at least ask Sarah. She might not even say yes.”

“Okay. Fine,” Cornelius grumbled. Jack had him backed into a corner and Cornelius knew it. Everything Jack had said was true, but there had to be another alternative in town. There had to be someone who could help. If nothing else, Cornelius could always go down to the local high school and see if there were any graduating seniors looking for jobs instead of running straight off to college. He knew not every kid here went to a university. Lots of them went into blue-collar work or took classes at the community college while working to save up. Maybe having someone else advertise wasn’t necessary.

“You have a deal, Jack. I’ll see what I can drum up here in town and I’m betting to say we won’t end up needing Sarah’s help.” Cornelius fought to keep the smirk off his face. He’d stick it to Jack with how simple this was going to be. He couldn’t wait to see the look on his friend’s face when he hired the crew needed in record time—and without the aid of any marketing or advertising.

“You’re going to try to recruit on your own, aren’t you?”

Cornelius blinked at Jack. “How did you—”

“And you think going to find new workers is something you can do on your own. At like the community colleges or high schools, right?”

“What? Can you read minds or something? Does Bridget know about this? Because she’s not a fan of anything magic in case you didn’t pick up on that.”

Jack threw his head back and laughed. “Yeah, I’m well aware of my honeybee’s opinions on magic. And no, I’m not reading your mind. I’m just good at business. You do know part of my family’s holdings are in construction, right?”

“Yeah. I seem to recall that from your confession to me a while back,” Cornelius said in a flat tone. He was starting to get annoyed here and that wasn’t going to help his mood.

“So I’ve been there and done that. I know that those kids need a chance to get started and I’m not opposed to that. Go ahead and hire them. Get them started in training for how to log. But for the love of all the kittens and bunnies, let someone help us advertise to hire on experienced workers, too. These jobs, the new ones rolling in and the ones we hope to have follow, can’t be screwed up. We need at least three new seasoned loggers to be able to manage the incoming contracts. And if we can get an additional five young kids hired and trained over that time? That’s when we’ll be in a good place. Trust me when I say we’ll need outside help getting not just numbers on the jobs, but quality employees to do the jobs right. Plus more job contracts to keep these new employees paid.”

Cornelius flopped back in his seat, knowing he was beaten. “You win. We’ll hire Sarah to help.” He sat up and pointed at Jack. “But I’m still recruiting at the schools. We need fresh loggers, too.”

Jack grinned. “Sounds like a plan to me.”

 

* * * *

 

Later, when Cornelius was driving home, his phone rang with his dad’s number popping up. Answering on his truck’s Bluetooth, he said, “Hey, Pops, what’s up?”

“Cornelius? Are you at home?” His dad’s voice sounded shaky and thin. “Your mother and I have something we need to talk to you about.”

Anxiety curled in ribbons around Cornelius’ chest. He’d never heard his father sound like this before, like the weight of the world was on crushing his shoulders.

“Hi, honey,” his mom piped up.

Alarms blared inside Cornelius’ head now. She sounded as if she’d been crying and hadn’t slept in weeks. He pulled the car over to the side of the road and switched to the phone speaker instead. “What’s going on?”

“Well, sweetheart,” his mother began but his father interrupted.

“Your mother is sick, Cornelius.”

A cold, gaping void opened in Cornelius’ stomach and ice ran through his veins. “Sick? Sick how?”

His mother spoke again. “We caught things early—”

“Your mother has breast cancer,” his father announced.

Cornelius’ world ripped out from under him. His mother had cancer? His hands shook and sweat broke out on his forehead.

“Boyd! If you don’t stop interrupting me, so help me I will take you out and abandon you on the side of the road.”

“I’m sorry, Clarissa. I don’t mean to talk over you, it’s just that—”

“That you’re having trouble with your feelings and processing the news we were just given.” His mother’s voice gentled. “I understand that. But let’s not send our son into a nervous breakdown, either.”

He reached his breaking point. “Mom! Pops! Would one of you please tell me what’s going on? You have cancer, Mom?” His heart pounded like a waterfall beating down on a rock. Was his mother dying? He was thirty-one and not ready to lose her. There was so much left in life for her.

“Honey, I’m going to be okay.”

Cornelius blinked hard as tears formed in his eyes. He pushed his voice past the clog in his throat. “You will, Mama?”

“Oh, Cornelius, don’t cry. I can’t stand it that my baby is crying and I’m not there to hug it better.” Now she sounded like she was crying, too.

He wiped his eyes using his sleeve and blew out a deep breath. His mom needed strength right now, not worrying about him falling apart. “I’m all right. Tell me what’s going on?”

“Well, they found a spot on my last mammogram and after more imaging and a biopsy the doctors determined I have breast cancer. The good news is they caught it early. I’ll have surgery in a few days and then start chemotherapy.”

Surgery? Chemo? This sounded worse to Cornelius than his mother seemed to think. “This is serious. I think I should come down to Eureka for a while and help out.”

“That’s very sweet, Cornelius, but we’re okay. I know this sounds frightening and my oncologist did say I’d be monitored from here on out, but she’s very optimistic the cancer is treatable at this point with a high probability of remission.”

“I still want to be there, at least for the surgery.” He couldn’t let her go through all of this without him there for support. It wouldn’t happen.

His dad said, “Your mother and I would appreciate that. I could use the comfort while all that’s going on. The surgery is set for Wednesday.”

“I’ll book flights right away.”