“I want that one.” I point toward the fluffy one.

“Really? That’s my favorite one too! Okay, I’ll let him know and they’ll deliver it to the store later this afternoon,” Candice says. “Does that work for your schedule? Will you still be at the store?”

“Yes, I will,” I answer, trying to sound pleasant. As if there’s nowhere else I’d rather be.

Truly? I’d prefer to be in bed, hidden under the covers, watching a sappy romantic movie on Netflix and letting myself cry yet again for my lost relationship. The lost years I devoted to it.

Oh yes, and drowning my sorrows and depression in ice cream. Trying my best not to focus on the good memories I have with he who shall not be named.

When you think about the good stuff, you forget about the bad. And I can’t do that.

No matter how much I want to.

Two

Isaac

“I think I pissed off a customer,” I say to my boss, Charlie Sullivan. He’s the oldest son of the Sullivan family, and the one who runs the tree farm. I’ve worked for him for three years, and while he can be a giant prick when he wants, he’s also a great boss. Fair. He’ll work you hard and always compliment you when you do a good job. The pay’s good too.

This isn’t my life’s work, though. I’m only twenty-one. Got this job straight out of high school, been thinking about going to college and get a degree in something, but what? I don’t know.

That’s my problem. I’m young and I have my whole life before me, according to my parents, but I can’t figure out what I want to do. I almost envy Charlie and his business. He had no choice from the time he was young. He’s a Sullivan, the oldest. He’s known since he was a kid that he would run this place someday.

And here I am with no goals, no structure. I just…live. Day by day. Week by week.

“What did you do?” Charlie asks with a grunt as he tosses a bound tree onto the back of the truck. That’s another thing I respect about our boss. He has no issues with working right along beside us. He gets his hands dirty, just like we do.

“This very attractive woman was walking extra fast toward the store and she bumped right into me. Wasn’t even lookin’ where she was goin’.” I shake my head, hoping like hell I don’t make Charlie mad with this next confession. “I grabbed hold of her arms so she wouldn’t fall, and my sap-covered gloves stuck to her fancy denim jacket.”

“She was wearing a fancy denim jacket?” Charlie appears to have no comprehension of what I’m talking about.

I’m not wealthy by any means, but I’ve grown up in this area. I know money when I see it, and that woman looked like money. Classy. Gorgeous. Sleek black hair and dark brown eyes that glared at me when I said rub it out and then laughed.