When Jane returned, she headed straight upstairs. If Annie wanted to see how she was doing, she could leave her precious Kristin alone in the shop for a bit. The long walk she’d taken had done nothing to clear her head. All she could see was Annie and Kristin enjoying a cup of coffee together. And even though it was just a cup of coffee, in Jane’s tortured mind, it represented all the things Annie wanted to enjoy with Kristin, but couldn’t because she was with Jane.

Jane had barely had time to pour herself a glass of water when Annie walked into the living room.

“Who’s minding the shop?” Jane asked, unable to keep the anger out of her voice.

“Kristin.”

“Of course she is. Kristin this and Kristin that. Shall we invite her upstairs later? Make her an even bigger part of our lives?”

“I’d hoped you would have calmed down,” Annie said.

“Looks like I haven’t.”

Annie pursed her lips. “Then you definitely won’t be pleased to hear I’ve told Kristin.”

Jane narrowed her eyes. “You what?”

“I had to tell her.” Annie’s voice had gone soft again. “I couldn’t very well ask her to leave. Or start keeping my distance from the woman who rents a space in my shop.”

“I explicitly asked you not to tell her.” Jane didn’t care about any of Annie’s excuses. “I asked you to wait until we had a further chat about it.”

“That was before she showed up in the shop this morning, babe.”

“Oh yes, I get it. And it was so hard for you to be in the same space as her without saying anything, was it? You just couldn’t keep your feelings to yourself.”

“No, babe. She saw how upset you were and—”

“Of course, now it’s my fault that you went against my wishes. Figures.”

“I know you’re too upset to understand right now, but I did it for us.”

“The hell you did,” Jane bristled. “Do you have any idea how this feels for me? To know that you confessed your feelings for another woman, to that woman? The intimacy of that? On top of that, you broke my trust. You gave me your word. What is your word worth to me now?”

“As your partner of twenty years, I would hope my word means a great deal to you.” Annie took a step closer. “I’m sorry to have acted against what we agreed on, but I did it in our best interests. I had nothing else but us in mind when I told her. And you know what? It worked. Kristin has agreed to spend less time in the shop, because she understands things like this happen, and then they pass. I thought you of all people would understand this.”

“I was wondering how long it would take before you threw that back at me.”