PENELOPE
I hadn’t slept in days.
Not really. Maybe an hour or two here and there, but never long enough to forget his voice, or the way he looked at me when I told him I wished I married someone else.
The bakery should’ve been my distraction. It usually was. But this week, I was off. Way off.
“Penny,” Jess said, from across the counter, her voice soft, but edged with concern. “You just poured salt into the cupcake batter.”
I blinked down at the bowl. s**t. “Sorry.”
Jess gave me a long look. “You’ve measured the sugar wrong twice. You spaced out during a customer order. And now this. What’s going on?”
I didn’t answer. I just dumped the batter and reached for a new bowl. Jess didn’t press, but I saw the way she watched me.
When I finally told her—about Alex, about the dinner, about w
