“Me,” Mark answered, and walked into the kitchen.
Chelsea’s heart knocked against her ribs and she forgot to breathe.
“Are you going to be okay with him here?” Georgeanne asked.
No. Chelsea nodded and her boss left the kitchen. “What are you doing here?”
“Searching for you?”
He was as tall and handsome as she remembered. Her chest caved in at the sight of him. She took a deep breath past all the pain and said, “We don’t have anything to say to each other, Mark.”
“I have a lot to say. All you have to do is listen.”
“You can’t order me around anymore.”
He smiled a little as he moved past an industrial-sized mixer toward her. “Sweetheart, you were never good at taking orders. I’m asking you to listen.”
“How did you find me?”
“Jules.”
Jules knew the whole sordid story. “Jules told you?” The jerk. He had to know how much seeing Mark would hurt her. She›d h was going to hurt him when she saw him tonight.
“I threatened to beat the living shit out of him if he didn’t. For some reason he found that very funny.”
Jules was kind of perverse that way. That’s probably why he loved Bo.
He moved around the table toward her. “Why did you quit your job?”
She looked away. Away from the intensity in his brown eyes. She didn’t have to ask what job. She shrugged. “I couldn’t keep it. Not after everything.”
He didn’t say a word for several long moments. “I’ve put an offer on that house in the Queen Anne district. The one you liked.”
“Oh.” Had he driven all the way here just to tell her that?
“I accepted the assistant coach position.”
“I know.” She loved him, but seeing him was so bittersweet, her shredded heart felt like it was shredding all over again. “I have to go back to work now,” she said, and turned toward the cupcakes.
“I lied to you.”
She looked over her shoulder. “You didn’t take the job with the Chinooks?”
“No. Yes.” He shook his head. “I lied before that.”
“About the house?”
“I lied when I told you that you mean nothing to me. I lied when I said I didn’t love you.”
“What?” She turned toward him. “Why?”
He shrugged. “Because I was stu
pid. Because I loved you and I was afraid you were just acting. Playing me for a fool, and I was mad because I didn’t want to go back to my life before you showed up on my porch with your two-toned hair and orange jacket. I lied because I didn’t think you could love me.”
Of course she could love him. She couldn’t help herself.
He took the icing bag from her hand and set it on the table. “The Chinooks sent another health care worker to my door this morning.”