Sugar's Twice as Sweet: Sugar, Georgia: Book 1 by Marina Adair Read Free Book Online Page B

out who I am without Wilson—and without you.
    “Which is what I was giving you. But instead of figuring things out, deciding the best way to handle the situation, you made an even bigger mess.”
    “I didn’t do anything wrong.”
    “You stole a car, Josephina .”
    “It was our car, Mom.” She twirled her finger through the coiled phone cord.
    “It was a juvenile attempt to get back at Wilson and you know it.” She did, and having her mother point it out made her feel even more pathetic. Thank God she didn’t know about the golf clubs. “You were hurt, I understand—”
    “Am hurting, present tense—”
    “—but to leave without a word to anyone, to me or your father, your friends, only added to the speculation.”
    “I called you. Told you I was going to Sugar. You said reopening the inn was impulsive, another attempt to avoid growing up and dealing with the real world.” Josephina closed her eyes and willed back the tears. “You knew, Mom. You knew he was having sex with Babette and you never said a thing.”
    “Oh, honey. I was with my ladies club when I saw them together. What was I supposed to do, make a scene?”
    “Your ladies club? God, Mom, I had lunch with Margret and Elena the day before Wilson dumped me!” Elena was supposed to be one of her closest friends.
    “Your father and I told Wilson he needed to come clean. We all thought that Paris would be the best place to do it.”
    “So you could ruin the most romantic place on earth for me?”
    Josephina could almost hear her mom rolling her eyes, mouthing to her father that she was being overly emotional.
    “I wanted to be there for you, to hold you after, to cry with you.” Josephina started to soften, her anger melting at her mom’s words. “And to stay nearby in case you decided to do something rash.”
    Rash? Like put his dry-clean-only, custom-tailored Armani suits in the washer with a red sharpie and a box of glue sticks? Or rash as in cash out her savings, what was left of them, and Letty’s trust, to renovate a dilapidated old boardinghouse in the middle of cow country?
    “We think that you should come live with us for a while. Maybe put one of those degrees to good use. Go back to working with your father.”
    At present, she held a dual degree in hospitality management and interior design. When she’d realized her father had no intention of letting her work her way up the ladder like everyone else, since Harringtons were meant to lead, not serve, she left the hotel industry and went to culinary school.
    She’d been hired on as the morning pastry chef at a hotel in Manhattan, one of the few her parents didn’t have an inside connection with, when she met Wilson. He was charming and successful and sophisticated—and her boss. That he asked her out was surprising. That he found her unrestrained take on life sexy had floored her.
    Her odd schedule, which directly conflicted with his, was wearing on their relationship and, he pointed out, holding them back. Determined to make it work, Josephina left the restaurant to become an assistant to one of the most respected event planners in New York. And Josephina was damn good at her job. So good, in fact, that Wilson began having her plan his parties on the side.
    Eventually Wilson’s events dominated her schedule, leaving no room for her career, forcing her to resign and make his goals hers. Which was how she’d wound up spending the past two years hosting galas and fundraisers with the sole purpose of advancing Wilson in the social scene of Manhattan.
    She had been exactly what Wilson needed. Until he hadn’t needed her anymore.
    “Let us help you through this,” her mom said, and everything inside her wanted to give in. Wanted to let her mom fix this, because she was scared and alone and she was really hungry.
    Josephina wiped at her cheeks and stubbornly shook her head. “No, thanks, Mom. Your kind of help hurts too much.”
    Her mom’s breath hitched and she let loose a