Free Love by Design (Crystal Falls Book 1) by Lynette Lee Page A

starting to fade. After the conversation with Lydia at Plush and the apology from Noah she wasn’t even sure she believed he’d cheated on her anymore. She had been drunk after all. And she had only heard about him cheating second-hand. Still, admitting that she might have been wrong to judge him so quickly was something Lily wasn’t completely prepared to do.
    The lights grew dim as the instructor moved them into the final position and Lily was surprised to find an entire hour had passed so quickly. She hadn’t been as present in her body as she would have liked, but her muscles definitely felt better.
    When the class finally came to a close, Angie bent over and asked her again how the job was going.
    “It’s going really well,” Lily told her as they rolled up their mats and grabbed their water bottles. “I’ve got the bulk of the work almost finished, I think, and I’m ahead of schedule, so that’s a good thing.”
    Before Angie could ask anything else, Lily cut her off. “So what’s going on with you? You doing a cake this week?”
    Besides being the main bartender at the Blonde Bear, Angie ran a side business baking cakes out of a friend’s shop. It had started out more of a hobby, as favors to friends and family, but word of her delicious and beautiful cakes had quickly spread throughout Crystal Falls and to neighboring towns and after only a few months she’d had more orders than she could handle.
    “Yeah, two actually. I’ve got a wedding cake I’m really excited about - there are polka dots involved and you know how I feel about polka dots - and a birthday cake for Mrs. Morgan’s nephew. I should be done with it all by Saturday afternoon though if you want to hang out.”
    “Sounds good to me. I could use a little down time.”
    Angie waved to the instructor as they left the room and headed for the parking lot. Before they could reach the car, Angie asked the dreaded question.“And Noah? How are things with him?”
    “Things are fine. We’re staying away from each other.” Lily was glad they were in the dim parking lot and Angie couldn’t meet her eye. She wasn’t sure why she felt the need to keep Noah’s apology and her own changing feelings from Angie, but she did it anyway.
    “That’s good to hear. I don’t want him getting anywhere near you. If that man so much as thinks about hurting my best friend again, he’ll hear from me.”
    Lily laughed and gave Angie a quick squeeze. “Thanks, Ange. I’ll see you later, okay?”
    Angie waved as she got in her car and Lily felt a tug of regret that she hadn’t told her friend the truth. It bothered her so much that she almost flagged Angie down as she pulled away, but in the end she let her go. There would be plenty of time for the truth later, she decided.

Chapter Five
     
    Lily cringed as she pulled up to the cabin and found both Mrs. Upton’s BMW and Noah’s truck already parked alongside several other vehicles. Damn, so much for getting in and out quickly. If she’d been by herself she might have turned around. But she had a full furniture delivery truck following her in so she didn’t have the option. It was finally time to face him. And to see Mrs. Upton, who she hadn’t had any contact with since that first horrible day.
    She got out of the car and spent a few minutes talking to the furniture delivery guys, directing them to start bringing the furniture into the very back bedroom.
    Heading inside, she was impressed to see how much work was already done on the place. The living room windows had been enlarged and re-framed and the kitchen was coming along nicely. She thought it was almost time to start picking furniture for the living room, one of the last things she would need to do for the cabin.
    She didn’t see Upton or Noah and figured they were probably in one of the back bedrooms. She headed down the hall to make sure there was plenty of room for the furniture to be stored.
    As she came into the bedroom she caught sight