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“Yeah, but you love this stuff, and it’s cheap here.”
“You sound funny. What’s the matter with you?”
She always could read him like a book. He’d forgotten how inconvenient it was. “Nothing. I’m fine.”
“Right. How are you and Lexie getting along?”
“We’re not, actually. We split up.”
“Oh, Tom,” Taryn said, sounding disappointed. “What did you do?”
“Why do you assume it was me?”
“Because I could tell you liked her, and you don’t let yourself like anybody.”
“Whatever,” he muttered, not sure why he was fighting the admission. Of course he liked her. That was his whole problem.
“Come on, just say it. Tell me you like her. It will make my day.”
“Fine. I like her. Are you happy now?”
“No, because you obviously screwed it up. How come you’re not riding with her anymore?”
He sighed and leaned against the wall of the building. “She’s married.”
He hadn’t mentioned this detail to Taryn before. The news struck her dumb for a few seconds—possibly a record. “No,” she said finally.
“Yes.”
“She never said she was married when we e-mailed.”
“She never said she was a woman, either. For that matter, you didn’t tell her you were one.”
“You’re right, you’re right. But it’s just weird.” Taryn still sounded dubious, as if she wasn’t going to believe in the existence of James Marshall until Tom somehow proved it. “When did she tell you?”
“When I met her. On the beach at Seaside.”
“When you were being an asshole?”
“Yeah. Thanks for the reminder.”
“Tell me exactly what she said.”
Tom scrubbed his hand over his face, wishing he hadn’t called her. Taryn was in pit bull mode now, and he wasn’t going to be able to get out of this until they had thoroughly dissected the matter. He sank down to the ground with his back pressed to the cool ceramic tiles of the shop wall.
“Hell, I don’t remember it exactly.”
“C’mon, give me the gist.”
Tom thought back to that morning on the beach. He’d told Lexie why he didn’t want to ride with her, and she’d said she only needed somebody to pitch her tent next to at night. And then he’d said—
Oh, man, had he really said that? What a jerk.
“I told her I wasn’t going to sleep with her.”
“Classy.”
“Thanks. And then she said her husband would be glad to hear it.”
