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Mick put up his hands. “Leave me out of it.”
“That’s a lie,” Tina said, talking over him. “He was a real ladies’ man on his show. And he dates lots of Hollywood starlets.”
“Typical Hollywood cover.”
“I could get him if I want!”
“Keep telling yourself that.”
Before Tina could launch herself across the table to tackle Danny for casting doubts on her changes with her favorite has-been TV star, Mick figured he’d make his getaway.
“Check, please!” Mick hoped to pay his tab and escape while his mother was distracted by the conversation that had erupted around them. That was typical. Everywhere he went these days, the topic of conversation surroundedKilling Time in a Small Town.
His mother wasn’t distracted. “She was very pretty.”
“Who?”
She just smirked. Yeah, she still had that mind-reading thing going on. Caroline hadn’t left his thoughts for a minute.
And his mother was right. Caroline was beyond pretty. She was damned beautiful. Thank God there was no way she’d really move in with him when she arrived for her month-long stay.
“Was she? I didn’t notice.” He dropped his napkin onto his plate, trying to make eye contact with the waitress, as he feigned indifference.
He should have known better. “Who are you, and what have you done with my son?” She reached over and put her hand on his forehead, like she used to whenever he tried to fake sickness to get out of going to school.
“Am I feverish?”
“Delirious.”
His mother’s droll tone made him laugh and drop the pretense. “Okay, yes, she was very pretty. But not my type.”
“Is there such a thing?” This came not from his piercing-eyed mother, but from Deedee Packalotte, Al’s regular waitress.
Deedee had been trying to rekindle an affair with him for years. Not that an affair was what he’d call the three or four afternoons they’d shared in her parents’ basement, back when he’d been delivering papers and she’d been a teenager going to beauty school. She’d dropped out. Which would be pretty obvious to anyone who took one good look at her hair.
Not nice, Mick, he reminded himself. Even if it was true.
Deedee had been a teenage boy’s fantasy. She’d been the older woman—though only by four years—who’d taught him how to last longer than sixty-five seconds in the sack. Or, rather, on top of the washing machine, or the nearest flat surface they could find in the basement. He wondered if Deedee would be surprised to know he’d once gone sixty-fiveminutes. Not counting the foreplay.
“I’ll have coffee.” His mother frowned at Deedee for interrupting. “And, dear, would you get a rag and touch up this table?”
God love her.
Mick used her distraction to firm his resolve against talking about Caroline to his mother. His sister had been bad enough. It was hard to keep anything from Sophie. She was an observant person who hadn’t been put off by his claims that Caroline had been a casual friend. Luckily, since Sophie had moved in with Daniel and begun telling people her real identity, she had enough to focus on without worrying about his love life. Or, past love life.
Not present. Caroline was definitelynotpart of his present.
“Renting out a room in your house,” his mother said with a tsk. “I still can’t understand why you didn’t just tell us if you needed help making the mortgage.”
An old story. His parents were always trying to help, whether it was popping by to cook enough food for a battalion or offering him money. No matter how many times he’d told them he didn’tneedtheir help, they never stopped offering. Sophie suffered the same endless good will.
“I don’t need help making the mortgage.” True. Hewasfine, at least until the slow winter season came. That was the worst time of year in his business. So, he’d thought he’d rent out a room in his big house—which he’d bought at auction and fixed up over the past two years—to fill in some. Of all the bad ideas he’d ever had.…
“And this Caro, she’s going to be living in your house, but you still say she’s not your type?”
“She’s not going to live in my house,” he insisted as he sipped his rapidly cooling coffee, inhaling its aroma. Al’s served good coffee. Good thing, since the food sucked.
“What do you mean?”
