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“No, thanks.” She shook her head. “Don’t want to bother you guys.”
“Not a bother.”
“You get the job?” Mal asked her.
“I did.”
“Well, then we’ll take you to dinner to celebrate.”
Charlie waited for her to say no again. To slip out before they had the table turned over and the cardboard and plastic gathered to pitch on their way out.
“Thanks,” she answered with a nod.
Maybe she did have a thing for his younger brothers. Both of them. She sure seemed at ease with them and ready to dart away anytime Charlie tried to talk to her.
Sullen, pissed off—at Mal for being Mal, he guessed, for talking to Tatum, complimenting her and at Tatum for cozying up to everybody in his life but him—Charlie turned his attention back to the table.
“Let’s do this,” he muttered.
Together, they lifted and flipped the table over. Apparently, Mal had put the chairs together the night before. Charlie gathered the cardboard when Mal went after the chairs, hidden away in Everleigh’s bedroom.
“I’m gonna take this to the dumpster,” he told Mal.
“Sure. Meetcha at 515.”
Charlie glanced at Tatum as he slid by her, hands full of the sliced-up cardboard. It wasn’t heavy, just awkward. No more so than the silence between them, though.
14
Mal insisted on buying her dinner. While Tatum had gotten the job—just another web design and social media planning thing, not an office job—she wasn’t up for much celebrating. The phone call from Sutton last week had been their last contact, and every day that passed without a call or seeing her sister’s face made her sick with worry.
Charlie was polite. But that was it. No idle chitchat. No reminiscing done to draw her out and get her to talk. No questions about her family or her past. None about the new job, even. A few times, Tatum saw Mal give Charlie a look like he wanted to strangle him, but Charlie calmly ignored him.
Being inside 515 again so soon was a double-edged sword. Tatum felt like she and Charlie had sort of laid their figurative weapons down the other day when he showed her his family’s restaurant and took her into the new addition where he and his brothers were spending so much time. Now, though, staring at Charlie’s profile—because he’d hardly looked straight at her tonight—being here made her feel anxious.
She liked him. And that was a problem.
If she let that slip to him, it was going to be more of a problem. For both of them.
The food was delicious. Tatum ordered grilled shrimp with brown rice. Both guys ordered steaks and wolfed them down so fast, she wondered how they even tasted anything. Both drank a beer, but neither of them guzzled it down and asked for a second. They both seemed content to drink slowly and alternate with water.
Mal told her Everleigh planned to call her or text her later. That her mom had been hammering at her to come and see her in Branson. That clicked with the recent conversation she and Everleigh had about their families. Everleigh wouldn’t want her mother here for a visit.
Tatum made a mental note to check in with her friend if she hadn’t heard from her before she went to bed tonight. Not all family dynamics were unicorns and kittens. She supposed Everleigh’s family might not be as bad as her own, but still, she might want to talk later.
“On that note.” Mal pushed his chair back and stood. “I’m going home.”
“Thank you for dinner, Mal.” Tatum looked up at him with a smile.
“Congrats on the new client,” he told her. He looked at Charlie again, and a whole conversation passed between them. One Tatum could only imagine. She wondered why Charlie was acting so cool with her. After all, they’d shared a room and a short conversation last time they’d seen each other. No potshots taken on either side.
“I’ll walk you home,” Charlie announced when they were alone.
“You don’t have to, Charlie.” She rolled her eyes. “It’s half a block, and it’s still daylight.”
“Ready?” he ignored her protest. Tatum knew him well enough to know it was useless to argue with him, so she followed his lead and stood. Her phone buzzed in her purse as she eased her chair back under the table.
Heart in her throat, she unzipped her purse and snatched the phone as they walked to the door.
