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Tilly made a gasping sound as if Alana had just suggested she jump off a cliff. “I have no reason to apologize, and I won’t. Egan deserved those slaps and a whole lot more. More that I wish I could give him.”
Alana didn’t have the same gasping reaction, but it sure sounded to her as if Tilly had just implied she wanted Egan to be permanently out of the picture.
There was a knock at her door, and Alana let go of some of her ire when the relief washed over her. She’d tell Egan about this conversation—after they’d done some kissing and maybe some other stuff. Alana didn’t want to keep it from him in case Tilly had truly gone off the deep end.
“Tilly, I have to go,” Alana said.
But Tilly clearly wasn’t ready for this conversation to be over. “I really want you to consider not seeing Egan. Five days, that’s all I’m asking.”
No, it wasn’t. Alana had no doubt that Tilly would try to advocate for an extension. Perhaps a permanent one.
“Tilly, I’m sorry,” Alana said, throwing open the door, “but I’m not going to stop seeing Egan.”
Alana got a déjà vu moment that was no doubt similar to the one Egan had gotten two days ago when Blue had shown up. Because it wasn’t Egan at the door. Nor was it Blue.
It was her sister, Colleen.
Alana replayed the bit of the conversation that Colleen had almost certainly overheard, and then she glanced down at what she was still holding. Egan’s boxers. While there was no way Colleen could know for certain that the boxers belonged to her ex-husband, apparently the underwear paired with the conversation had clued her in.
“Good for you,” Colleen remarked just as Alana punched the End Call on her phone.
“Excuse me?” Alana asked, stepping aside as Colleen came in.
Colleen motioned toward the phone. “Good for you.”
“Uh, you might not say that if you knew what Tilly was talking about.”
“I know what she was talking about. She wants you to stop seeing Egan. It’s the reason she asked me to come here and have a heart-to-heart chat with you.”
Alana didn’t know whether to be pissed or not, but she was experiencing some confusion. “You came here to tell me not to see Egan?”
“No, that’s what Tilly wanted me to say.” Colleen shrugged. “But I’d rather give you my own opinion of just what I think.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
EGANWASWELLaware that this visit to Alana would fuel the gossips. Gossips who’d see his truck in front of her house and figure out the reason he was there.
He didn’t care, though.
Not that he wanted to invite any more gossip for Alana, but he couldn’t see a way around it. The best he could hope for now was that people would soon tire of the talk and move on to something else. With Blue in town, that something else might be chatter about him. Blue tended to stir things up whenever he was around.
Egan hadn’t bothered to change out of his flight suit. After he’d seen his dad and had one of their usual talks where actual talk was in short supply, Egan had told Effie and Maybell that he was heading out for a while. Considering that Maybell had asked him to bring some “hotter than sex” cookies to Alana, the woman knew exactly where he was going.
He knocked on Alana’s door and caught the sound of voices. Two women’s voices, causing him to mutter ahellor two. Tilly might be in there, and if she was, then she was almost certainly giving Alana some grief. No way did Egan want that to continue so he knocked again. This time, there was the sound of running footsteps, and a moment later Alana opened the door.
She had a wild sort of look in her eyes, and if he hadn’t heard that other voice, Egan might have thought the wildness was because of the anticipation of sex.
“Colleen’s here,” she blurted out.
Egan had already stepped forward to go in, but that caused him to pause. He looked over Alana’s shoulder and saw his ex on one of the living room chairs. Colleen gave him a perky little wave. Egan didn’t return the greeting. He decided to reserve judgment, and wrath, until he could figure out if Colleen was here to verbally bash or browbeat her sister.
If any of that—the bashing or the browbeating—was going on, Alana wasn’t showing it. There were Cokes and snacks on the coffee table, and Alana had kicked off her shoes. He paused again, though, when he spotted his boxers on the end table next to Colleen.
Colleen followed his gaze and seemed to guess that he’d been the topic of the sisterly conversation, but his ex just smiled and shook her head. “We weren’t talking about that,” Colleen assured him. “Well, not much, anyway.”
Egan had to admit, he was very confused. Colleen and he hadn’t had a civil word between them since she’d left. Actually, they hadn’t had many words at all, and the few that had been spoken had been strained and drenched with all the feelings and emotions that went with a divorce. But right here, right now, Colleen seemed, well, happy.
“Uh, I didn’t know you were here,” Egan said, stating the obvious.
