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“Really?”
He’d already loosened his tie. “You made your mother’s aunt sound...admirable, strong. Since I know she was also difficult, you had to walk a fine line to still be honest, and you did a good job with it.”
“I admit I struggled a little when I was figuring out what I wanted to say.”
He was looking at her with more interest than a typical friend, and she felt her face heat as his gaze moved down over her dress. “You look good.”
So did he. What he’d worn wasn’t going to win any fashion awards, but he was so attractive it didn’t matter. “Thanks. What made you change your mind about coming today?”
“I knew Charlie was planning to be here, and I wasn’t about to let him intimidate you.”
“How’d you know? Did he tell you?”
“He did a few days ago. He could’ve changed his mind since then, but I had a little talk with him at his place earlier, and as I was leaving, I realized he was getting dressed up for something. I figured it was the funeral.”
“You went to his house today? What’d he say?”
“That he didn’t throw that rock through your window. Are you sure it was him?”
Talulah remembered the car that’d come by last night while she was sitting out on the porch swing. She thought it might’ve been Averil, but she wasn’t going to say so. She didn’t want to come between Brant and any more of his friends. “I’m not positive. Like I told you before, all I saw was a pair of headlights.”
The hearse was ready to go. Talulah could see it through the glass doors of the church. The driver from the mortuary sat behind the wheel, waiting. “I’ve got to get going, or I’ll hold up the entire procession. But I appreciate you coming. It...it made the service a lot easier for me,” she admitted.
“No problem.” The crooked smile he gave her made her think of him naked in bed, leaning above her, and the way her body reacted to that memory, with a flood of awareness and excitement, surprised her.
“If you’d like to hang around,” she heard herself say, “I managed to finish preparing all the food for the dinner. I even have homemade carrot cake for dessert. We’ll eat here as soon as the graveside part is over.”
His eyes scanned the foyer, once again taking in the few people who were lingering behind. “Do you think Charlie and his family will be going to the cemetery?”
“Since coming here didn’t give them the satisfaction they were looking for, I wouldn’t doubt it.” She knew the Gerharts were too curious and upset about Brant’s showing up not to go. They’d want to see if he came to the cemetery, too, and how she and Brant acted around each other.
“Then I’ll go. Do you want to ride with me?”
“I wish I could, but—” she twisted around to see behind her, and, fortunately, didn’t find any of the Gerharts “—I don’t dare.”
He didn’t press her. He knew why she was refusing. “Have you heard from Paul?”
“Not yet.”
“What about the diner?” he asked with a frown. “Is he there, taking care of things?”
“No. One of our best employees has been acting as manager in his absence.”
“Shit.” He unbuttoned the top button of his new shirt, revealing more of his smooth tanned neck. “You gotta be worried about that.”
“I am. But she seems to be getting by at the moment, and knowing she’s there is helping me hold myself together.”
“It’ll all work out,” he said. “See you at the cemetery.”
She hesitated. “You don’t have to go. Really.”
“It’s fine,” he said. “I’m easily bought and you did promise to feed me after.”
Laughing, she rose up to give him a hug as she would any friend. But no contact with Brant ever turned out to be as casual as it was intended. She felt his big hands slide up her back and briefly press her to him and couldn’t even look at him as she pulled away, for fear he’d see the effect he had on her. Instead, she ducked her head and started to open the door.
“Talulah?”
Stopping, she forced herself to look back at him and, as his eyes locked with hers, a huge smile spread across his face. He knew she was feeling something. Maybe he felt it, too.
