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She hadn’t heard from him yet this morning, but he was probably already awake and on his way.
“That’s nice of him.”
Itwasnice of him. Except Talulah wasn’t happy that he’d left the diner in the hands of their employees and driven all the way from Seattle. Why couldn’t they have talked over the phone? She’d tried to reach him so many times. And now she was in the uncomfortable situation of having Paul and Brant in the same town—once she and Paul returned from Billings, anyway. “We’ll see how it goes. He also wanted to come so he could meet you. I tried telling him you probably wouldn’t feel very comfortable, considering you’d just had a baby, but—”
“It’s fine,” her sister interrupted. “Bring him by.”
“Okay.”
“Good luck.”
Talulah let go of her hand and blew her a kiss. “Thanks.”
She passed Scott on her way out. “Hey, are you leaving already?” he asked. “Because they had egg burritos at the cafeteria, and I got you one, in case you needed a little something to tide you over until Paul can get here.”
Apparently, he’d absorbed more of what she’d said last night than Debbie, but then he’d been a little more coherent at the time. “That was kind of you, but I think I’ll wait.”
He grinned. “If Debbie doesn’t want it, either, I guess I’ll just have to eat two.”
“Why not? Thisisa celebration, isn’t it?”
“Damn right,” he said and waved before disappearing into his wife’s room.
Taking a deep breath, Talulah hiked her purse higher and hurried out of the hospital. She’d had such success with Phoebe’s funeral. And the birth had gone perfectly, far better than she’d even dared to hope. She figured she shouldn’t be too upset with Paul for not responding to her for so long and then showing up out of nowhere.
Not everything could go her way.
Talulah held her breath as she watched Paul’s truck turn into the lot. They’d agreed to meet at a local pancake house that had a slew of five-star reviews. She was hungry, but she was no longer convinced that meeting him in public was the best thing to do. Maybe they needed more privacy for the type of discussion they would likely have.
Bracing for what could easily turn into a public argument, she managed a tentative smile as he got out and strode toward her.
“There you are,” he said and swept her into his arms, surprising her with a big hug and a long, passionate kiss. “God, I’ve missed you.”
She’d expected him to be angry. She knew hehadbeen angry, because he hadn’t responded to any of her attempts to reach him. So what was this about? Why the sudden change of heart?
“It’s good to see you, too,” she murmured. “But...what made you leave Seattle and the diner and come clear to Montana?”
“I decided you were worth the trip—thatwewere worth it.”
Just the way he said “we” assumed too much. They hadn’t made anything official. In her mind, things had barely started to heat up between them. “What about the diner?”
“The diner is fine. I put Selma Roberto in charge. You know how dependable she is.”
But they’d agreed to take turns going out of town expressly because they didn’t feel they should require any of their employees to take on that much responsibility. “The problem is you didn’t even let me know you were coming.”
“I decided to surprise you.”
He’d decided to come and defend his claim, and he was doing it at the expense of the diner. But she felt bad that he always seemed to want more from her than she could give, so she didn’t point that out. “You definitely surprised me.”
“What happened to your arm?” he asked.
She glanced down at the bandage; she’d been so caught up in everything else she’d forgotten about her injury—and that she hadn’t had a chance to tell him about it. “You saw the broken window at the house?”
“Yeah.”
“Someone threw a rock through it.”
“Since you’ve been in Montana? Who would do that?”
