AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Brant swung around. “And?”
“She was with her boyfriend from Seattle.”
“He’snother boyfriend,” Brant bit out.
“Okay, she was with some dude who had a man bun.”
“That’s better. What were they doing?”
“Just walking down the street, window shopping and stopping at various places. Kate said the dude kept trying to touch her, but she’d move away, as if she wasn’t into him.”
“That could be Kate’s interpretation,” he pointed out.
“Except that Kate followed them into the ice cream parlor and heard them get into an argument. He said she was acting different toward him, that she wouldn’t even let him hold her hand.”
Brant’s mood was miraculously improving. “And how did Talulah respond to that?”
“Unfortunately, she spoke too softly for Kate to hear without being obvious about it. But he didn’t like her response. That was clear, which tells you something.”
“Is that it?”
“That’s it.”
“And you think that tiny bit of gossip is worth the last piece of cake?” he asked.
“Don’t give me that crap,” Kurt said, calling him on his shit. “I know you’re happy to hear it.”
“Fine. You two can share the cake,” he said and flashed them a grin, because hewashappy to hear it, before taking his beer and walking out.
When he got to his room, he closed the door, set his beer on the dresser and pulled his phone from his pocket. Would it make any difference if he told Talulah how he felt?
Is there any chance you’re missing me as much as I’m missing you?
As soon as he typed that, he realized he’d be a fool to send it and erased it instead. She was going back to Seattle after she took care of Phoebe’s house. It wasn’t as if he had a real chance with her, as iftheyhad a real chance, even if she didn’t get back with Paul.
“Shit,” he muttered and tossed his phone on the bed, only to hear it ding with an incoming message.
He grabbed it right away, hoping it was Talulah. But it was Charlie, who must’ve heard Paul was in town:I told you so.
Talulah spent a restless night tossing and turning and beating herself up for the way things had gone with Paul since he arrived. It seemed as though they’d argued over everything. As soon as they’d agree to let one thing go, something else would crop up. If it wasn’t Brant, it was how long she had to stay to take care of the house. And if it wasn’t about the house, it was that she’d never made much of an effort to introduce him to her family. No matter what they were talking about, Paul’s underlying resentment found some fissure through which to erupt. They couldn’t even agree on whether to eat in or go out for dinner. Although Talulah had allowed him his choice on almost everything since he’d arrived, by the time evening came around, she’d preferred to retreat from town, was tired of being on display.
The argument that ensued because of it had been pretty bad, but it wasn’t anything like the one they’d had after they ate out and got home, and he tried to put on the screen door. It’d looked like an easy enough job, even to her, but when he couldn’t get it to hang right or swing level, he’d started saying Brant shouldn’t have removed it in the first place, that he’d had no business touching anything that belonged to her.
Unable to abide his tirade for long, she’d stood up for Brant by saying he’d only been trying to help, at which point Paul had made his attacks more personal. He’d accused her of using him to fulfill her dream of owning a restaurant, using him to take care of the diner while she was out messing around with other guys and blaming her for leading him on.
That was when Talulah had really lost her temper. How was she using him? They were splitting all the profits on the diner, taking turns looking after the place, and she’d always been careful to pay her own way when any costs were involved. She’d done nothing wrong. But pointing that out only made him angrier. He even got mad that she wasn’t as upset as he felt she should be thathewas upset.
In the end, Talulah had asked him to go back to Seattle. She’d told him she was too worried about the diner to focus on their relationship, and she had too much work to do on Phoebe’s house to take any more time away from getting it done. In her opinion, they were doing more harm than good to keep going the way they were. She was becoming more and more convinced that the best chance they had of salvaging their friendship, and possibly their partnership, was to separate, for now, and give each other some space.
Considering how the night had gone, Talulah had no idea how Paul would behave when he got up this morning. Maybe he’d leave without even speaking to her.
In an attempt to part on friendly terms, she dragged herself out of bed at dawn to shower and dress and make him some breakfast. But it was after nine when she finally heard movement overhead, so he didn’t seem to be in any hurry to get on the road. It’d been so long since she made breakfast she’d had to cover his food and put it in the fridge—and she was beginning to worry that he’d decided not to go home today, after all.
She couldn’t take another twenty-four hours of their bickering...
When he came downstairs, she took his plate out of the fridge and put it in the microwave.
He poked his head in the tiny kitchen. “You made breakfast?”
