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He gestured at her restaurant. “Diner’s not open today, huh?”
“No. I’m closed every Monday and Tuesday.” As far as she knew, he’d never been inside the diner. He was probably the only person in town who hadn’t crossed the threshold at least once. Even his sister, Averil, and his parents had come in, although his parents only deigned to visit when they were with other people on a night out. And they wouldn’t acknowledge her when they came in. They treated her no differently than they would an employee who was a total stranger.
“Seems to be going over nicely,” he said. “Congratulations on your success.”
Seems to be?Hadn’t he seen the long lines that formed outside her door every Saturday? Because there wasn’t a lot of breaking news in Coyote Canyon, there’d been several write-ups about the diner in the paper, too. “Fortunately,” she said. “But owning this kind of business is a lot of work.”
“I bet.”
He didn’t sound as though he cared.
“How’s Brant?” he asked.
Like her and Averil, Charlie and Brant used to be best friends. Brant had been the best man at the wedding where she’d almost married Charlie, and Charlie had been the best man at the wedding where she did marry Brant. But relations had been and still were strained. She believed Charlie had only been part of the wedding to save face by pretending he didn’t care that his best friend was marrying his ex-fiancée. If she had her guess, he’d also been hoping—maybe he still was—that they wouldn’t be happy together. She was betting the whole family would gloat over a divorce.
Whether that was true or not, he and Brant hardly spoke to each other these days, and Talulah was sort of relieved about that. Otherwise, she’d have to face Charlie a lot more often. “Brant is good,” she replied. “Busy with the ranch.”
“As always.”
“As always.” She could’ve asked how he was doing with his real estate business. He sold homes and buildings, even raw land—it was difficult to specialize in such a small town. But he wasn’t very successful, probably because, according to Brant, he didn’t put much effort into his career. Brant said he did everythingbutwork.
That wasn’t the reason she didn’t ask, however. She didn’t care to prolong the conversation. Feeling as though she’d been cordial long enough and could now move on, she was about to say, “It was nice seeing you,” except he spoke before she could.
“Averil told me that you’re hanging out with Ellen these days.”
Had that incident in the grocery store not occurred, she would’ve been surprised by the change in topic. Given that it had, Charlie would want to rub salt in the wound by reminding her that her former friend had said some very unkind things about her. “Ellen and I are friends,” she said.
“So are you and Jane Tanner, but I never see you with her anymore.”
Talulah did see Jane occasionally. She loved Jane and always would. “Since she met her boyfriend, she’s been gone a lot. You probably know this, but he lives in Bozeman.”
“She still works here,” he pointed out.
Jane owned a secondhand shop only a few blocks away. They could see each other more. But she had to be diplomatic about their relationship. Growing up, it’d always been the three of them—Averil, Jane and her—so Jane was trying to be neutral and remain friends with Averil, too, which wasn’t easy. Averil demanded more from her, and since she’d married, Talulah had stepped back to ease the tension.
Besides, it was more comfortable for her to be with Ellen, who had no prior loyalties to anyone in town and lived so close.
Charlie was just needling her, she decided. He did that whenever he could—tried to shame her or make her feel uncomfortable. It was his way of getting back at her for the hurt she’d caused him.
“I see her whenever I can,” she said and started to turn away.
“The only reason I mentioned Ellen is because I saw something really weird yesterday,” he said, stopping her.
The curiosity his question evoked was obviously what he was going for. “What’s that?” she asked as she turned back.
“A Fetterman Well Services truck and a Truesdale Well and Pump Services truck on the same propertyfor hours.”
He’d seen Hendrix helping Ellen drill the Haslem well? That was bad luck. He and his family knew everyone in town and loved having something to say that others might find shocking or interesting. They considered themselves well-connected and always in the know. “How odd,” she said, adding a dismissive tone to her voice so she wouldn’t simply confirm that he’d hit on a juicy bit of gossip. “Are you sure that’s what you saw?”
“Couldn’t miss it. I listed the property next to Jay Haslem’s last week and was out there putting up my For Sale signs. I had a bit of trouble getting them into the ground and had to leave to get some more tools. Then I got busy doing other things, so it was several hours later by the time I got back. And yet those two trucks hadn’t moved.”
She blinked at him. “So? What are you saying?”
Lines creased his forehead as he frowned at her. “I’m saying it’s weird that Hendrix and Ellen would spend so much time together. Don’t you think? The last I heard they weren’t even on speaking terms.”
“Maybe Jay stipulated they work together,” she said.
“Why would he do that?”
