Talulah woke up alone. She’d spent an incredible night in Brant’s bed, enjoying his body—both when they were making love and when they weren’t—and had all but forgotten about her injury. It was the pull of her stitches as she started to stretch that reminded her. “Ouch,” she grumbled, quickly drawing her arm back in.
She checked the bandage and was relieved when she didn’t see any blood seeping through. That was fortunate. So was the fact that as long as she could stave off any infection, she wouldn’t have to return to the doctor to have the stitches removed. She’d been told they’d disintegrate as the wound healed.
Leaning up on her elbow, she reached for the alarm clock. It was nearly nine. She hadn’t planned on sleeping so late. She still had a lot to do to get ready for the funeral tomorrow.
Instead of jumping out of bed, however, she took a second to listen for Brant.
She couldn’t hear anything. He didn’t seem to be in the house and neither did anyone else. She assumed he and his brothers had gotten up and gone to work.
After she used the bathroom, she started to search for her purse. She’d taken it to the hospital last night so she’d have her insurance card with her, but it didn’t seem to have made it into Brant’s house. Assuming she’d left it in the seat when he lifted her out of the truck, she got dressed so she could go out and grab it. She needed her phone. Her sister might’ve gone into labor. Or maybe her parents had been trying to call to see how things were going with the funeral arrangements.
Planning to shower as soon as she got home, she didn’t bother combing her hair. It would’ve felt slightly intrusive to go through Brant’s bathroom drawers looking for a comb. Why she’d be hesitant, when he’d helped himself to her toothbrush a few nights ago, she didn’t know.
Since he was probably out on the ranch somewhere, she decided to ask Jane to come get her. But as soon as she stepped out of the house to see if she could get her phone, she found him standing in the drive arguing with someone. He was saying that what Charlie had done wasn’t cool, but she couldn’t see who he was talking to until the sound of the door prompted him to look over—and Averil peered around the vehicle that’d been hiding her.
This was the first time Talulah had seen her childhood friend since she’d moved away from Coyote Canyon. Her heart jumped into her throat and she tried a tentative smile, hoping that after so long Averil would be at least slightly happy to see her. But the hostility on Charlie’s sister’s face let Talulah know nothing had changed.
Tempted to avoid the confrontation altogether, she nearly went back inside. She wished she’d at least combed her hair. But that wouldn’t have made any difference. It was obvious she’d spent the night.
Refusing to be a coward, she forced a smile to replace the one that’d wilted beneath her former friend’s scorn and walked over. “Hello, Averil.”
“Don’t you dare approach me,” Averil snapped. “Every time you come around someone gets hurt.”
“Averil!” Brant’s voice was filled with irritation. “She was the one who got hurt last night. She needed seventeen stitches to close up her arm, yet you’re acting like it was nothing.”
“I’m sure when Charlie threw that rock he wasn’t thinking she’d be standing in front of the window!”
Talulah felt her fingernails curve into her palms at such an easy dismissal of what Charlie had done. “He could see me,” she clarified. “His headlights were pointed right at me.”
“And he could’ve hurt her much worse than he did,” Brant added. “The shard that cut her arm could as easily have landed in an eye.”
Averil threw up a hand to indicate she wasn’t remotely concerned. “She shouldn’t have come back. She knows she’s not welcome here.”
“All because she wouldn’t marry your brother?” he asked, but Talulah spoke at the same time.
“Averil, I know you think the worst of me. I apologize again for walking out on the wedding. But you and Charlie and your parents should be glad I didn’t go through with it. Our marriage would never have lasted. I wasn’t mature enough to marry, and I wasn’t in love, at least not enough to make it work.”
“Because it’s all about the chase for you, isn’t it?” Averil said. “As soon as you own a man’s heart you don’t want it anymore.”
“That’s not true. I have a problem with commitment,” Talulah said. “I admit that, but—”
“You have a problem with a lot more than that,” she interrupted. “And now you think you can wrap Brant around your little finger and play him like a puppet? Come between him and his best friend?”
“No, that’s not true,” Talulah cried.
“Then why are you spreading your legs for him every chance you get?”
Images from last night flashed before Talulah’s mind’s eye and she felt herself flush. “I’m not... I mean... It hasn’t been anything like you’re painting it.”
“Don’t you dare go after her on my account,” Brant growled, which made Averil turn on him.
“I never knew you were that desperate for a piece of ass!”
“Averil, you’re overreacting,” Talulah said. “I get it. Brant’s your brother’s friend. He’s your friend, too, and I don’t have a place in his life. I needed someone to take me to the hospital last night—”
“Oh, so now you’re saying you haven’t been sleeping with him?” she broke in with a shrill laugh.
“I’m not saying that—”
“You’d say it if you thought I’d believe it. You’re such a manipulative bitch. But I’m telling you right now to stay away from him.”
Once again, Brant started to object, but Talulah put up a hand to stop him. “Wait a second,” she said to Averil. “Is this about Charlie? Or you?”
The blood drained from her childhood friend’s face. “I don’t know what you’re talking about—and neither do you,” she said and whipped around to climb into her beige sedan.
Brant jerked Talulah out of the way as Averil executed a quick three-point turn and nearly sprayed them with rocks and dirt as she rocketed away.
“What the hell’s gotten into her?” he said. “She’s never acted like that before.”
Struggling to cope with all the emotions charging through her, Talulah rubbed her forehead. “You know what’s going on, don’t you?”
Brant looked uncertain about where she was going with that. “What?”
Talulah suspected he knew the truth, but he was dismissing the obvious because he preferred not to be in the awkward situation it would put him in. “She’s in love with you.”
Paul had called her at least thirty times, starting early this morning. He’d never been that persistent before, so Talulah assumed there had to be an emergency. Had the diner been robbed? Had it sustained fire or water damage?
She nearly called Paul right away, even in the truck with Brant driving her home. But the fact that her business partner hadn’t left any voice mail messages, as he would’ve done if there’d been a catastrophe of some kind affecting the diner, made her uneasy. What was so important that he’d blow up her phone but not leave a message—or at least send a text?
Worried, she nibbled at her bottom lip.
“What is it?” Brant asked, noticing her preoccupation.
After what had just happened with Averil at the ranch, Talulah hadn’t said much. He’d asked her to stay for breakfast, said he wanted to make sure she was okay before taking her home. But she’d said she needed to get back and start cooking, and he’d agreed to drive her right away. Other than that, she’d been kicking herself for being foolish enough to mess around with Brant. As much as she enjoyed being with him, the relationship couldn’t go anywhere. Her business was in Seattle and his ranch was in Montana. She couldn’t even say why this type of relationship had sprung up so suddenly between them.
When she didn’t reply immediately, a pained expression appeared on his handsome face. “Is it Paul?” he asked. “Has he been trying to reach you?”
She looked over in surprise. “How’d you know?”
He sent her a sheepish glance. “I thought he might.”
“Why?”
“Charlie said something to me last night,” he replied. “That’s what caused the fight between us.”
“What’d he say?”
“He told me he sent Paul a message on Instagram, telling him about us,” he said with a wince.
Her stomach felt instantly queasy. “He what?”
“I know. I’m sorry.”
“Why didn’t you warn me?”
Although they were still a mile away from Phoebe’s, Brant pulled to the side of the road, presumably so he could give her his undivided attention. “Because I couldn’t believe he’d really be that big an asshole. I’ve known him my whole life. I guess I was hoping he was only bluffing to get back at me for being with you.”
Scarcely able to breathe, she pressed a hand to her chest and returned her gaze to Paul’s missed calls.
Paul Pacheco 6:33 a.m.
Paul Pacheco 6:35 a.m.
Paul Pacheco 6:41 a.m.
And the list went on...
Clearing his throat, Brant shifted so he could face her more directly. “Hey,” he said. When she didn’t respond, he added, “Talulah?”
“What?” she asked mechanically.
“Are you okay?” He reached for her hand, but she pulled it away.
“No, I’m not okay.” Talulah felt completely numb. “I have seventeen stitches in my arm. My relationship with my partner is in jeopardy. My business could be in jeopardy. My sister and parents are embarrassed and disappointed in me, even though I came here for them. And any hope I had that Averil would one day forgive me is gone. As if that isn’t enough, I also have to face the entire Gerhart family at the funeral tomorrow.” Squeezing her eyes closed, she let her head fall back on the seat. “What have I done?” she said with a groan.
“I didn’t mean for any of this to happen,” Brant said.
Visions of Paul pleading with her to get serious with him, telling her how much she meant to him and how happy he’d make her played in her mind. What was she going to say to him now? How would he react to this? He couldn’t claim she’d been cheating on him; she’d made it clear they weren’t even unofficially together. But until she left Seattle, their relationship had been moving in the direction he wanted. Sleeping with Paul had made him confident they’d finally turned a corner.
She’d only been gone a week, and she’d already slept with someone else when it’d taken him years to get her into bed.
That wasn’t going to be easy to explain.
“I feel terrible,” Brant said. “Will you please say something?”
She opened her eyes. “I’m not blaming you,” she said dully. “It’s not as if you forced me into the shower that night.”
“But I did make the first move.”
“We thought it would be an isolated incident, nothing anyone would ever have to know about.” She frowned as she stared off into the distance, across the acres of farmland heading toward the mountains. “Neither one of us thought it would turn out like this.”
He leaned forward, trying to get her to look at him, but it was partly his striking blue eyes that’d gotten her into trouble in the first place. “What are you going to tell him?”
“The truth, I guess. I wasn’t going to volunteer our involvement. I was going to leave it here in Coyote Canyon, along with everything else I’ve left behind. But now that he knows, I can’t lie to him.”
She could feel Brant’s gaze on her face even though she wouldn’t meet it. “Have you ever seen him angry?” he asked.
“A few times. But only at his brother, whom he’s fought with since childhood, or vendors who didn’t bring what they promised, or an employee who left us high and dry. Never at me. At least...not really.” She’d never done anything to make him mad, and he’d been hoping to win her over, which meant she’d probably never seen his worst side.
“How does he behave when he gets angry?”
“He’ll yell and then he’ll withdraw. As far as I know. Like I said, his anger has always been directed at someone else.”
“Maybe you should call him while I’m with you.”
“That’s a terrible idea.”
“I want to be here, in case he treats you badly.”
“You wouldn’t be able to do anything about it anyway,” she pointed out. “It’d only make him angrier if you tried.”
“I get that, but... Damn. I don’t know. Isn’t there anything I can do to make things easier?”
“Nothing. It would help if I could give him a good explanation as to why this happened. But...I can’t even say it was just a one-night stand. Is there such a thing as a three-night stand?”
He scratched his neck. “I think I’d steer clear of the numbers.”
“I agree. Maybe I could say that I was intimidated by all my enemies here and...and I felt like I needed a friend.”
“Is that true?” he asked, sounding slightly crestfallen. “Is that all it was?”
“Not really. At least I don’t think so.” She put down her phone and finally looked at him. “But what else can I say? That I wanted you so badly I couldn’t help myself?”
“I like the sound of that.”
She made a disgruntled face. “That’ll only hurt him more. I knew him for years before I agreed to sleep with him.”
His eyebrows slid up. “That’s a long time to chase a woman. Why didn’t he give up?”
“Because not every man has your take ’em or leave ’em attitude.”
“Why weren’t you interested in him sooner?”
“I don’t know. I wasn’t ready, I guess. But...you see the problem.”
“Yeah, I see it.” With a sigh, he put the truck back into gear and started driving, more slowly this time. They said nothing during the last mile, and the moment Brant pulled down the driveway, Talulah opened the door.
He caught her by the arm, well above where she’d been hurt, before she could get out. “I suppose this means you don’t plan on seeing me anymore.”
He sounded disappointed. She was more disappointed than she felt she should be herself. They’d spent some incredible nights together. But the fact that Charlie told Paul what was going on had been a huge wake-up call. If she didn’t clean up her act, she could lose everything. “I think we’ve done enough damage to each other’s lives, don’t you?”
“Maybe that’s true, but...” He released her arm and took her hand instead. “I’d rather put the pieces back together after you’re gone. It’ll be a lot easier.”
She was tempted to agree. But she couldn’t head any farther down that road, and she knew it. “I can’t wait that long, Brant. By then it might be too late to save what I’ve built.”
Letting go, he straightened. “Okay. I don’t want to push you into anything that might make things worse for you.”
“Thank you.” She slid to the ground and turned to take one last look at him. “Being with you was...good,” she admitted. “Actually, it approached fantastic.”
“I feel like it was fantastic all the way,” he said.
She offered him a smile in lieu of goodbye, closed the door and started toward the house. She was under so much pressure to try to fix everything that was wrong she felt the need to hurry—and yet, at the same time, she dreaded each step, because she knew she’d have to phone Paul as soon as she got inside.
Paul didn’t answer when she dialed his cell. Talulah tried three times before calling the store instead.
“Talulah’s Dessert Diner.”
Talulah recognized the voice as the woman they’d hired to work behind the counter during the week. “Beth? It’s me.”
“Oh, hey,” she said.
Talulah dug nervously at her cuticles. “Have you seen Paul today?”
“No. He had all the baking done when I arrived, so he must’ve been in earlier, but I haven’t seen him since I got here. Have you tried his cell?”
Of course she’d tried his cell. But she didn’t want to make it obvious that he wasn’t answering for her. The last thing she needed was for their employees to pick up on a potential problem between them. “He’s probably out on a hike,” she said. “How’s everything at the diner?”
“It’s been quiet this morning, but it’s always slow before dinnertime. Then we get crushed until closing.”
“We need the slow times to prepare for the busy ones.”
“That’s what I’m doing—getting ready for later,” she said and covered the phone to tell someone she’d be right with them.
“Sounds like you have a customer,” Talulah said. “I’ll let you go.”
“Okay, but...do you have any idea when you’ll be back?”
“Not yet. The funeral isn’t until tomorrow. Then I’ll need to finish dealing with my great aunt’s house and its contents.” Sadly, thanks to all the distractions, as well as the cooking she’d taken on for the funeral, she hadn’t gotten as much done as she’d planned.
“I hope that goes well.”
“Thank you,” she said and disconnected. She was just gathering the nerve to try to reach Paul again when she received a call from her sister.
Grateful for the reprieve, however short-lived, she answered immediately. “Debbie!”
“Wow,” her sister said with a laugh. “You sound incredibly relieved to hear from me.”
Talulah was relieved. As embattled as she felt, her sister’s voice came across like a warm hug. “I’ve been waiting for you to call,” she said. “You’re not in labor, are you?”
Debbie’s sigh made it sound as though she was just as beleaguered as Talulah was. “Not yet. At this rate, I don’t think I’ll ever have this baby.”
“I don’t want you to go into labor too soon. If you started now, I’d miss the birth. Wait until after the funeral, okay?”
“I’ll see what I can do,” she said with a chuckle. “How’s life in Coyote Canyon? Are you prepared for the funeral?”
Talulah grimaced while peering around the messy kitchen. Last night she and Jane hadn’t cleaned up the salad mess they’d made to go with the pizza they’d ordered. They’d been too set on going out for more drinks after that and having a good time. And now she had to contend with the mess as well as the rest of the cooking. “Almost.”
“You’ve got the food done?”
“Not quite, but I still have today.”
“I hate that you’ve had to carry the entire load. How’s everything else?”
Attempting to put fresh energy into her voice, Talulah drew a deep breath before she said, “Great. Fine. Perfect.”
She knew her answer had rung false when Debbie said, “Oh, no,” in a much lower voice. “What’s wrong?”
Blinking quickly in an effort to stave off tears, Talulah meandered into the dining room. “Nothing. What do you mean?”
“Lu, come on. You can’t hide anything from me. What is it?”
A single tear escaped Talulah’s eyelashes and began to roll down her cheek. “It’s Charlie.”
“What’s going on with him now?”
She sniffed. “He hates me.”
“He’s hated you for fourteen years. Why would that bother you enough to make you cry?”
Sinking into one of the hand-embroidered chairs that went with her aunt’s Duncan Phyfe dining table, she rested her chin on the fist of her good arm. “He wrote Paul on Instagram and told him about Brant.”
“No!”
“Yes,” she said glumly.
“What’d Paul say?”
“He hasn’t said anything yet. He won’t pick up.”
“I’m sorry, honey.”
She straightened the large doily she and Jane had folded back when they were eating and once again centered the vase full of dusty silk flowers that had been on her aunt’s dining table since she could remember. “It’s my own fault. But... I don’t know why I hooked up with Brant to begin with. I’m having a tough time coping since I got here and seem to be making all the wrong decisions.”
“It was one night. Surely, Paul can forgive you for one night when you haven’t promised him your fidelity in the first place.”
Except it hadn’t been just one night. It’d been three hormone-fueled nights filled with some of the best sex she’d ever known—not that she was going to volunteer that information. “Charlie also threw a rock through the front window last night, and I have seventeen stitches to show for it.”
Debbie gasped. “He what?”
“He hurled a rock through the window.”
“And you got cut? I hope you called the cops!”
Talulah peeled back her bandage to take a look at her injury. Her skin puckered where the thread held the gash closed. “I was too busy trying to get to a hospital.”
“But you’re okay?”
“I’m fine. I’ll heal. But it was pretty over-the-top of him.”
“That’s beyond over the top! That’s illegal. You need to call the cops right now.”
Talulah had considered it. Charlie deserved some type of consequence. But she didn’t see any real hope in pursuing a criminal case. “Why? It won’t do any good. All I saw was a pair of headlights and the next thing I knew I had a big piece of glass sticking out of my arm. From their perspective it could’ve been anybody.”
“So how do you know it was him?”
“Who else would it be? But he could easily say it wasn’t him, and I have nothing to prove otherwise.”
“Do you think he was trying to hurt you?”
“Probably not as badly as he did. Still, he’s a bastard for throwing that rock.”
“I’m going to call him up and tell him he’d better back the heck off and leave you alone!”
“Back the heck off, Deb?” In spite of everything, Talulah started laughing. “That’s the best you’ve got?”
“He’ll get the point,” she insisted.
Talulah sobered. “Look, I appreciate the support, but if he won’t listen to Brant, he won’t listen to you.”
“Brant’s been sticking up for you?”
Suddenly realizing that she’d always hated Phoebe’s silk flowers, she got up and threw them away. “Not sticking up for me exactly—just trying to talk some sense into Charlie.”
“That’s nice. But...you’re not seeing Brant anymore, are you?”
Talulah had told Brant only this morning that she wouldn’t be. But she held back on the timeline. “Of course not. Like I told him, we’ve done enough damage to our lives.”
“So he still wants to see you...”
“I’m sure he doesn’t care either way, Deb.”
“How do you know?”
“I just do. Brant is...Brant. He doesn’t take any romantic relationship too seriously. Have you ever known him to have a steady girlfriend?”
“I haven’t, but that was way back when. I have no idea what he’s like these days.”
“He’s the same.” Except that he was now friendly to her. More than friendly...
“So what are you going to do about Paul?”
“Tell him the truth, I guess—if I can ever get him to talk to me.”
“What will you do with the diner if you can’t work this out?”
“That’s just it—I don’t have a good answer to that question.”
“The business has your name on it, Lu. He’s the one who’d have to move on.”
Talulah doubted Paul would think so. He was too excited about their success, too set on expanding. Losing her would be one thing; he’d never really had her to begin with. But he felt firmly in control of the diner and wouldn’t easily walk away from it. “Hopefully, neither one of us will have to move on,” she said.
“After you talk to him, call me and let me know how it went. I have to get going. I have a doctor’s appointment, and I’ll be late if I don’t jump in the shower right away.”
“Okay. Good luck at the doctor’s.” Tossing Phoebe’s ugly vase into the trash along with the fake flowers made Talulah feel slightly empowered. But that feeling quickly faded as, once again, she hit the redial button to reach Paul.