Page 76 of Back in the Saddle

“I can’t pretend I didn’t see her name,” I said quietly. “Is everything cool?”

“No, since you’re finally here, in those shorts, bringing good wine, and she’s pulling her usual shit.”

Oh man.

“Ummmm…” I drew that out, because he was normally open, and we’d cleared a big hurdle, but we were in no place for me to expect things that weren’t yet mine to have.

He popped the cork and went right to pouring, not bothering with the aerator I saw in the drawer where he got the wine key (because that vintage didn’t need it, so he really did know wine), and he did this being the Eric I was coming to know.

He shared.

“Our divorce was final two years ago. She’s in regular contact.”

“Okay.”

He put the bottle down, picked up a glass and handed it to me. He then picked up his own but neither of us drank.

Instead, he lowered the boom.

“Found out this morning, she’s in town. Phoenix. She’s scouting a location to open another restaurant.”

“Holy shit,” I whispered. “Is she…moving here?”

“According to the conversation I had with her this morning, that’s the threat,” he murmured.

“Threat?”

“Jessie.” He sighed.

And one could say it was a wallop of a sigh.

He carried on and explained why it was such a wallop of a sigh.

“I don’t want to sound like a dick. I also don’t want to be talking about this. But we are, because Savannah is Savannah, and no fuckin’ way I want you to see her name on my phone and wonder.”

“You really don’t have to tell me,” I promised.

“I really do because I think you finally get I’m interested in you. I want to get to know you better. And to do that, I want to spend time with you, and that time shouldn’t have you wondering why my ex is texting me.”

Oh man.

That feltgreat.

“So you need to know, she and I are over,” he continued. “I don’t want her here. She’s no longer in my life. I don’t want an antagonistic relationship with her. In the beginning, I was good with adapting to friends. She wasn’t. She wanted me back. She is where she is in her profession because she doesn’t give up. But I’m not a recipe to perfect or a critic to win over, and she isn’t getting that. So now, I’d prefer no relationship at all.” He grinned. “And I finally got this woman at my house I’ve been hoping would get her head out of her ass about me. So I really don’t want her a part of tonight.”

There was no denying my head had been firmly up my ass, so I let that slide.

“I can assume with the honesty you share with me, which is awesome by the way…”

His lips quirked, and he inclined his head to accept the compliment.

I kept speaking.

“…that you’re as honest with her.”

Eric nodded. “I am. And her response is to open a restaurant where I moved. And just to say, we have a branch of NI&S in LA. I had a nice house there too. A life. Friends. My closest being Darius, who now manages that branch since Mace moved here. And his wife, Malia, is my second closest. But I moved here to get away from Savannah.”

Whoa.

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