Page 19 of Safe With Me
I snorted. “Because I bring your morning coffee.”
“That, but you’re invested and it shows.” He sighed, a heavy, regretful puff of air. “Your sister’s not right now, and I’ve let her run you off.”
I couldn’t argue that he hadn’t. “Maybe I need to try something different for a little while before I come back home again.”
His chin dipped in a nod.
Tilda swept her annoyed-librarian look over him. I’d seen that often enough, both when I’d been a high school student in her media center and when I’d been her bratty teenaged stepdaughter, and it amused me when I wasn’t on the receiving end of it. “But we will be having a little chat with your sister.”
I appreciated that, too, although I suspected any chat with Elizabeth would only make things worse.
That was fine. I could live without social media. Lots of people did. If I didn’t check my DMs, I wouldn’t know what people were saying when they slid into them. Avoidance could be a perfectly acceptable coping mechanism.
Besides, I’d learned to live without lots of things. I pictured the crumpled note back home, filled with Tate’s handwriting, and lifted my chin. I could live just fine without anything or anyone lost to Elizabeth.
Chapter Five
Tate
“What are you talking about?” I glared at Jase, who made no fucking sense whatsoever. Half gone on Hannah? Shit. “I don’t have a thing for Hannah.”
“Right.” A self-satisfied smirk twisted Jase’s mouth. I kinda wanted to punch him and knock it off. “Where’d you go after lunch today?”
The memory of Elizabeth touching my chest spiked through my brain and made me squirm. “To the feed store to get a pair of gloves.”
“Cheaper at Walmart.”
“It was closer.” Never mind I had to drive right by Wally World to get back to the farm. Clenching my teeth, I glanced away, staring at the pink-and-blue floral pattern in the wallpaper. I scuffed a hand over my neck and jaw. “Had to apologize to Hannah. I was an ass to her after y’all left last night.”
“Yep. Thought that’s who you watched out the window all through lunch when you weren’t bitching about Tick Calvert.” A weighted pause hung between us. “You’re always watching her.”
Heat scored my face. “I didn’t want you to see me looking at Elizabeth.”
“Right.” Could the fucker sound any more smug? My fingers itched to make a fist and throw a punch. “That’s why you get antsy when we’re out and she leaves the table or some guy hits on her.”
“Men are dogs.” And Hannah was deserving of so much more than some douche sniffing around her.
“And your real problem with Tick is that Hannah went out with him.”
“Once.” That didn’t count as going out. It wasn’t like she’d dated him for real or fucked him or anything. Just thinking about that made me want to kill the motherfucker. “She had dinner with him once.”
Jase snorted. “Dude, it was more like three times.”
I scowled. He was so wrong it wasn’t funny. “He took her to Nick’s–”
“Then they met in Macon and Columbus.”
“Doesn’t matter. He’s married to someone else now.” I heard the stubbornness in my voice, but my brain wanted to scramble around and produce nightmare scenarios. They’d been real friendly in the store, and how long did it take to get a pair of boots off a shelf, anyway?
“You don’t like him because Hannah liked him enough to go out with him.”
“I don’t like him because . . . this is stupid. Why are we talking about this shit anyway.” I rubbed at the center of my chest. I still hurt, only worse now. Hannah had blocked me, wouldn’t open the door to me. I’d hurt her, and she didn’t want anything to do with me.
“So Elizabeth’s free now.” Jase relaxed into the counter, a speculative gleam in his gaze, belying the deceptive casual note to his words. “I’m okay if you want to shoot your shot with her.”
I stared at him. “No.”
“Why not? You told me not ten minutes ago you had feelings for her. I’m not going back there and she might be open to comfort.” He made a noise in his throat, half-amused, half-disgusted.
