Page 57 of Clean Sweep
With the most reserved voice I could muster I said, “Tanner offered to help out with the reunion today because Celeste is at her mother’s house. I accepted his offer.”
Dahlia grinned slowly, and it reminded me entirely too much of the grinch.
“I bet you did,” she drawled.
I pointed at her. “Don’t do that. This only means that he’s bored and wants to help. That’s it.”
She rolled her eyes. “Tell yourself that if it makes you feel better, but we know the truth. He’s going to ask you on a date tonight, guaranteed.”
“He would have asked by now if he was going to, don’t you think?”
She shrugged. “Maybe he’s working up his courage.”
“We talk every day! And none of it is trivial. He asks me big stuff, like what spending tendencies I have with discretionary cash.”
Dahlia lifted an eyebrow. “Is that dating in midlife?”
My nose wrinkled. “No idea, but if it is, it’s refreshing.”
“He’s going to ask you about your mortgage amortization schedule next.”
I rolled my eyes, but still felt compelled to defend Tanner. “Can you imagine if Bastian had asked you that at the beginning? Gamechanger, right?”
She burst into laughter. Bastian sent her a slitted glare, which only made her laugh harder.
“Sorry.” She waved a hand in front of her face. “Getting him to say two words was a miracle then. Sometimes now, too,” she added with a lift of her mug in his direction. “Not sure he’d care enough to getmortgage amortization scheduleout.”
He ignored her, gaze focused on his computer screen. His fingers flew across the keyboard with practiced speed.
“Doesn’t matter anyway. Dating isn’t on my list,” I said as I yanked my coat off and pulled my phone out of my pocket. “Besides, we’re . . . friends more than anything else. If he was interested in me romantically, he would have asked me on a date by now. Or, you know, walked into the shop to sayhelloinstead of picking his daughter up outside and waving.”
Dahlia opened her mouth to rebut, then stopped and closed it again.
“A ha!” I cried. “See? You agree.”
“Not agree!” she cried, wagging a finger at me. “I just have no . . . formed opinion or response yet.”
“Still, proves my point.”
“Me thinks,” Dahlia murmured with a brightness in her eyes, “that she protests too much.”
She sent a knowing look my way that I blatantly ignored. Maybe I did feel a littletoomotivated to prove myself indifferent. Hadn’t I been giddy with hope at home? Yes, but carefully so. This situation felt like I had to brace myself for the inevitability or convince myself that I didn’t want more.
A lie.
But I’d lived lies before.
“Anyway.” I spun my phone around to face me. “I have a reunion to focus on, and he’s here to help. That’s it. No comments, no matchmaking, no attempts to get us together. Capeesh?”
Dahlia sighed.
“Fine,” she muttered into her coffee. “I’ll . . . drive Bastian crazy instead of you.”
Bastian lifted an eyebrow at her.
“Besides,” I added, my finger twirled in the air to indicate the greater Pineville area. “There are going to be Mercedys all up in here all day long as they start arriving from the airport and shuffle to the lodge and other events. It’s going to be insanely busy and Tanner’s done me a huge favor volunteering to help out.”
“What will you do tonight though? It’s Christmas!”
