Page 55 of Sultry Nights

"I said once. Once I did."

"Tisha, for crying out loud..."

"Look, this is new. We've been divorced for five years. You haven't dated anyone significantly in all that time. A couple dates here and there, but that was it. And this is different, and I don't know. I just, I don't know, I guess I, it's different."

A light wind would have blown him over right now.

"How in the ever-loving fuck do you know I've had any dates? Are you following me?"

Tisha shrugged, which made him want to chew glass.

"All right, so it's different. But five years, Tisha, five years we've been divorced."

"I know, I know, I know it."

He sucked in a deep breath. "So tell me this. Did you know that Hanna and I had been dating when you invited her over for lunch last week?"

He watched her suck her lips into her mouth. Her eyes darted around the room, but not at him. And he knew the answer before she finally said it. But he stood there and waited. She needed to say it.

"Yes, I did. Jared told me that he thought you were dating, and so I called her to see if she wanted to have lunch. As a matter of fact, she told me she had had a date, but she wouldn't tell me with who. And so I felt like she was hiding something from me or being dishonest because, after all, she was dating my ex-husband."

"Well, Tisha, she didn't know until last night I was your ex-husband. How about that? She wasn't hiding anything from you."

"That's ridiculous. This is a small town. Everybody knows everybody."

"Well, she hasn't been in town for a while. You changed back to your maiden name, Barkley. She had no way of knowing. And for the record, she's not nosy enough to check around and see who was married to who, when, and for how long while she was gone. Unlike you, she has a lot to do. She's running a business. She doesn't have time to sit on somebody's street for three fucking hours and watch what they're doing."

"Oh, knock it off. It was one time. Big deal, so what?"

"Yeah, big deal, so what? Stop following me, and for fuck's sake, you better not follow her. And also, no more house renovation projects. Not from my pocketbook, anyway. You want to do it? Do it on your own. If you're gonna take me back to court to get some money from me, it's all on your own dime now. Got that?"

"Yes, I've got it. Fine."

"And I told Hanna, I don't have a problem if you two want to be friends. It makes it easier on the kids if you are, but I've told her that you are manipulative and deceitful. So if you're expecting to get any information from her about our relationship, know this. It won't happen. If you want to know something about my relationship, you ask me and me only. And if I think it's something that you need to know, I will tell you. If not, that means it's none of your fucking business. Got it?"

"Got it. Get out of my house," she yelled.

"Gladly." He turned and stalked toward the door and right out to his truck. He didn't look back. He heard the door slam when he was three feet away. He didn't care. He hopped in his truck, drove down the road, and gave himself some time to calm down. He wouldn't call Sid until a little bit later when he'd had a minute to chill. He didn't need to throw this stuff on Sid just yet. They'd maybe chat about it later, but not now.

29

Hanna hummed as she refilled the bakery case to prepare for the morning rush. She looked up at the clock and saw that it was seven o'clock, time to open up.

Unlocking the front door, she went back into the kitchen to bring more cinnamon rolls out to the case. She carried out her tray of cinnamon rolls and smiled when her first customer walked in.

"Good morning, Jared. How are you? Want your cinnamon roll and coffee this morning?"

"I sure do, Hanna. Thank you."

She poured him a cup of coffee and slid that over on the counter.

He filled it with his fixings, which she knew by now was a lot of sugar and some creamer, as she pulled the cinnamon roll out of the case.

"You want it in a box to go?"

"Yeah, stick it in a box. I'm going to eat it in front of the guys at the job site."

She chuckled. "Well, that's kind of mean."

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