Page 34 of So Wrong It Must Be Right

Something in his body froze, almost. Certainly stiffened or stilled. He was silent for too many seconds and Dinah couldn’t help but wonder if she’d said something wrong. Maybe he didn’t want so much of her time.

You shouldn’t want so much of his.

Finally his eyes met hers, eyebrows furrowed, mouth grim and serious. “As D or Dinah Gallagher?”

Dinah shifted on her feet. Fair question, but that didn’t mean she particularly liked it. Because she didn’t know. Dinah Gallaghershouldvisit other farmers’ markets. It might even help crystallize her idea on how to keep Carter’s farm in one piece.

Which was a D thing, most certainly.

“Look, things are getting a little . . . blurry,” Carter said, the gentleness in his tone doing nothing to assuage the roiling conflict inside her gut.

“We need to keep these lines clear,” he continued, staring at the toaster instead of her. “You know that as well as I do.”

Unless . . . But she didn’t want to offer him thatunless. Not until it was a certainty, and maybe not even until she was sure she wanted anunless.

He bought and made you coffee. Yes, but he was still part enemy, part stranger. Part friend, part . . . more. Bottom line, she wasn’t sure of much of anything Carter related, and that made her uncomfortable. Surety had always been her strong suit.

So, she forced herself to find some surety, or at least fake it really, really hard. “I’ll let you know what I decide.”

She could tell he didn’t like the answer, but he didn’t say anything else. She kept drinking her coffee, he made toast, and they ate breakfast together as though it was normal.

It wasn’t normal in the least little bit, but it was nice. It was comfortable, even with the whole D-versus-Dinah and C-versus-Carter issues.

She decided then and there she would have a real answer for him by the end of this week. That was her deadline, and she always met her deadlines.

* * *

Carter was used to working farmers’ markets without anyone he actually knew ever coming up to visit him. Which was probably at least partly why he’d been weird when Dinah had suggested she might stop by.

Of course, it was far more complicated than that, but what the hell wasn’t these days?

When Jordan showed up at his booth though, Carter could only look at his friend with confusion. “Hey, man. What are you doing here?”

Jordan smiled amiably. “Just thought I’d drop by.”

“You never come to the farmers’ market. I’ve seen you shudder and then rail for thirty minutes about hipster nonsense at the mere mention of one.”

“Well, they are hipster nonsense,” Jordan replied, and his friendly smile was quickly dying. “But Grandma mentioned you had a woman over this morning.”

Carter blinked at his friend, surprised, confused, and then a little bit more confused at the odd note of accusation in Jordan’s tone. “I didn’t realize my sex life had anything to do with you.”

“I didn’t realize your sex life had anything to do with Dinah Gallagher.”

Carter didn’t have anything to say to that; probably couldn’t have managed a word, the way his breath seemed to leave him.

“That’s not exactly what I had in mind when I suggested fighting dirty.”

Carter bit back the nasty things he wanted to say. Things that would probably prove a few points he didn’t want proved. “It’s not fighting dirty. I don’t know what your grandma told you, but it’s none of your business.”

“Because you’re going to sell, aren’t you? Because of a pair of tits.”

Carter ground his teeth together to keep from reaching across his table and possibly punching his friend. Which was a strange reaction. He’d never been a particularly jealous guy, and he’d definitely never been a violent guy. But anyone talking about Dinah that way . . . Damn it, he was screwed up. But that didn’t mean Jordan had any right to talk about this.

“What are you doing here? I told you I’m not going to sell, and I’m not going to. I don’t need to fight dirty to do it, and my sex life is completely and utterly separate from anything to do with selling.”

“No, it’s not. Certainly not if you’re fucking Dinah Gallagher.”

“Listen . . .” Except Carter didn’t know what to say. The guy was worried that if he sold his farm, it would hurt Jordan’s grandmother, and Carter got that. In Jordan’s situation, he’d be worried too, but he couldn’t imagine going to the guy’s place of business and interrogating him about his romantic entanglements. Fuck, had he really just thought the termromantic entanglements?

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