Page 15 of Tempting the Heart

“You think I run that place by myself?” She grinned proudly. “I have employees.”

I shook my head. “I couldn’t ask either of you to help. It’s just too…”

“Complicated?” Brad offered.

“Exactly.”

“I like complication, and it’s not like I might ever see you again before you’re an old man.”

Mae smiled and nodded. “And I’m really good with people. Maybe I can help.”

Horror darted through me. The last thing I wanted was Mae to be on the receiving end of any of my parents’ tongue lashings.

“No.” I shook my head. “But thank you both. I think since my dad is a bit down and out right now, I’ll be able to get a pretty good handle on things, and then I won’t feel so guilty for leaving.”

Mae looked puzzled. “Why would you feel bad for leaving?”

I’d said too much. The Evans siblings had no idea what it was like living with parents like mine. My parents excelled at a few things in life—guilt, cruelty, and gambling. If one was taken away, the other two came out fully, and since my dad wasn’t ableto get to the racetrack, they’d doubled down on guilt and cruelty. Brad and Mae didn’t need to get bogged down in details.

“Long story.” I raised my glass. “But let’s cheer to great memories and even better friends.”

Mae lifted her glass and smiled. “Only if you tell us what time to show up on Wednesday.”

Chapter Five

Mae

“You can’t have what you can’t have,” I muttered to myself, adjusting the strap of my camisole.

The sunshine poured through my kitchen window, and I stared at the microwave clock that read ten o’clock. It was Tuesday morning, and Stephanie was already at the coffee shop. She had the opening shift today and Thursday.

I tried to work around my employees’ school schedules, and it worked great so far. Steph was nineteen and took the ferry on Mondays and Wednesdays to the University District in Seattle for her classes. Meanwhile, Jessie had his classes on Tuesday and Thursday. There were occasional days like yesterday when I ran the place myself, but knowing I had backup was nice. Of course, my siblings would help out if I were really in a crunch, but so far, there hadn’t been a need.

My mind drifted back to dinner with Tyler last night. The conversation flowed so well and the time flew by. All the awkwardness I worried about didn’t exist. There were so many laughs. But there was also this heaviness whenever the reason for him being here came up. My brother and Tyler tried to laugh it away or sweep it under the rug, but I could see the hurt in Tyler’s eyes.

I knew so little about his experience growing up, and being a kid when I knew him, I just assumed all families were like my own.

Happy.

But it was evident that there was a lot of dysfunction for him growing up, which had carried over to now. His parents still treated him as if he were less than, from what I could tell.

A shiver ran through me as I thought about how hard it must be for him to be here.

My mom knocked at the front door while simultaneously opening it and hollering in her sing-song voice. She’d mentioned she was going to stop by this morning.

“I’m in the kitchen,” I called, taking a sip of coffee.

Ironically, I never got tired of the stuff.

“I heard the news.” My mom clapped her hands, and her eyes quickly found mine as soon as she entered the kitchen.

I shook my head. “What news?”

“Tyler is back.”

I laughed, knowing exactly where my mom was headed, so I knew I needed to steer her in a different direction. “He’s back for a few days. He hopes to leave Friday night or Saturday morning, depending on his dad’s last appointment.”

My mom walked over and helped herself to a cup of coffee. “We’ll see.”

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