Page 13 of Whiskey and Whispers
“And you’re mad at yourself,” Tyler said, completing her unspoken thought. “You probably did a lousy job of defending yourself.”
“Do I have any defense?” she questioned. “There are no good reasons.”
“All the emotions and history you had together might be a reason,” Tyler pointed out. “Listen, give Tate a little time. By tomorrow, he’ll be back to normal. He’s not going to hold onto this. You’ve said you’re sorry. It will all be fine.”
Tyler had always been the optimistic type.
“And no, I don’t think anyone else is mad at you,” he continued. “But then, I don’t live here. Some people might be, but I don’t see or talk to them.”
“You live in Seattle, right?”
With her question, they were off to the races, talking about the places they’d seen all over the world - her because of the job and him because he loved seeing new places. Tyler had even eaten at some of her favorite restaurants in New York City.
She’d almost forgotten her encounter with Tate when several group members came out to the patio to join them.
“Are you keeping Cat all to yourself?” Winnie accused, but with a smile on her face. “Shame on you. We all want to spend some time with her tonight.”
“I want to hear all about Fashion Week,” Lindsey said. “And about all the movie stars she’s met.”
That would be a short conversation. While Cat had met famous people, she didn’t have much to say on the subject. Most of them had been fairly normal, and she wasn’t going to talk about the ones that weren’t.
“What you need is another drink,” Rachel said, placing her arm around Cat’s shoulder and guiding her back into the house. “We can’t have you hiding out here all night.”
Sadly, hiding on the back porch was preferable to running into Tate again. It looked like she’d returned home to one less friend than when she’d left.
And it was her own damn fault.
“It went fine, Mom. It wasn’t a big deal.”
Cat took a sip of her coffee, savoring the first cup of the day. She hadn’t slept well and desperately needed the caffeine. Tate’s face had haunted her dreams all night.
“Catherine Elizabeth, you are a terrible liar. I can see that everything isn’t okay.”
Her mother was like a dog with a bone. She wasn’t going to let this go easily.
“Okay, it wasn’t all fine. Happy now?”
“What happened?”
This wasn’t the conversation that Cat wanted to have with her mother. Tate’s behavior last night had hurt her more than she’d ever imagined. In her mind, their first meetup had gone completely differently. They’d been civil but cordial. Nice and friendly.
So much for my fantasy life.
“Tate still has some anger about when his mother disappeared. And maybe about how I sort of ghosted him, not returning his calls when I started working. He said that I only apologized because I wanted him to make me feel better about myself.”
Her mother didn’t say anything right away, eating the last bite of scrambled eggs on her plate first. Cat could practically see the wheels turning in her mom’s head. Of course, Grace Townsend had something to say about all of this.
“You did wrong back then, Cat.”
She wasn’t shocked at her mother’s statement. Far from it, actually. Grace had been saying it for a long time, although inmore vague terms. This was the first time she’d actually called her own daughter out, not mincing words.
“I know, but I can’t turn back time, Mom. I can’t undo the crappy thing that I did. I truly wish I could, but I can’t.”
Grace stood and walked over to the coffeemaker to refill her cup.
“An apology is a good first step. But I have to ask…did you want him to make you feel better? Did you want him to say it wasn’t a big deal?”
The million-dollar question - one that had kept her awake all night.
