Page 19 of Hit the Ground
Still, she’d kissed me two weeks ago and was already off on a date with another guy. It didn’t sit right with me. Was I that easy to get over?
Hell, looked like I was.
“How are things going on the ranch?” Cormac asked, settling back in his seat. “Haven’t heard you cuss out the irrigation system lately.”
“Plenty of other things to cuss out, but that’s all part of the fun.” I forced my eyes down to the menu. “Everything’s fine. Busy, like always.”
“That’s good.” He flipped his menu shut without even looking at it. He always ordered the same damn thing anyway. “What’s Jesse up to this week?”
“School, the library, his usual haunts. His robotics club has a competition coming up, so he’s hyped about that.” My jaw ticced. “Shelby’s talking about moving him to Denver.”
Cormac’s eyebrows shot up. “What? Since when?”
“She brought it up a couple weeks ago then mentioned it again when I brought Jesse back to her. She wants to move there so her boyfriend can find work.”
“That’s…man. I don’t even know what to say.” He shook his head. “Is she serious about this guy?”
“Seems like it, but you know Shel. She’s always serious about one guy or another,” I muttered. “Jesse’s pretty cagey about how he feels toward him.”
Cormac went quiet for a minute, drumming his fingers on the table. “What are you gonna do?”
“Don’t know yet.” I rubbed a hand over my jaw. The stubble scratched against my palm. “I’m trying to keep the peace, but I’m not letting her move my kid three hours away. I shut that down fast, and I’ll continue to shut it down every time she brings it up.”
“Yeah.” He nodded firmly. “What is she thinking? Jesse’s family lives here. There’s no way he’d want to move that far away for one of his mom’s boyfriends of the moment.”
I blew out a slow breath, trying to unclench my shoulders. “I’m mad I even have to expend a second of mental energy on this.”
“I get that.” He picked up his menu again. “If Shelby tries to push it, we’ll figure something out.”
“Yeah.” My gaze drifted back to Alice before I could stop it. Her date was talking, and she was nodding along, her smile small and tucked away.
Cormac, oblivious, cleared his throat. “So, darts after this? Or you got an early morning tomorrow?”
I forced myself to look at him. “Early morning. Let’s just eat.”
“All right.” He set his menu aside, grinning at the waitress as she approached. “Then I’m making you buy me pie before we leave.”
“Fine,” I agreed, but my mind wasn’t on pie. It was on the woman sitting across the diner, laughing softly at something another man said.
Wondering why the hell I disliked it as much as I did.
A couple days later, I still hadn’t outrun the dark clouds looming over my head. Instead of going home after work and sinking further, I took another drive into town to see Phoebe.
Sugar Rush was hopping with late-day caffeine seekers. Phoebe, Camille, and Hailey bustled behind the counter, making drinks and helping customers. Deacon had been put to work, busing tables and wiping them down. Though if I had to guess, he’d volunteered. If he had a choice, I was pretty sure he’d neverlet Phoebe’s feet touch the ground; that was how gone for my sister he was.
It sure made it easy to see him like a brother.
I greeted him then planted myself at the end of the five-person line, letting my gaze wander around the place. It was mostly women chatting in small groups, a couple ranch hands looking scruffy after a hard day of working, and people tapping away on laptops. My eyes snagged on a table by the front window.
Alice.
She was sitting across from a man with an open laptop in front of him. He was older than the guy at the diner, with salt-and-pepper hair and a pressed dress shirt, the sleeves rolled up. He was talking, leaning forward slightly. She smiled as she listened. Small, interested, like she cared about what he had to say.
He wasn’t making her laugh like the other guy had, but her attention was rapt.
“Next,” Phoebe called, dragging my attention back to the counter.
I stepped forward, giving her my order of black coffee and one of her pecan sticky buns.
