Page 9 of When in Rome

“You comfy?” I ask in an annoyed tone. “Anything else I can get you? A magazine? A blanket? A chair?”

“I’m good, thank you.” He smiles indulgently. Women often call James charming. I call him a pain in the ass. “So…what’s her name?”

I actually don’t know what the protocol is here. Are you supposed to tell people if you have someone famous in your house? “Rae,” I say with a discreet clear of my throat.

“Last name?” He blows on his coffee and peers at me over the rim of his cup.

I turn my eyes up like I’m racking my brain for the answer. Like it’s not been buzzing through my head all morning. Sitting on the tip of my tongue. Racing through my dreams last night. “Umm…I think it was Mind-Your-Own-Damn-Business. Don’t you have more crates to unload? I know I ordered more than this.”

I pick up the apples and carry them over to my walk-in pantryand start unloading them into bins. My annoying shadow follows. “Why are you being so secretive?”

“I’m not. I’m just tired of talking to you.”

“Hmm, extraprickly today. This woman must have gotten under your skin. How long is she staying?”

I turn around and bump his shoulder on my way out of the pantry. “You’rethe one getting under my skin.”

If he’s not going to unload the crates, I will. This town is making way too much out of nothing. So there’s a woman at my house? Big deal. She’s not staying. In fact, I’m hoping she’ll be out of there by the time I get home. The last thing I need is some privileged pop star running up my electricity bill.

I go out into the back alley and pull a crate of eggs off the bed of James’s truck. I consider skimming one or two off the top and throwing them at his front windshield. When I turn back toward the shop, James is blocking the back entrance looking just as mischievous as when we were kids and he talked me into sneaking out at night so we could go swimming with the Fremont girls. It was a good night, though.

“Just give me the details and I’ll leave.”

I let out a deep breath and it escapes more like a growl than an exhale. “Fine. Her name is Rae Rose and her car broke down in my front yard. I let her sleep in my guest room and that’s it. End of story.”

His brows pull together and I can see that he’s trying to place her name. He’s heard of her—everyone has—so it’s only a matter of time before he realizes just who is at my house. Annnnnd there it is. His eyes go wide and his mouth drops open. “You don’t mean to tell me that…”

I nod, finishing his sentence for him. “The princess of soulful pop is in my house right now breathing up all my bought air.”

“No shit!” A new dawning look that I don’t quite like hits him.Like he’s imagining her face. Like he’s imagining his new prospects. And then his eyes shift to me and his look changes. “Ohhhh, now I see what’s up with the surly attitude.”

“I’m always surly.”

He’s smirking now like he understands everything about me. He probably does. I hate it. “She’s gorgeous and talented and you like her. But she’s an out-of-towner, and you’re too jaded to let yourself even talk to her.”

“I talked to her just fine. Now move,” I say, breezing past him and setting down the eggs. I run my hand over some pots and pans, making a ton of noise just for the hell of it. I don’t like that he picked me apart so easily.

Unfortunately, James isn’t scared of my moods like the rest of the town. “Man, you’re being an idiot. Rae Rose is…” He trails off with another look that makes me feel like punching something. Or him. “Anyway, it’s gotta be like a one in a million chance that she would break down in your front yard. Where’s she headed anyway?”

I wish she’d dropped into his front yard instead of mine. Clearly he appreciates the situation more than I do. “Why should I care?”

“Because…I don’t know. Maybe you’d have a shot with her.”

“I don’t want a shot with her.”

He scoffs and rolls his eyes. “Man, come on. Are you just never gonna date again? Merritt messed you up that bad?”

I clench my jaw. “Don’t talk to me about her.”

He ignores my threat. “You’re gonna have to try again eventually. Why not go all out and try with a gorgeous celebrity?”

What makes him think I would have a shot with a woman like her, anyway? This town is nuts. Rae Rose is so far out of my league she wouldn’t even give me a second thought.

It’s clear that James is not going to stop pushing if I don’t give him what he wants. So after filling my lungs as full as possible, I push through the uncomfortable feeling that comes along withsharing any emotional part of myself and look straight at him. “I’ll date again when I’m good and ready. But I sure as hell won’t be trying with another woman whose life exists outside of this town—because you know I can’t go with her. And let’s say the world has flipped upside down and she was interested in a pie shop owner from Kentucky; I don’t care to date a celebrity and find out through a tabloid that she cheated onme.”

James gives me a pitying look. “Just because—”

“No, we’re done now.” I open the back door to the kitchen, not so subtly telling James to get out. He doesn’t budge. I’m going to have to rent a forklift for the day and physically scoop him out of here. “Will you quit making this out to be something it’s not? She’ll be leaving just as soon as Tommy tows her car to his shop and throws some oil in it.” If I’m lucky, I’ll never even have to see her again. It’s what I should have done when Merritt passed through town all those years ago—ignored her. I left Rae a note on the kitchen counter this morning with the phone number to Tommy’s Automotive shop, hoping that she’d get everything taken care of before I get home.

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