distracted by current girlfriends or hookups. Grown men crashing all over our home like it was a fraternity house was not my idea of an idyllic home life.
Romaine and I were a couple for three years, but we didn’t live together until we got engaged. When I got out of culinary school and started working full time, we hardly ever saw each other. It made sense for us to cut out all the commuting time and share a house. The problem was that Romaine still thought of it as his bachelor pad and not our home. He never asked if the revolving door of visitors was okay with me. It was the beginning of the end.
“You coming with that paper?” James's question breaks into my thoughts.
I chuck the notebook at him. “Impatient much?” Penny jumps up and lets out a bark, so I pick her up and take her into the kitchen where we set out her food and water. Once she’s done eating, I put on the leash James bought for her and take her out back to do her business.
He joins me after a few minutes. “She looks right at home here.”
“I bet she’d look more at home on your farm where she could run for miles.” My answer sounds snippy even to my ears. What is with this man that I can’t seem to go more than five minutes without attacking?
“I wrote down a couple of ideas,” he says, not seeming to notice my change of mood. He hands me the notebook before turning around. “I’m going to put dinner on.” I watch as he walks away, feeling conflicting emotions. I am not a woman who needs a man in her life. I’ve been on my own more often than not, but I still like how it feels to have someone take care of me.
Against my better judgment, I let myself wonder what that would be like if that person were James.
Chapter Ten
Ruby
“The dining room is so magical with all the tea lights lit,” Chris tells Ruby before taking a sip of wine. “The chandeliers look like stars in the night sky when they’re dimmed like this.”
“You’re feeling like quite the poet tonight, aren’t you?” Ruby laughs.
“It’s something about this time of year that really gets me. I feel fragile and powerful at the same time.”
“I know what you mean. Tom and I loved going for walks in the fall. The bite in the air and the clean smell of the leaves are an intoxicating combination.”
The friends revel in their own thoughts for a moment before Chris says, “This garden venture of yours isn’t going to be cheap.”
“I’m sure it won’t be, but it will more than pay for itself in a couple years with all the food it’ll produce for the restaurant,” Ruby replies.
“Tom would have loved this idea.”
Ruby absently picks at the salmon cake in front of her. “He would have told me I was crazy and that I was taking on too much.”
“But then he would have jumped on board and made it happen. Especially if it meant throwing his son in the path of a strong-willed woman who doesn’t take any crap from him.”
Ruby enjoys a fortifying sip of merlot. “Tom would have had such a laugh over me trying to set up James with Tara. Call me fanciful, but I talk to him every night before I fall asleep and sometimes I swear he answers me.”
“I’m one hundred percent sure he does,” Chris says while reaching over to take her friend’s hand. “You and Tom were a great team. If you’d been famous, the tabloids would have given you one of those cutesy couple names like Rom or Tuby.”
“Tuby?” Ruby starts to giggle despite the melancholy she’d begun feeling. “I guess that means that you and Dale would be Cale or Dis.”
“Hey, don’t dis the kale!” Chris peals with laughter. “Brogan and Addie would be Agan or Baddie.” Then she says, “Didn’t they call Tara and her ex Tomaine?”
“Yuck,” Ruby says. Then with a wink, adds, “I prefer Tames.”
“As if anyone could tame your son.”
“I bet Tara could, if she had a mind to.” A pleasant sensation of possibility and contentment fills Ruby’s heart. If she could just settle her sons and get them to make her some grandkids, then she’d have new people to focus her love on. Tom’s passing left such a hole that she wants and needs something big to help fill it.
James
I Googled Tara right after the dinner