Ain't She Sweet (Seven Brides for Seven Mothers #2) - Whitney Dineen Page 0,34
your dad. No sir, I’m going to pay for your plumbing and there’s nothing you can do about it.”
“It’s going to run ten thousand dollars, Mom. I’m not taking that kind of money from you.”
“You can pay me back if you ever find yourself with money burning a hole in your pocket,” she says determinedly.
I know when I’m licked. “I’m going to pay you back,” I tell her.
Gwen stands up and declares, “I’m off.” She gives Tara a kiss on her way out the door and I hear her say, “You’ve got this, honey. You’ve been through worse.”
My mom leaves right after Gwen, so I plop down on Tara’s sofa and pick up the remote. “What are you doing?” she wants to know.
“I thought I’d watch some TV,” I tell her.
“Don’t you have your own room?” she asks.
“I don’t want you to be lonely,” I say nicely. The truth is I’m worried about her and I want to make sure she’s okay before I leave.
Tara shoos me over to the edge of the couch before sitting down on the other end. Penny jumps between us. I sign into my Netflix account and ask, “Have you ever seen Schitt’s Creek?”
She shakes her head before saying, “That doesn’t sound like it would be my cup of tea.”
“I think we should give it a try,” I tell her while turning it on. “After all, if anyone is up the proverbial creek right now, it’s you. Maybe you can get a few pointers.”
I duck right before she hits me with a throw pillow.
Chapter Seventeen
Gwen
“I should have thrown firebombs instead of eggs. I should have never come to Oregon. I should go home right now and throw the press off the scent,” Gwen grumbles to herself on her way to Tara’s house.
Of course, there was no sense in going home now. Once the rags caught a whiff, they were like vultures to a fresh kill. Except in Tara’s case they were intent on committing the murder before feasting.
Gwen has regularly worried about the stress the press has caused her daughter over the years. She certainly witnessed enough of it when she traveled with her, but ever since Tara turned eighteen, she’s been lucky not to have that burden herself.
What would it take for the reporters to finally lose interest? She decides that if Romaine would just find someone else, they’d give up their zeal to reunite “Tomaine.”
Following Google Maps instruction, she turns left at the Quick Stop onto the street where her daughter lives. She parks in front of the freshly dinged car she remembers being pursued by earlier that morning. Gwen turns off her ignition, gets out of her rental, and goes to confront the man vexing them all, but when she looks inside the car, he isn’t there.
Tara
Penny is sound asleep between me and James on the couch, the hum of her soft snoring is the only thing I’m taking any comfort from at the moment. Who knew when I woke up this morning my life would take such a turn?
I want to call Geoffrey and explain my sudden absence, but Ruby assures me she’ll take care of everything. What am I supposed to do to fill my time now? There’s only so much sitting on a couch binge-watching Netflix a person can do.
I kick off my shoes and pull up my feet before covering them with the throw draped across the back of the sofa.
James points at the TV and recaps the first episode. “It’s kind of like you, huh? Leaving your glamorous life behind for a tiny blip of a town in the middle of nowhere.”
“Those people are nothing like me,” I assure him. “I wanted to leave; I chose to leave. It’s not my fault I’m being tracked like an escaped convict.”
“Have you talked to Romaine about all this? I mean, you were together for what, two years?”
“Three.” I have thought about calling Romaine, but I’m afraid he’d take the contact as an indication that I wanted to get back together. All along he’s thought my desire to leave the industry for a quieter life was just something I needed to get out of my system. When I moved out, he told me he was expecting it to be a temporary situation.
James interrupts my thoughts. “It must be hard to have a breakup after such a long time.”
“You’ve never had a long-term relationship go south?” I ask in surprise.
“I’ve never been in a relationship that’s lasted longer than a year.”