Ain't She Sweet (Seven Brides for Seven Mothers #2) - Whitney Dineen Page 0,45

she’ll pack up and go and that will be it.”

My mom grimaces. “Maybe. Or maybe once the two of you are the subject of one article, other reporters will show up to write their own stories.”

Good god, if that’s the case, this thing could balloon into a real circus. I try to sound optimistic when I answer, “Once they see how boring life is here, they’ll move on.”

“Life isn’t boring here!” my mom chastises me. “It’s adventurous and gorgeous and wonderful.”

“It is,” I agree. “I just meant that once they see that Tara is living a normal life, there won’t be any reason for them to stick around.”

“From your mouth to God’s ear,” she says. “Is Tara up?”

I nod my head. “She was in the bathroom when I picked up Penny.”

“Have you two had breakfast yet?” she asks.

“Not yet, but I bought stuff to make it in the room. I have to take the dog out first though.”

“Let me know if you need anything.” She walks back to the lobby with me.

As soon as we near the great room, I see the very woman we were just talking about. Rachel Perry appears to be deep in conversation with none other than Syd Byerly. I pause and wonder if she’s the right person for Tara to talk to after all. What if the two interlopers are in cahoots and getting Tara to talk is a trap? I have no idea what kind of trap that might be, but it doesn’t bode well that the two people who followed Gwen to Oregon appear to know each other.

I hurry and tend to Penny before Tara has a chance to call Rachel.

Chapter Twenty-Three

Gwen

Rolling over in bed, Gwen takes the time to stretch from her fingers down to her toes before picking up the phone to call her daughter. When Tara answers, she announces, “I met James’s uncle at the market yesterday and he asked me to supper.”

“Did you go?”

“You don’t sound concerned,” Gwen tells her daughter, a little disgruntled that her safety wasn’t being looked after.

“Billy is Ruby’s brother-in-law. While I don’t know him personally, I know you have nothing to worry about.”

“Well, I did go, and we had a wonderful time. He cooked for me. I can’t tell you the last time someone did that.”

“Wow, Mom, you’re a fast operator. I’ve been here for months and haven’t been out on one date yet. You’ve been here for two days and you’re already painting the town red.”

“I didn’t say Billy and I were on a date. All I said is that we had dinner together.”

“So, it wasn’t a date?” Tara asks.

“I’m not saying that either.” Gwen can’t help the bubble of excitement she feels. Billy grilled freshly caught fish and served it with a salad and roasted potatoes. After they ate, they sat quietly on his porch, enjoying the sounds of nature. There was no need to talk for the sake of talking. Gwen relished the peacefulness of spending time with another person without filling every moment with chatter.

“So, it wasn’t a date, but it might have been a date?”

“That’s all I’m saying,” Gwen says, feeling a wonderful sense of contentment.

Tara

While I wait for the coffee to drip, I once again consider my options for dealing with the press. I don’t want to run again, so it seems the only alternative is to show them that my life has become so boring people would have more fun listening to a Muzak version of Radiohead than hearing about me. That’s no slam against James or Spartan, it’s just that small towns and farmers aren’t normally the kind of drama that sell tabloids.

The main reason the rags care about me anymore is because of Romaine. That’s why I need to make sure the photos that accompany any article written about me are enough to convince him I’ve moved on.

When Romaine told me he still loved me yesterday, I felt sad. You don’t spend three years as part of a couple without some real emotion being involved. Yet, the past is the past. There was no way for us to stay a couple when we have such fundamentally different desires for how we want to live our lives.

Romaine is a great famous person. He jokes with the paparazzi and smiles brightly whenever he’s in public. He gives interviews and loves going to parties. He spends months out of every year on tour surrounded by hundreds of thousands of adoring fans. Attention is like a battery to him;