All's Fair in Love and Chocolate (Marietta Chocolate Wars #1) - Amy Andrews Page 0,13

Reuben. “Oh my goodness, Reuben Price. She’s the one, isn’t she?”

Viv frowned. The one? What one?

“Um…I’m not sure what you mean, Mrs. Phillips?” Reuben looked as confused as Viv felt.

The older woman drew herself up and puffed out her chest. “Don’t act dumb with me, young man, you know who I mean. I saw you kissing her.” Then she turned to Viv. “I don’t know how you can dare even show your face around these parts. It’s bad enough that you’re trying to run Sage out of business but breaking up Reuben and Clementine is unforgivable.”

And then with a flick of her head and a loud huff the woman departed.

Viv’s eyes met Reuben’s. “What the hell was that about?”

“Oh shit.” He shook his head. “I’m so sorry. Are you okay?”

“Well that depends.” She was very aware of the curious looks being thrown in her direction but mostly Viv could feel the slow simmer of anger in her gut. “I thought you and your girlfriend had split before we’d slept together?”

Viv didn’t screw around with unavailable men.

Okay, sure, it had only been a couple of days before that according to Reuben and, if Viv had been after something more than a quick roll in the hay, she wouldn’t have touched Reuben with a barge pole. Men on the rebound were not good dating potential. But she hadn’t wanted to date him, which had made Reuben perfect one-night stand material.

It had been win-win for both of them.

“We had.” He sighed. “It’s a long story.”

Viv folded her arms. “I have time.”

Pressing his beer to his lips again, Reuben drained the bottle before placing it down in front of him. “Quite a few people who know me saw us together in Bozeman. They didn’t know about the breakup. So our Bozeman…liaison got around Marietta quicker than the news that Clem and I had split and some people put two and two together and got—”

“A million and six.”

He nodded. “Right.”

“And did your ex set them straight?” Viv was going to have a hard-enough time in Marietta with the whole Sage thing without being pegged as some kind of homewrecker as well. It was fine, she could abide anything for six months, but she still wasn’t keen on being the other woman.

“Yes. She asked me about the rumors. I told her I had hooked up with you on Sunday night two days after she’d dumped me. She said good for you, Reuben, and wished me well and tried to set the record straight but when she left town a few days later a lot of people assumed she was brokenhearted and that her denials had been an attempt to save face.”

“She left town?”

“Yeah.” He shrugged. “She decided to go on a six-week Contiki tour of Europe with some of her friends from California. She’d always wanted to do it and had never gotten around to it and she just…went for it.”

“So…not brokenhearted?”

“Nope.” He shook his head. “Not even remotely.”

“But still…you’re the one left behind here dealing with all the flak.”

“It’s fine.” He smiled then. “Let them talk. I know what happened. You know what happened. That’s all that really matters. And besides, the gossip had just about worn itself out. It will again.”

In other words, if she hadn’t shown up in town, this accusation against Reuben might have all died a natural death. But here she was, living evidence of his supposed indiscretion. She wondered how long that would take to get around town.

“I mean, my mom is still pissed at me. So is Clementine’s.”

Oh-kay. Cross them off as potential customers then. Possibly their friendship circles as well.

“Not because they believe the rumors,” he hastened to add. “But they’d been picking out china patterns for us for a while so they’ve taken the split kinda hard.”

China patterns? “I thought you said you and your ex weren’t really that hot and heavy.”

“We weren’t but…mothers…” He shrugged. “Whatcha gonna do?”

Viv’s mother had never pressured her to settle down or marry. She was already a grandmother five times over and she loved that Viv was a well-traveled career woman, something Viv always suspected her mom had dreamed about until a teenage pregnancy had pierced all those aspirations and life had taken her down a different path.

“Don’t worry,” he assured, “they’ll get over it eventually.”

Eventually. Right… Viv wasn’t worried per se—she was here for six months then moving on. But it was all the more reason for her and Reuben to keep things platonic. She didn’t want any overly invested