because people were always trying to lure him into private practice. He wouldn’t go—not with the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s office up for grabs—but none of that mattered to me. We might be getting a divorce, but I still had a business to run. That’s why my part-time shop assistant—Randi—and I were so busy that I closed the tea shop entirely so we could focus on production. This wasn’t a particularly big deal, seeing as we never sold anything anyway.
As for Cooper, there wasn’t much to tell. Eventually I decided that I’d imagined the tension between us. Not that I could complain about his work ethic—he kept himself busy enough, but whenever we ran into each other, he was only casually friendly. He’d give me a wave or we’d discuss work around the place, but his eyes were distant. Blank.
And of course, she was always around. Ugh. I don’t know who disgusted me more, myself or Talia. She might be the immature brat, but I was certainly feeling like one. Who gets jealous of some guy they’ve never even kissed, anyway?
Stalkers and crazy people.
We hadn’t entered full-on stalker territory just yet, but sometimes I felt like it was close. I caught myself watching him around the property, unconsciously tracking his schedule so that I could just happen to be around when he was. Pathetic. Lame. But, oh my God, the man was a work of art . . . And when he smiled, it felt like my heart might explode. Well, something definitely wanted to explode. Ha! On the bright side he was getting tons of work done and probably putting in more hours than was fair. For the first time since my mom died, I didn’t feel all stressed out about the apartments.
Cooper’s repairs weren’t the only changes in the building, either. That weekend a new family had moved into the last vacant unit, and overnight the place had burst with energy because there were four kids.
Yeah, four. In a two-bedroom apartment.
That violated my policy on the number of people per bedroom, but I had a soft spot for the mother, Janelle. We’d gone to school together and she’d gotten pregnant about the same time as my friend Carrie. Her story hadn’t ended as well. The father took off right after the baby was born and Janelle’s parents kicked her out. She’d drifted from one dead-end job to the next until about ten years ago, when she married a man whose main purpose in life seemed to be drinking and knocking her around.
They’d had three more kids together before she’d gotten up the nerve to move out, and when she’d come to me asking about the empty place, there was no way in hell I’d have said no.
Now I came home every day to find children running wild around our little courtyard, and while it was noisy it was also fantastic. Sure, I got the occasional twinge, the memory of little Tricia bittersweet and full of pain. But when they started building a fort using pallets and scraps from one of my dad’s old projects, I didn’t have the heart to tell them no.
There was only one downside . . . Janelle’s first child, Sadie, was all grown up, and she was part of Talia’s little posse. Now the bitch had two reasons to come hang out around my building, and I didn’t like that one little bit.
Still, I felt optimistic that Thursday night. I’d made all the special-order caramels and had dipped about half of them. If I finished the rest by tomorrow, I’d be able to take my first weekend totally off in forever. Carrie and I had already booked ourselves into the day spa for manis, pedis, and drinkies.
That’s why—despite my inner creeper when it came to Cooper—I was feeling all pleased with myself. Dad was already in bed, and I’d settled onto the porch swing with a book, enjoying the fading light and night air. These days it was too hot to spend much time outside, but the evenings were perfect. Living in the northwest, I had only a month or two each year where it was actually warm enough to sit outside in the dark. I liked to take advantage of them.
The book was good, and I was sucked in deep enough that I didn’t even notice when someone started up the porch steps.
“Tinker, you got a minute?” he asked, startling an unattractive squawk out of me. Cooper laughed, and I glared up at