The food was bad for her waistline, but the gossip about them was worse for her headspace.
“Come on. Don’t be a—”
“No.” She pulled her arm out of his grasp. “I just don’t want to go down there again. With you. I mean—” She bit off her words, suddenly mortified that she’d spoken her mind out loud.
It was the second time that day. Earlier she’d spoken the truth about Topher’s injuries, and now. Well, now the words had hit their mark.
He blinked, his eyes going wide. “What does that mean?”
“It means that I’ve gotten five phone calls from my grandmother’s friends who saw us at Annie’s on Saturday and last Wednesday. And then there’s the way you’ve been fixing my leaking plumbing. And the fact that you and your crew moved me into this office space a month ago. People are talking about us…” She ended the phrase with a gesture that wasn’t terribly eloquent. Then she huffed out a breath and studied the exposed beams in the ceiling.
“And is that so bad?” he asked.
“What? You know what they’re saying.”
He nodded. “Maybe we should, you know, give them something to talk about.”
She locked gazes with him as the earth shifted beneath her feet. What the…?
“Uh. Um. Colton. No. We don’t…I mean, I don’t…Oh, good grief.” She turned away from him.
She didn’t love Colton. Not that way anyway. Heck, she wasn’t sure she could love anyone. Or that anyone could love the real her—the woman inside who sometimes believed the nasty things Daddy had said about her coming up.
No. She didn’t want a man in her life. She didn’t trust men. And besides, she didn’t want to end up like Momma, domineered into submission.
Behind her, Colton’s silence was like a physical thing looming over her.
“You better go,” she said.
“Yeah, I guess maybe I should.”
* * *
Kerri Eaton was having a less than spectacular day at Daffy Down Dilly until Colton St. Pierre came waltzing into the store around 3:30 p.m., looking for Jess. As if Kerri was Jess’s keeper and not her landlady.
But hey, a beggar couldn’t be a chooser, and the view out her front windows had definitely improved in the month since Jess had leased the office space upstairs. Colton came and went at will.
And why not? Jess was obviously the love of his life. And hell, if you listened to the gossip that had been raging for years, Jessica and Colton had been the Romeo and Juliet of Magnolia Harbor. Teen lovers who had been thwarted by the powers that be and forced into exile.
Everyone wanted to rewrite that story and give it a happy ending.
Kerri blew out a long sigh. It was kind of annoying that the most eligible bachelor of color, not counting Colton’s older brother, Micah, had a jones for a white woman. But who was she to stand in the way of true love, long delayed.
So she’d opened the office for him. And once Jess returned, Kerri could hear their voices. Okay, it was a slow day and she had her ear pressed hard to the wall adjoining the office stairwell. But she couldn’t quite make out what they were saying. She fully expected them to come down the stairs together and head off to dinner someplace. They’d been seen all over town at various restaurants.
So when Colton came clomping down the stairs by himself, Kerri was surprised. And like any busybody worth her salt, she let her curiosity get the better of her. Was there trouble in paradise?
The gossiping public in Magnolia Harbor would want to know. All of Kerri’s friends would want details and facts. Or maybe just the juicy morsels, since facts were often not terribly interesting.
So she hurried out onto the sidewalk with a smile on her face. “Hey, Colton,” she said to his back as he was heading toward his pickup. He turned. “Did Jess come back? If not, I can lock up for you.” She hoped her voice didn’t give away the lie.
“She’s back,” he said, a little muscle ticking in his jaw. What did that mean? Was he angry at Jess? Or what?
“Oh, okay. Y’all didn’t have a disagreement, did you?” she asked, point-blank. “I mean, she wasn’t upset that I let you in?”
He shrugged. “I don’t know what she’s upset about.”
Whoa, they had argued.
“Well, I imagine she’s in a grumpy mood after spending the day with Topher Martin. The word on the street is that he’s not the same as he used to be.”