Scott took a deep breath and laid it all on the table. “You’ve got an entire room full of his stuff.”
He thought she’d been frozen before, but now she seemed to go entirely brittle.
“That is none of your business.” Her voice was like ice.
“Well now, it sort of is,” he said, trying to keep his voice easy. “I don’t have enough room to work.”
“Work around it,” she said, taking her wineglass to the sink, where she dumped the entire thing.
“I can’t, Claire. Where am I supposed to put your bed when I pull up the carpet in your bedroom? The other room’s too small.”
“Figure it out. Isn’t that why they pay you the big bucks?”
He didn’t reply to her snide tone, waiting until she finished washing the glass and looked back at him. “Even if I could work around it, don’t you think it’s . . . time?”
She let out a harsh laugh. “Time to what? Move on? To put him behind me? You tell me, Scott. How’s moving on going for you?”
“How the hell are you possibly turning this around on me?” he asked. “I’m not the one—”
“Whose best friend is a dog? You can’t even commit to a house, Scott—you have two. And that’s when you’re in your home state, which is never, because you can’t stay in the same place for two months, much less sleep with the same woman twice in a row, am I right? Is that what this is about? Last night when I said we’d figure it out later, did you think I meant we’d figure out how to blow it up? Because you’re doing a damn good job.”
“This isn’t about me.”
“Like hell it isn’t. It’s about both of us. I’m not going to pretend I’m not dealing with a ghost, but I’m not the only one. I don’t know if it was your fiancée cheating, your mom leaving—”
Scott’s blood turned to ice, then turned hot just as quick. “Overstepping, Claire.”
“Right.” She put up her hands. “My life, my demons are an open book, but yours are off-limits, right?”
“I don’t have demons.”
“Sure you don’t.” Claire’s voice was tired as she dried her hands and headed in the direction of the guest room.
“Where are you going?”
His only answer was the door slam. He winced, even as he felt a little relief that she was pissed rather than wooden.
Scott snatched his beer off the counter, took two swallows as he tried to sort his thoughts, and tried to figure out how to fix this without having to lay himself bare. He didn’t even have anything to lay bare, for God’s sake. She was wrong. She thought he was some broken soul with mommy issues? That he was pining over a faithless woman from a decade ago.
Screw that. His life was exactly as he wanted. He didn’t have a whole room full of a dead person’s crap . . .
His thoughts scattered as Claire opened the guest room door again, his relief fleeing when he saw her wheeling her suitcase.
She marched to the front door, head held high, and he frowned. “Where are you going?”
“I don’t know. Audrey’s. Naomi’s. A hotel. Even bunking with the termite carcasses at my house would be better than staying here with you.”
His fingers clenched around the beer bottle, but he remained silent. What could he possibly say? Stay for another night, but please be gone by tomorrow? Sleep with me once more, but just the one time because more than that is a complication I don’t want?
“Not begging me to stay?” she said sweetly, her gaze derisive as her eyes flicked over him like he was pathetic. “Now, there’s a surprise.”
“Bob,” she called to the dog as she opened the door. “Enjoy your last few nights with Scott. I’m sure it’s only a matter of time before he bails on you again.”
The door slammed shut behind her.
Chapter Twenty-Two
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 5
Welp, this is a real mess,” Naomi said, kicking at an over-stuffed cardboard box just inside Claire’s guest room.
“I know,” she said a little dejectedly. “Somehow I walk by this room every single day, but in my head I didn’t think it was this bad.”
Naomi wrinkled her nose as she peered into the far corner of the room. “Are those skis? I didn’t know Brayden skied.”
“He loved it,” Audrey said, coming up between them with a tray of carefully balanced cocktails. She flinched and glanced at Claire. “Sorry. I guess