She pulled on jeans, boots, and her abandoned hoodie, inhaling like some lunatic to see if there was a trace of Gage left. Then she climbed the hill toward the bed and breakfast and followed her nose to the place where she smelled coffee. Then she’d seen her parents sitting close to the entrance. Then she’d heard her parents.
This was what people got for eavesdropping—the same thing a gal got for snooping on her lover’s computer—something she didn’t want to know.
And she still didn’t have the damned coffee.
Coming.
Ha. She wished.
Ellery spun back toward the dining room and hailed the waitress. She’d take Josh the coffee just as soon as she apologized to her mother. She couldn’t continue the weekend with things this wrong between her and her mom. And while she was at it, she would admit to emailing Evan. Clear the air once and for all.
It was a solid plan, and by the tour, everything would be okay.
“Ma’am?”
Ellery smiled. “Can you get me three coffees to go? I’ll be back in five minutes to grab them.”
All a girl needed was a plan.
Daphne made it back to her room without running into anyone else who might see the utter desolation in her eyes.
All the tension between her and Ellery now made sense. Ellery had been nursing a secret falsehood, petting it in the recesses of her heart. And why? Why hadn’t she asked Daphne about what her father had suggested?
But Daphne knew why—Daphne had discouraged any talk of the breakup. Any time Ellery brought up the divorce, Daphne sidestepped the conversation or out-and-out told her daughter that the details of what happened weren’t any of her business. She wanted to protect Ellery and refused to bad-mouth Rex in front of her. She’d taken the high road . . . and Rex had taken the low, dragging their daughter’s opinion of her down with him. That’s what Daphne got for trying to be the better person.
She pushed into her room and then collapsed on the unmade bed, where she gave free rein to her tears. It had been a long time since she’d cried, and it felt like a plug had been pulled and everything inside had to come out before it could get better.
So Daphne let it.
Eventually her sobs subsided into sniffles, and she heard a quiet knocking at her door.
Ellery.
Daphne struggled into a sitting position and grabbed a tissue from the box covered with a needlepoint image of a rose. Mopping her face, she went to the door and opened it, expecting Ellery to be standing there looking contrite.
But Clay stood there instead.
“Hey, I thought I would check on you,” he said, looking worried.
“I’m fine,” she said, sounding more like a frog than an actual person.
“You don’t look or sound fine. What was all that about?” He glanced down the hall, seemed to note someone there, and looked back at her. “Can I just come inside so we don’t have to hold this conversation in the hallway?”
Daphne stepped back. “Sure.”
He slid inside, and she shut the door. This morning Clay wore his regular tight, worn, romance-cover-worthy jeans, a denim button-down, and worn cowboy boots. His eyes matched the shirt and looked startling against his sun-kissed skin. He looked good. More than good.
Stop noticing, Daph.
“Great room. It’s bigger than mine,” he said, glancing around at the elegant fussiness of the room. “You have a porch and hot tub? Nice.”
“Clay,” Daphne said, trying to draw him back to their conversation so she could get him back out the door.
“Sorry,” he said, turning toward her, taking in her tear-streaked face and swollen eyes. “You sure you’re okay?”
“I told you I’m fine. Just some family drama that’s been simmering for a while.” Daphne ran a hand through her hair, aware she was a mess. She didn’t want to worry about what she looked like to Clay, but in this small space with that big bed so nearby, her libido overrode her common sense. She licked her lips and tried not to look so pathetic.
The thing was, Clay was standing here in lieu of either Ellery or Rex, the two people who should have cared enough to follow her and apologize. Neither of them had—this man she’d had mind-blowing sex with weeks ago had been the one to come check on her. No one in the world seemed to care for her but the one person she didn’t want to have a relationship with.