“What are you doing?” Maddie asked her.
“Marking the event of Tara’s apology on my calendar.”
Maddie snatched the iPhone, then turned to Tara. “We’re sorry, too. We should have thought that you’d want a hand in the unpacking.”
“No, it was a lovely gesture and saved me from obsessing over it.”
Ford did his best not to smile at that, because he knew that nothing short of the apocalypse could stop Tara from obsessing.
“And you made a good choice with Ford,” Tara admitted.
Wow. But when all three women looked at him, he remained quiet, deciding that silence was the best course of action here. They were actually communicating and trying to get somewhere.
Sort of.
In any case, his purpose seemed to be as mediator of some sort, so he tried to look wise.
“Ford,” Maddie said, “I have a large ficus in the back of my car. Would you mind unloading it to the deck?”
He recognized a ploy to get rid of him when he heard one, but he was game. “Sure.” As he brushed past Tara, taking the time to shift closer than necessary, he pressed his mouth to her ear. “We’re not finished.”
When the back door shut behind him, Tara sagged against the counter, scrubbing her hands over her face. “Good Lord.” She dropped her hands to her sides and found both sisters staring at her with twin expressions of amusement and avid curiosity.
Maddie cracked first with a grin.
Chloe followed.
“Fuck all y’alls,” Tara said without much heat. She did like to see their smiles; she just wished it wasn’t at her expense.
“Hey, we’re not judging,” Chloe said. “If I had that fine a man sniffing after me, I’d grab his butt, too. In fact, I’d grab a lot more than that.” She rustled through her purse and pulled out a string of condoms, which she slapped on the countertop with great ceremony. “Consider this an early birthday present.”
Tara’s jaw dropped. “I don’t need those.”
“You sure about that?”
“There’s no sex happening here!”
“Really? So you were just what… playing doctor, checking his tonsils, that sort of thing?”
“We are so not talking about this,” Tara said.
“Ah, don’t be like that,” Chloe said. “Join me in the shallow end of the pool, why don’t you. The water’s warm. Give us the details. Is he as good a kisser as he looks?”
Ignoring her, Tara shifted her gaze to the window to watch Ford unload the ficus plant from Maddie’s car. He moved with economical grace and ease, lifting the heavy potted plant like it weighed nothing.
“He’s ever so dreamy,” Chloe said, coming up next to Tara and mimicking her southern accent.
Tara slid her a look. “Thin ice, Chloe.”
Chloe snorted. “Sorry. But I can’t take you seriously with flour all over your face.”
Dammit. Tara swiped at her cheeks.
“Are you going to tell her or what?” Chloe asked Maddie.
“Tell me what?” Tara asked.
“The reason for the ficus,” Chloe said. “It was supposed to be a bouquet of balloons, but I’m trying to go green.”
Tara looked at Maddie. “Translation?”
“We want you to quit the diner and make the inn a B &B,” Maddie said, then smiled.
Tara stared at her. “What?”
“Yeah,” Chloe said. “You cook like an angel but you make next to nothing at the diner, which is so unfair for how hard you work.”
“That ‘next to nothing’ has kept us in food for six months,” Tara said. “I can’t just quit. We like to eat.”
“Well maybe you can’t quit yet,” Maddie said. “But hopefully, once we open, you could. You hate working nights, so we figured you could work here instead, making big breakfasts for the guests. It would change everything. As a bed and breakfast, we’d attract more attention, and…”
“And you think that will make me want to stay,” Tara said softly, “if I’m working for myself.”
“Us,” Chloe said. “You’d be working for us.”
Tara raised a brow. “Says the girl who always has one foot out the door.”
“Yes, but my foot comes back every time,” Chloe pointed out. “And also, I’m not a girl. One of these days you’re going to open your eyes and realize I’ve grown up.”
“I’ll believe that the day Sawyer stops bringing you home from whatever misadventure you’ve gotten into.”
“One time!” Chloe huffed.
“Actually three times,” Maddie corrected, then shrugged when Chloe gave her a hard stare before turning back to Tara. “But this is about you.”
“Yeah,” Chloe said. “Stop sidetracking, or I’ll ask you about Ford and his amazing ass again. By the way, were you going to stir him up and fry him next?”
“Oh my God, please stop talking about flour, tonsils, and especially Ford’s amazing ass!” Tara said-okay, yelled-just as Ford-naturally-walked back into the kitchen.
In the thundering silence, he met her gaze. She did her best to look cool. Not easy with flour all over her.
“Awkward silence alert,” Chloe said. “Maybe you two should just go back to-” she waved her arms, “whatever it was you were doing.”
Tara sent Chloe a long look.
“Right,” Chloe said, smacking her own forehead. “Stop talking. You said stop talking.”
“Okay,” Maddie said brightly, grabbing Chloe. “We’d love to stay, but we can’t.”
“Yes, we have to go,” Chloe agreed, nonchalantly nudging the string of condoms with one finger toward Tara before Maddie yanked her to the door.
And then, finally, they were gone.
Tara let out a breath and turned to the sink, filling a glass of water for herself. She needed a minute.
Or a hundred.
She drank and tried to unscramble her brain cells.
Not Ford. He was leaning on the same counter that he’d pressed her against, looking relaxed and calm and very sure of himself as he eyed the string of condoms lying incongruously on the counter in front of her.
She looked at them too, and suddenly the temperature in the room shot up.
So did her body’s temperature. “Ignore those,” she told him.
Ford slid her a look that ratcheted the tension up even more. “Can you?”
Lord knew, she was trying. Outside the night was gorgeous, and inside there was this man, also gorgeous. She shook her head and closed her eyes. “How is it that we still feel the pull?”
Ford stepped into her, letting her feel exactly how much he still felt it.
“I mean, it shouldn’t still be here,” Tara whispered against his throat as his arms came around her. “I shouldn’t…”
Ache for you…
“Some things just are,” he said softly against her hair. “Day turns to night. The ocean tide drifts in and out. And I want you, Tara. Damn you, but I do. I always have.”
Chapter 8
“Remember, a closed mouth can’t attract a foot.”
TARA DANIELS
Tara wanted Ford, too. More than she’d ever wanted anyone. The wanting was in the air around them. It was in his eyes and beating in time with her pounding heart. Maybe she couldn’t have her happy ending with him, but surely she could have this.
Ford’s mouth left hers to skim along her jaw to her ear. His hands were equally busy, molding her body through the thin, flowing cotton of her sundress. “Say it,” he murmured, flicking her earlobe with his tongue.
Tara clutched at him. “I want you too.” So much. Too much. “Should we-”
“Yes,” he said.
She stared up at him. “You don’t even know what I was going to say.”
“Yes to anything.”
“Are you crazy? You can’t give me that kind of power. What if I wanted to tie you up and-”