She frowned. “Alright. I—” She shook her head no, then said, “Yes.”
“Thanks. Listen, I’ve gotta go grab a box from the car. Give this to Theo?” I thrust Theo’s burger at her and she took the cardboard container instinctively. “I’ll be along in a minute.”
I maybe should have felt more victorious as I walked to Theo’s car and grabbed the box of clay pots from the trunk, but I mostly felt unsettled.
I slammed the trunk closed and walked back toward the booth, thinking about Micah defending me and Micah flirting with me and…
“Micah, you’re gonna scare children with that face,” a woman’s voice said from inside Micah’s booth as I passed behind it. “Why is the Ross woman trying to kill you with her eyes?”
I stopped in my tracks and nearly laughed out loud, because I knew the exact faces Micah’s sister meant—both Micah’s and my mother’s.
“She saw me and Constantine having a… a heated discussion down by the parking lot.”
“You and the Ross kid? What the heck didyou twohave to discuss?”
She sounded truly mystified, and I realized that when Micah had decided to keep myemploymenta secret, he’d kept everything about us a secret, even from his family.
Which was a good thing.Obviously.
A very good thing.
“Leave it, Leandra.”
“Oh my God! Oh my God, you’reblushing.Do you have a crush on the Ross kid? When I told you to get to know the local competition to help your business, Micah, I didn’t mean you should get to know him in a Biblical sense!” Her laughter rang through the air. “This is taking your devotion to the business a little too far.”
Get to know the local competition?
“You’re insufferable, you know?” Micah said. But he didn’t contradict her.
I stalked around the side of the tent and across the aisle and set the box on the table at the front of the booth. Theo was alone inside, munching his burger.
“Mama gone?”
“Went to see if Julian was at his table, I think,” Theo said. He licked ketchup off his palm and frowned. “Everything stillfine?”
“Yeah. I'm just… I need to go. Right now.”
“You on call today?” Theo demanded. “Mitch call you in?”
I made a noncommittal noise. “I’m taking the car,” I said as I walked away. “Call if you need me.”
“Con, are you sure you’re okay?” Theo called, but I ignored him.
I really,reallyhated people asking me that.
Especially when it was so clear to me and everyone else that I wasn’t.
I took the long route back to the parking lot—the one that didn’t lead past Micah’s booth. My brain was stumbling, trying to make sense of what I’d overheard, which didn’t mesh in any way with what I knew to be true about my relationship with Micah. But then again, what the fuck was our relationship? Why did he blow hot and cold, and claim he’d been waiting formeto make a move, when hehadto know I was interested?
Didn’t he?
Or was it like this thing with my mother, where I’d stopped myself a hundred times from telling her how I felt, when getting her to see my point was as simple as speaking up?
I wasn’t sure, and the way my mind kept whirling over it was frustrating as fuck. I could feel that old anger, the kind that scared me, churning in my gut, and I really needed to get away from here, to do something hard and physical and cathartic.
“Con?” Micah called from behind me. “Constantine, wait up!” His voice was closer, like he was jogging.
“No time,” I yelled, picking up my pace. “Busy now.”
