“So, it’s definitely arson?” Linxasked.
Todd grunted and ordered his usual cholesterol special, while Linx went for oatmeal andraisins.
“Heard Cait and Brian are staying at the Over Easy,” Linx said. “Is she doingokay?”
Todd shrugged. “Haven’t gotten any calls about them. Brian’s a shoo-in for the Pumper Driver position, so it looks like they’re stayingput.”
“You okay with that?” Linx stirred sugar into her coffee. “Just yesterday, you wanted to run the Harts out oftown.”
“The Hart family are our friends,” Todd said, slapping his coffee cup on the table. “It’s Grady who’s the problem, but if you’re okay with him rubbing your face in his beard, then I’ve got nothing againsthim.”
“I’m okay with him.” Linx stiffened herback.
Her brother lifted an eyebrow and grunted. “Then why did you want a restraining order? You two have something sick going on if you askme.”
“No, it’s quite simple. All I want is for him to acknowledge what a jerk he was, but he has a head as hard as mine. Maybeharder.”
“Is that so?” Todd leaned back as Joey placed a large heaping plate of bacon, sausages, eggs, and hash browns in front of him. “When you told me you wanted a restraining order, I thought you felt threatened. Has he ever beenviolent?”
Only during consensual sex, Linx thought, then quickly squelched the randy images and memories that went with it. She bit her lip. “No, he’s never been violent. Never hurt me physically. It’s just that I hurt all over when I see him swaggering around like he hasn’t a care in theworld.”
“Meanwhile, you’re carrying around all the shame and heartache.” Todd dug into his food, his brows drawn together inthought.
“He thinks I lied about it.” Linx stirred the fruit into her steel-cut oats flavored with coconut oil instead ofbutter.
What could she do? Grady refused to believe she’d been pregnant, and she no longer had the baby to lay claim tohim.
“There’s got to be a way to knock it through his thick head,” Todd said. “You have medical records, right? Maybe drag him to your doctor’soffice.”
“It’s no use.” Linx lost her appetite. The last person she wanted to see was the doctor. “All I want is anapology.”
Right, keep telling that lie. When she first saw Grady after so many years of absence, her silly heart had believed he’d come back to town to tell her he finally believed her. She’d even imagined him groveling—a little, because alpha guys like him didn’t grovel. But even a small acknowledgment that he’d been wrong about her would have helped pave the way for her to tell him about hisdog.
“Tell you what.” Todd clenched his fists so that the muscles on his forearms bulged. “I’ll have a man to man talk with him and tell him he knocked youup.”
Todd’s voice boomed so that several people around the diner turned theirheads.
“Shhhh!” She wanted to sink into a hole as she gave her former classmates, her father’s beer buddies, and several tourists a sheepishgrin.
A sense of urgency grabbed the bottom of her stomach and squeezed low in her gut. “It’s only a matter of time before Cait finds out everything—the baby and the dog. She’s so nosy and now she’s living in the center of the town, surrounded bygossip.”
“Too bad we can’t run them out of town like in the old days.” Todd drawled like an old-time sheriff. He chuckled to himself and added, “Besides, I like the Harts. They’re goodpeople.”
“Maybe it’s time I faced the music.” Linx covered her head with her hands. “I suck. I’m just like Minx. A black-hearted bitch. Ugly on theinside.”
Reaching under the table to her phone, she texted Grady.We need totalk.
