I’d had to tell him so he or Tate or one of the girls could lock up after Ruby’s shift. “I’m not going to stalk her, no.”
“So that’s it? You tried once and you’re done?”
“Not sure what else I can do.”
“I dunno. Something more. Did you apologize?”
“No, fucker. I didn’t. I doubled down on how justified I was.” I grabbed the clipboard with the lot numbers of the grain shipment we’d received. I’d been inputting them before we spotted the pump issue and stomped around Teller.
He spun as I went around him. “There’s got to be another way.”
“That’s entering felony stalking territory.” I pushed into the lobby. A group of tourists was forming at the front desk. I tucked my head down and beelined for the stairs.
Teller stayed on my heels and followed me all the way. “I’m not saying you should watch her through the window, jackass.”
I tossed the clipboard on my desk. “There’s not much else. She works and she’s a homebody. So either I stare at her through her window—which, by the way, I wouldn’t know how to find unless I checked the employee records for her address—or I linger outside her office. Either way, I abuse my position at Copper Summit, and I make her uncomfortable at her job.” I dragged a hand through my hair. I needed a trim, but I didn’t care to be asked about Ruby, and I would be. It was all the barber had talked about when I’d gotten a trim before the wedding.
We hadn’t been spotted around town enough for people to yet notice the absence of Ruby-and-Tenor sightings. Soon enough though, someone would ask either me or one of my siblings and the thrilling news that we’d broken up would spread around town. Anyone who remembered Katrina’s slander wouldspeculate. I was still a nepo loser who played games and lacked independence. Sadder now, because I was older.
Teller’s mouth formed a troubled line. “There’s got to be something you can do.”
Like I hadn’t been trying to figure that out myself. “She said it herself. She can’t change her age—which isn’t an issue, but she won’t believe me. And she can’t change who her dad is—and he’ll throw the age thing in my face.”
He scratched the back of his neck. “Somehow you’ve gotta get her to believe you. And you have to convince Bobby that her age is not an issue.”
“I’m not fucking talking to him.”
“Maybe not Bobby, but what about Robert Morgan?”
The corner of my mouth curled up. “Believe me. They’re one and the same. That fucker can rot. I’m not begging him to date his daughter.”
“You don’t need to. Check the century on your calendar. You don’t need his permission.”
“For fuck’s sake, Teller. I know all this. Don’t you think I’ve been over and over what I can do?” I dropped into my chair. The wheels scratched on the hardwood floor. “I’ve got work to do.”
He didn’t budge. “I didn’t peg you for a guy to give up so easily, but I should’ve.”
I glared at him. He was trying to get under my skin, but he was an amateur compared to Ruby’s dad.
“You shut down in front of Bobby for years, and then you shut down your entire dating life after Katrina. You’re doing nothing but shutting down right now. Only this time, you’re the one who hurt someone, and when ‘I’m sorry’ doesn’t cut it, you give up.”
“Jesus, Teller.” He had no fucking clue what it’d been like.
“Bobby was in my class. Do you think I got nothing but compliments from the guy? Once he told me that I was only on the football team because of my last name.”
Teller had been a good goddamn player. He could’ve gotten a college scholarship, but he hadn’t been interested. “It was his go-to insult.”
“No shit. The guy didn’t have anything, so of course he hated us. We had parents who took in kids like him, but not him. He was being raised by grandparents who make your life look wild.”
Fair.
“You know why that was all he said to me?” Teller propped his hands on the edge of my desk and leaned over. “Because I cornered him in the locker room and told him that if my family’s name came out of his mouth one more damn time, I’d tie his tongue to the flagpole and let it flap in the wind. Tate was with me and he held the rope from the flagpole outside of the school.”
“You know how Dad was about violence.”
“Nothing wrong with bluffing.”
I cocked a brow. “You weren’t bluffing.”
