“Today has been an absolute mindfuck,” he stated. “I’m sorry about earlier, in the stable. We need to talk but I need to get my head screwed back on straight, and that idiot out there needs some carbs and protein or he’s gonna faint if he tries to get up.”
“I get it,” Liz replied. “I’m not going anywhere. It can wait.”
“Liz,” he groaned. “It can’t. I don’t—”
“It can wait,” she interrupted, restlessness vibrating just under her skin. Being in his arms was making it really hard to focus, confusion and comfort swirling. She needed space to get her head on straight, too, before they talked, and he obviously needed to process. She unfolded herself from him and made sure she met his eye when he faced her. He was worn out, and she could see the thoughts he was trying to sort out in his head. About them, about his brothers, his father . . . all of it.
“Get through this first.” She gestured at the house around them. “Then we can talk.”
“All right,” he said after a moment of studying her, worry lacing his eyes. “Later?”
“Later,” she said back, and with a squeeze on his arm, forced herself to leave as he turned back to the sink.
She met her mom, who was bringing Tanner’s empty coffee cup back to the kitchen, as she was walking to the front door. Peony stopped her with a hand on her arm.
“Honey, are you all right?”
“I am, Mom. Just frustrated,” Liz replied. “I’m worried about Tan, and all this shit happening at once for him could—”
Her motherhmmed at that but didn’t let her go. “Not about that, sweetie, about the other one. You two have a tiff?”
Liz hung her head. It seemed everyone could read her like a book these days. Was it that obvious they’d gotten out of sync?
“No, Mom, believe me, that isn’t the problem. What Jake and I do is—”
“Important,” her mother said, interrupting her. “What you have with him is worth fighting for.”
“This is my problem, Mom. Not yours. I don’t need you to tell me that.”
Peony sighed and waved a hand at her daughter in resignation. “No, you don’t. But just in case you needed someone else to say it, I will. You and Jake need to figure out what you mean to one another, because once you do, you can move forward, and we can all stop walking on eggshells around each other. Black and white, Elizabeth.”
Black and white. There it was again. Yes, that was a necessary thing. Trouble was, Liz didn’t know what that looked like anymore.
* * *
Jake looked up from the book he was reading, having picked up one of the romances Liz had bought Peony in Calgary the day he’d returned his rental. Surprisingly, he was enjoying it, and hadn’t noticed it was now late afternoon.
Peony was reading as well, curled up in her chair, and Tanner was sound asleep on the couch across from them.
Jake was loathe to get up and go start any dinner, but as he set the book down, restlessness twitched inside him. Sitting here, listening to his brother snore, the clock tick, and the odd truck pass by out on the main road was about as laid back and quiet as he’d been since he’d gotten here. He hadn’t thought about financials, or menus, or inheritance law. But as he acknowledged it, the noise came back into his head. He must’ve let out an audible sigh, because Peony looked up from her book.
“Let’s order pizza,” she blurted, and Jake raised an eyebrow.Pizza. All the way out here?
“There’s good pizza here?”
“Brightside has a pizzeria, called The Minute Man. I love their special. Has mushrooms and olives on it and it isn’t greasy like the other place in town.”
“Okay, then. Want me to go get it? I can’t imagine they deliver,” he asked, and Peony waved him back to his seat as she got up.
“They’ll deliver. The owner is an old friend of mine. He’ll bring it out himself if I ask. I’ll go order it now, so we can eat at a reasonable time.”
“It would be nice not to have to make dinner,” Jake admitted. “I’m so mentally worn out my body isn’t quite sure what to do with itself.”
Peony laughed quietly and glanced over at Tanner. “Him too. He’s been running on empty for days. Thank you for what you did today. I don’t know if I should even utter the what-if’s, but the two of you, if you’d met under other circumstances—” She pressed her lips together and looked at Jake for a moment then back at Tanner, who let out a small snore.
“I want to say that we’re good now, but jury’s still out on that one,” Jake said.
“I think you two could be friends,” Peony added, a look almost like relief as she said it.
