She laughed. “Conseems so strong. It’s more of a very charming and wonderful sales campaign.”
“Does Ramon get monthly bonuses?”
“I pay him in chicken bones and mango.”
“I’m going to stick with Zelle.”
“But I have a whole bag of chicken bones in the freezer.” She sipped her beer. “So tell me about your divorce.” She paused, then smiled. “Wow, I’m channeling my inner Lindsey.”
She kept her gaze on the view, but felt Marcus turning to stare at her.
“No foreplay? Just right to the point?” he asked, his voice teasing.
“I’m curious.”
“Because you want me to date your sister.”
She sighed, thinking she wanted that less and less. Or rather shedidwant Ryleigh to be happy but maybe with someone else. Except Marcus was all the things so how could Ryleigh not want him? “I think you’d be a cute couple,” she murmured, ignoring the sudden knot in her gut.
“Because you want her to stay in town and for that she needs a man.”
“Something like that.” She set down her beer and angled toward him. “My life was perfectly balanced. I was married with great kids and the store and Ryleigh was dating a terrific new guy. Now I’m divorced and she’s talking about moving away. I can’t take any more. I don’t miss Harris—the divorce was actually a good decision for all of us. But losing Ryleigh would be too much.”
He studied her for a second. “The stool.”
“What?”
“You and Cheryl were talking before about a three-legged stool and how you’d only have two legs. That was about Ryleigh leaving.”
She drew back. “Okay, now you’re scaring me. That’s way too insightful, but yes. I still have my kids and work, but if she moves, it won’t be the same. I see her all the time. We do yogaand hang out. She’s always been my best friend. It was hard enough when we were at college, but this would be so much worse. Because college was finite. This would be forever.”
She looked at him. “Any thoughts?”
“I’m not interested in your sister.”
“But you haven’t really spent time with her. She could be perfect for you.”
“Thanks, but no.”
Jax sagged back in the seat, telling herself she felt disappointment, not relief. “You’re being difficult on purpose. Fine. We can let it go for now. So tell me about the divorce.”
“What do you want to know?”
“I don’t know. What was your wife like?”
“She was a computer programmer turned influencer.”
Unexpected, she thought. Marcus didn’t seem the influencer type. From what she could tell, he was more quiet than outgoing and, despite his looks, didn’t seek attention.
“How did you meet?”
He looked away, then cleared his throat. “Online.”
“What?” Her voice came out as a yelp. She laughed. “You did online dating? Why? There are plenty of interested women right here in town.”
He shrugged. “I’d gone through a bad breakup and couldn’t seem to shake the sense of having failed. The online thing was the result of too many nights spent by myself. The next morning I got up and decided to delete my profile, but I already had a few messages.”
“Sure. A few hundred.”
