The tension was put aside as the kitchen staff brought out the main course. Reese had made it a point to learn how to cook in adulthood, given that it was a skill that hadn’t ever been taught in their family.
But god, had she missed the seafood in New England. The scent of pan-seared scallops enveloped her as the plate was put down.
After the day she’d had, she was starving.
Her mom, blessedly, continued the conversation, discussing the latest comings-and-goings of the town, what her charitable organizations were up to, and dropping subtle jabs at any of their long-time neighbors, who’d done something to get in her crosshairs.
The offenses ranged from hiring a new landscaping company that didn’t create the perfect crisscross design in the Miller’s front yard to Mrs. Gordon announcing her own son’s engagement a week after Grant’s.
Reese, halfway through her scallops, put her fork down. “So, Mom, you must be excited that your only son is getting married.”
She wondered if Grant would lunge across the table and strangle her. If his looks were any indication, the odds were about fifty-fifty.
And then her mother, in a move that was so uncharacteristically excited that it left Reese wondering if she’d been possessed, clapped her hands together. “Oh, yes! Brynn is such a sweetheart.”
“I’m excited to meet her,” Reese lied.
“Why? Angling to date her, too?” Grant muttered.
Sharon, who’d almost been ready to finish her first scallop, put her fork back down on her plate. “What was that, Grant?”
Grant cleared his throat, waiting until all eyes were on him. “I was asking whether Reese wanted to date Brynn, too. Considering that she and Sydney are an item, it’s not that unbelievable.”
“Reese and Sydney?” Sharon said the words like she was rolling them around, trying to make sense of them. “YourSydney?”
Gross. As if Sydney belonged to anyone, especially someone like Grant.
Grant nodded vehemently, grateful their mother saw his side of things. “She couldn’t keep her own girlfriend, so she had to go and find my leftovers. Really, where did you two even meet? Did you seek her out when Morgan broke up with you?”
Reese’s lip curled. “You know that her name is Megan. And why do you keep referring to a woman you once professed to love as different versions of uneaten food? You know, I read a very interesting book discussing how masculine language always reduces women to food?—”
Grant cut her off. “Why won’t you answer the question?”
Because she was buying time, deciding how she wanted this conversation to go.
“I didn’t know that you were keeping such in-depth tabs on my comings-and-goings, Grant. Don’t have enough at work to keep you busy? Dad just sit you in an empty office to twiddle your thumbs?”
“Reese.” Her father’s voice was sharp, but she didn’t spare him a glance.
She could see the vein in Grant’s forehead again.
Frustrating him was… euphoric.
She felt alive. More alive than she’d been since she’d lost her company. Lost Megan. Purchased the inn.
Years of discontent were bubbling up to the surface, and her body was alight with the back-and-forth.
“No, Grant, please. Explain to me how you cheating on your ex-girlfriend and immediately getting engaged to your affair partner is somehow my problem?”
“That can’t be true,” Sharon protested.
God, sometimes Reese envied her mom’s obliviousness.
Reese frowned; saying the next words gave her no pleasure. “The Venn diagram between his relationships with Sydney and Brynn is simply a circle. I’m not saying these two crazy kids won’t make it work, but it’s not like they’re starting their life together on the most solid foundation.”
“You don’t know anything about my life,” Grant spat back.
What, was he going to tell her next that she wasn’t the boss of him? It was a rich comment, given how much he thought he knew about both her personal and professional lives.
