“No, you’re right. I only have a hundred dollars to my name anyway,” I muttered. “No need to rack up a huge credit card bill in the interim. Thank God Brooks loaned me the money to fix the rental car.”
“Why would you need—didn’t you have coverage for that?”
“No.”
She shot me a look, and I squirmed in my seat. “I know, it was irresponsible, but I didn’t think I’d need it.”
“You never do.”
The kettle began to whistle, and she quickly moved it off the heated burner and turned off the stove.
“So you agree that staying at The Regal Beagle long-term isn’t a good idea?”
“Long-term?” I said with a laugh. “How long do you expect me to be here?”
“Well, I don’t know. People have a habit of coming here for a visit and realizing that Huckleberry Hill has everything they’ve been looking for all along. You could just do us all a favor and admit you’re going to stay.”
“Stay and do what?”
“That’s for you to figure out, sugar. Speaking of figuring things out, what’s going on with you and Brooks?”
“What do you mean?”
“Playing it that way, are you? Fine.” She went to a cabinet and opened it. “Earl Grey, ginger, oolong . . .?”
“You’re staying for dinner, yes?” Muddy stood up, grabbed our empty mugs, and put them in the sink.
“Oh,” I said. “I hadn’t thought much about it.”
“You’ll stay,” Muddy insisted.
“I don’t know . . .”
Muddy frowned when she looked at me and then she smiled. “Brooks is invited too.”
“Oh yeah, I don’t think he’d feel comfortable with that. You know—the whole boss and employee thing.”
“Yeah, he’s very clear on that divide. But if you two are dating, then it’s less about boss-employee and more like boyfriend-girlfriend.”
“Muddy, are you crazy? Dating? I just met him!”
“You just met him,” Muddy repeated. “Right. And he’s already paying for your car repairs. I don’t know, Poet. I feel like something’s going on there.”
Something was definitely going on there.
“You’re frowning up a storm.”
“Just thinking,” I said.
“About?”
I didn’t want to tell her what I was truly thinking about Brooks, so I fibbed. “New York. And my life. What’s left of it, anyway.”
“Ah.”
“There’s Wyn,” I said. “But the family she nannies for offered her a room to move into. She’ll probably do itbecause she’s there all the time anyway. But my grandfather is in England and won’t be back for months.”
“Sounds like they have lives of their own,” she said gently. “And maybe for the first time, you’ll get to focus on yours.”
