“Make Coop do it. I don’t even live here.” Patrick reminds Tate.
“Lex should do it. He’s the house chore whore now,” Cooper suggests, grinning.
“Can someone just stir the fucking sauce?” Tate snaps.
Lex nods and picks up the dish towel from Patrick and walks toward the kitchen without a word. Patrick just sits there, still staring at Tate and me like we’re his own personal television drama. Tate flips him the bird and then looks at me and points at the stairs. “Let’s go finish this in private.”
“Oh come on! It was just getting good!” Cooper complains.
I follow Tate to the stairs and we climb them in silence all the way up to his room on the third floor. As we enter his room I try not to think about the last time I was here and how well that argument turned out. If only I could be that lucky this time around.
“What the hell were you talking about down there?” Tate asks as he leans his butt on the edge of his desk.
I want to pace but the room is too small, so I just fold my arms across my chest and stand near the door. Why does everything hurt so much? This was just supposed to be a physical thing without strings, so whether it finished with a bang or a whimper it shouldn’t make my chest ache. “Ethel sent you an email saying city hall would pay for gift baskets from each farmer’s market vendor that they would then give away at an event later this month.”
He stares at me for a long moment, like he’s frozen. Then he says, “What?”
I know instantly his confusion is real, not fake. I feel it in my bones. “Jace said you got the email. He made it seem like you purposely didn’t tell us.”
“And you believed him.” Tate tilts his head to the side in disbelief.
“You left my house last night so angry and you didn’t show up today,” I reply.
“And you think I’mthatguy?” Tate questions and then lifts himself off the desk and sighs. “Of course you do. I’m an Adler and you think we’re all just genuinely assholes.”
He walks across his room and grabs his phone from the nightstand where it’s plugged into a charger. As he starts punching something on the screen someone calls up the stairs. “Adler! Dinner is ready!”
“Start without me!” Tate yells back. “But leave me some or I will beat you with my hockey stick.”
He hits speaker on his phone and holds it out in front of him. It rings twice and then I hear someone answer. “Hey, Tate.”
“Jace, did you fuck over the Todds?” Tate says bluntly.
“What the hell are you talking about?”
“Something about a gift basket every booth member was supposed to supply and you got an email about it,” Tate refreshes his memory. “And you didn’t tell the Todds, or me.”
“I didn’t screw anyone,” Jace says and Tate opens his mouth to speak but Jace keeps going. “Well, I did, but I had every right to. It’s our booth, Tate. Not theirs. You never said they had the right to anything other than one side of the booth. And I did tell you about the basket and you told me to handle it, you were swamped. So I did handle it by not telling the stupid Todds and not bothering you with that little bit of info.”
“You’re splitting hairs Jace, and it’s bullshit. You should have told them,” Tate replies. “We’re going to give them half of the money we were paid for that basket or we’re going to go tell Ethel it’s a joint basket and pull out some of our products and let them add theirs. Those are your choices.”
“Fuck that,” Jace snaps. “You know what? You didn’t even bother to show up today so I made a decision and I’m sticking to it. Gramps knew about it and thought it was a good idea, and it’s technically his farm, so deal with it. I’m done playing nice with these jerks and it’s annoying everyone, by the way, that you’ve turned so soft.”
“I’m not soft. I’m sensible,” Tate replies angrily. “This feud has gotten out of control and since neither of us want to give up our land and businesses and move away, we need to learn to work together. So grow up, Jace. I’m not done with this. We’re going to make it right.”
“Whatever. Good luck with that.” The line goes dead as Jace hangs up on his brother.
Tate swears under his breath and tosses his phone on his bed and then he looks up at me. “I’m sorry. My brother is a bigger dick than I realized.”
“To be fair, Daisy might have done the same thing,” I reply softly.
“I’ll make this right somehow,” Tate promises.
Then we stare at each other awkwardly for what feels like an eternity but is probably a minute. I take a deep breath, but it feels like my lungs are pinched. “I’m sorry about the other night.”
“Sorry I found out you’re trying to steal my farm?”
“I’m not trying to steal it. I just… I have plans for it if you guys can’t keep it,” I reply, and I feel like shit when he looks at me because he looks so hurt. “I feel bad about it now. I have for a while. I don’t want you to lose your farm now. But I still need more land to advance my plans for our business.”
