“No.” She smiled. “I have a date tonight, so I thought a booth might be better.”
“Oh, really.” Rose poured a mug of hot water for Tori’s tea and came out from behind the counter with two menus tucked under her arm. She sat across from Tori in the corner booth she’d selected. “Spill it,” she demanded, pushing the hot water over to her customer.
Tori began fidgeting with the mug, knowing her cheeks were probably as red as her hair now. “Wade is meeting me here.”
“Wade Mitchell? The man who was making you crazy a week ago?”
“The same.”
Rose flung her dark ponytail back over her shoulder and leaned in closer. “So, you wanna tell me what happened between then and now?”
Tori could barely explain it. Everything had changed. Even the past, if that were possible. “It feels like the world has shifted.”
Rose sat back against the padded pleather of the booth, her brown eyes wide. “You’re in love with him.”
“What?” Tori perked up at her friend’s bold assessment. “No, no. That’s silly. It’s only been a few days.”
Rose crossed her arms over her chest and refused to budge on the subject. “I can assure you, with the Eden boys, a few days is all it takes.”
The words were like a fist to her gut. The truth barreling into her at fifty miles an hour. She was in love with him.
“I…I like him a lot,” she countered, even as her mind raced with a different version of the facts. “We have a good time together. But it’s nothing more than that. He’s leaving to go home shortly, so it would be stupid of me to go and fall in love with him.”
Rose nodded mechanically, clearly disbelieving every word of Tori’s argument. Tori understood. She didn’t believe her own words, either. And they were sensible. She shouldn’t be in love with Wade. He was leaving. They weren’t serious. She couldn’t trust him because he still wanted her land. None of that added up to a fairy-tale romance. Just another disaster waiting to happen like before.
She wished someone would tell her heart that.
The heart in question started pounding madly in her chest when she looked up and spied Wade coming in the entrance. “He’s here,” she whispered.
Rose dutifully got up and flashed a smile to Wade on her way back to the counter. “What can I get you to drink tonight?”
“Coffee, thanks,” Wade said. “It’s freezing out there.” He slipped out of his jacket and tossed it into the booth before sliding in where Rose had been sitting.
Wade looked so handsome tonight. He was wearing a dark blue collared shirt with thin gray pinstripes. His skin was freshly shaved and slightly pink from the sting of the icy wind outside. Tori wanted to reach out and touch his face. She wanted to breathe in his cologne. Some of her clothing had come home smelling like him after their trip. She hadn’t been able to make herself go to the Laundromat to wash them yet.
Tori suddenly felt like a shy, smitten teenager sitting with him. Her realization of love only a minute before left her feeling vulnerable even though there was no way he could know how she felt. She certainly wasn’t about to tell him. She had barely come to terms with it herself, although sitting on the edge of her bed sniffing a sweater should’ve been her first clue.
“How are you?” he asked.
Tori smiled, although it felt nervous and forced to her. She hoped it didn’t look that way. “Good. You?”
“Good,” he said. Wade looked down at the menu and began thoroughly studying it without elaborating.
Tori winced and hid her face with her own menu. Did he notice? Things felt weird when they’d never felt weird before. It was all her doing. She needed to act normal. This was the same man she’d spent a good part of the past week with. Naked. After that, dinner in the local restaurant should be no big deal. She just had to relax.
Rose came back with the coffee; she took their orders and the menus. Now neither of them had anything to hide behind. Once Rose disappeared into the kitchen, Tori took a deep breath. “I had a nice time in New York. Thank you for taking me. You know you didn’t have to go to that much trouble.”
“No trouble at all. I had a great time, too. I’m glad we were able to go. It was certainly more exciting than spending New Year’s Eve here with my folks. They never even make it up to midnight. As kids, we used to stay up in the bunkhouse and watch Dick Clark on television after they went to bed.”