“You know,” Jamie said as if a moment hadn’t passed. “I talked to him yesterday.”
Tessa groaned and covered her face, sure that she was losing her mind. “Who?”
“You know who. He called about the case.”
“Good. Great. I hope you two had a lovely chat.”
“He sounded pretty subdued.”
Tears sprang to her eyes in an instant. Was he sad? Did he miss her? God, she missed him so much. The hurt was there. Pulling her toward the ground. An awfully melodramatic feeling for such a short relationship.
“Sis. Come on. Tell me what happened.”
She shook her head, but the words still pushed out. “You were right. About Luke.”
He stiffened and his face flashed to rage. “What the hell did he do?”
“The reason everybody thinks he fathered Simone’s baby…”
“That fucking bastard.”
She shrugged. “It’s not… I don’t know. He didn’t sleep with her. But apparently they had a thing a couple of years ago. They had a few too many drinks and made out.”
Jamie’s chin drew in. “Really?”
“Yeah. But he implied that they’d never—”
“They just…kissed?”
Tessa slowly registered that her brother’s anger had turned to incredulous disbelief. “What? He said they were just friends.”
“They kissed one time a couple of years ago and you’re pissed about that?”
Now it was Tessa’s turn to stiffen. “I don’t know if it was one kiss. Maybe there was groping or—”
“Oh, come on. If there was really something going on, there would’ve been a hell of a lot more than that after two years of seeing each other every day. Jeez, Tessa.”
“Hey! You’re the one who told me not to be stupid.”
“Yeah? Well, then, don’t be stupid.”
“Screw you!” she gasped, reaching for the beers Jamie had just pulled.
“Hey—” he started, but they were interrupted by a loud squeal.
“Jamie!” a chorus of girls cried from the doorway. “We saw your tweet!”
“Tessa,” he said past his welcoming smile. “What did you post this time?”
“Nothing. I just put out the word that there were empty seats at the bar. The enthusiasm is all you, big brother.”
“Well, I was going to tell you to get out of here and go see your boyfriend, but now…”
“It’s too busy. And he’s not my boyfriend.” She tried to heft the tray to her shoulder, but Jamie’s hand was locked on the opposite edge of the tray.
“You need to go talk to him. And two tables just left. It’s not that busy.”
“It’s slammed.” She tugged again, but he tugged back and slid the tray right out of her grasp.