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“I’m sorry.” Rachel sat back in her chair, leaning toward Callie. “I don’t speak tact. What is she asking?”

“She’s asking why Michael Novack acts like he wants to sleep with her and then doesn’t sleep with her.” Callie totally spoke tact.

“Oh.” Rachel turned her way. She was a lovely woman with reddish blonde hair, and she’d recently given birth to her second child, a boy they’d named Ethan Harper. “That’s because he’s not very smart.”

“He’s smart,” Jen argued. “He’s still processing what happened to him.”

“Yes, that kind of betrayal can wound a person.” Nell took Jen’s side. “He needs time to heal.”

Rachel rolled her eyes. “He’s had two damn years. He needs to pull his big boy shorts up and get right back on the saddle. The saddle, in this case, is Lucy. He needs to ride her until he can’t see straight and he’ll feel so much better.”

“Rachel, that’s insensitive,” Nell whispered as though no one else could hear her.

“Rachel is pretty much the definition of insensitive,” Jen said with a practical air. “She’s been around Max far too long. And she’s right about how long Michael’s been in this awful routine of his.”

“I think we should give Michael as much time as he needs,” Nell returned. “I’ve worked with the man recently, and I believe he has a deeply sensitive soul. That sweet soul bears some deep wounds.”

“That sweet soul needs to stop growling at everyone or I might have to take him out.” Marie was also on Rachel’s side.

The table split, half the women supporting the Michael is Wounded theory and the other half backing a Michael Should Start Having Healing Sex agenda. Though Marie merely wanted him to stop growling, and Cassidy mentioned that the Reticulan Greys might be at work and Michael could benefit from taking the beet.

She was definitely not getting the answers she wanted. “So I should give up on him?”

“Absolutely not,” Nell advised. “You have to be patient with him. Perhaps you should start by making certain you’re looking deeply into his eyes so he knows you see his soul.”

“Or he figures out you got some crazy in there and he runs,” Rachel replied.

“Some men like a little crazy,” Callie countered. “And are we forgetting that Tyler is also in love with Lucy?”

“What?” That was so news to her. It wasn’t, but it was. He’d said the same thing the night before, but she’d had no idea that people around town had heard the rumor, too. “We’ve never been anything but friends. I asked him out in high school, but he turned me down.”

“I don’t know what he did then, but he eats you up with his eyes now,” Callie replied.

“He eats other women up with his mouth.” Probably not the most tactful way to put it, but it was true.

“Not lately he hasn’t,” Hope offered. “At least that’s what Gemma says. Ty spends some time with Jesse and Cade, and according to them he hasn’t fallen into any vaginas lately and he whines a lot.”

He’d said he hadn’t slept with anyone in a long time. Could he possibly be telling her the truth? Would it matter if he was? He’d turned her down before and she’d moved on.

Did she want another chance? In a lot of ways she understood why he’d turned her down all those years ago. “Ty’s friendship is way too important to risk.”

“Well, then you should tell him you aren’t interested in him that way.” Callie smiled as though those words solved all her problems.

“I did. That’s what I told him last night.”

Nell reached across the table and patted her hand. “Good. You got it all out and hopefully now you two can move on as friends. Give Michael some time and perhaps the two of you can try dating.”

It was probably sound advice.

So why didn’t she like it? “Why would Ty suddenly be interested in me?”

“I don’t think it’s a sudden thing, hon.” Teeny sipped her coffee. “You know I did a bit of substitute teaching back in the day, and I remember he was always looking your way when he was a kid. And when the two of you were real young, you would stand outside the store waiting for the school bus and he would reach out and hold your hand.”

The bus didn’t come far enough out to pick any of them up, so they’d formed a carpool. Ty’s mom, River’s dad, and Sawyer’s granddad would pick them each up and cart them to and from the Trading Post all the school year. Rain or shine they would stand out there waiting for the bus that would take them into Del Norte, and often Teeny would be there with some kind of treat she claimed she’d just baked and oh, wouldn’t you kids like some?

There had been days when Teeny’s sweets were the only treats she and her siblings would get. Her younger sisters went to a closer school in Creede that had opened up after Lucy had graduated.


Tags: Lexi Blake Erotic