“She’s not.”
“Where do you get off thinking she’s jealous?”
Cady knocked her head toward the truck. “You brought her to the sausage supper. I know you live out of town, Eli, but you have to know it was the talk of the town. Still is. Then you brought her to bingo.”
“I’m showing my guest around town. I’ve done it with lots of guests before.”
“Lots of guests haven’t been beautiful young single women.”
“How do you even know she’s single? She might not be.” Eli’s tone rose, but Cady just gave her a pointed look in response. “Fine, she’s single, but still, we are not in a relationship or doing anything. She’s a guest at the B&B, and all I was doing for her was anything I’d do for anyone else.”
“You sure about that?”
“Yes.”
“Positive?”
“Cady,” Eli’s voice was low with warning. “There is nothing going on.”
“Bridget seems to think otherwise.”
If Eli could, she’d slam her forehead against the counter, but she figured Cady wouldn’t like that much. “Put the wood on my tab. I’ll pay it at the start of the month.”
Turning to leave, Eli stopped at the sound of Cady’s tender tone. “Be careful.”
“With what, exactly?”
“Everything.”
Not replying, Eli turned and walked out the side door and into the parking lot of the lumber yard. Her head spun, but she was more shocked to find Sarah out of the truck and helping the boys move the lumber from the forklift to the bed of her truck. She was laughing and joking with them, too. Eli reached into her truck and grabbed a pair of gloves, tossing them at Sarah before she could hurt herself.
Sarah didn’t say anything as she slipped them onto her hands. Eli moved in to help, and it wasn’t more than ten minutes before they had everything loaded. She moved around to the cab and jumped in, waiting for Sarah to get the hint and join her. It wasn’t much longer until they were sitting next to each other and Eli was pulling out of the parking lot.
She had to get out of town, wanted so badly to leave and get home and forget everything about her conversation with Cady, but she couldn’t. It kept repeating in her head. Why would Bridget be jealous of anything? She wasn’t doing anything, and the town just needed to stop talking for one night because she seriously wasn’t ever going to come to town again if they kept up like that. Overwhelmed, Eli focused on the road and turned the radio up to drown out the thoughts in her head.
* * *
Sarah had seen the difference in Eli the moment she’d come back out, but she hadn’t commented on it. She listened to the music on the radio, trying to give Eli the space she needed, but then it happened, and as much as she wanted to leave it alone, she couldn’t.
The song filtered through the speakers, and the moment the first three notes hit, Sarah knew what song it was.Hers.The current number one hit on radio stations for the last ten weeks. She’d somehow managed to avoid listening to it thus far in the presence of Eli, but there was no stopping it now.What if Eli figured it out?It would change absolutely everything. It would put even more distance between them, and she’d been so sure they’d made some progress in mending fences the night before.
Sarah ground her molars together, clenched her fingers against her knees before she reached up on impulse and hit the button to turn the radio off. Eli turned to her suddenly and slapped it back on, a touch of anger in her tone when Eli asked, “What’d you do that for?”
Not sure how to answer, Sarah turned the radio off again. “I don’t like that song.”
“Seriously?” Eli’s brow furrowed.
Anxiety and nerves bulldozed their way through her, and when Sarah finally had the courage to look up, there was humor lighting up Eli’s face. Sarah shook her head, hoping she didn’t have to answer the inevitable.
“What don’t you like about it?”
“They play it all the time,” Sarah responded, a tinge of whine to her tone.
Laughing, Eli shook her head as she turned the radio back on. “Yeah, they tend to do that with big hits.”
Sarah leaned in one more time and turned it off again. “I just don’t like it. Please.”
“How can you not like your own damn song?”