She was a stubborn woman. But he probably had as much right to anger as she did at the moment.
And she was smart enough to know it.
“Whatisshe doing here then, J. T.?”
“She brought a script with her—”
“And about five years of shared history, right?”
“Britt—”
“Shared naked history.”
“Britt—”
“And Walmartdoeshave cute clothes sometimes,” she said vehemently.
“Sure, sure,” he soothed, startled.
“I think she’s a mean person, J. T.”
“You’re not wrong,” he confessed grimly.
“And shestayedwith you last night.”
“There was apparently no place else for her to go. I slept on thecouch.Britt.”
“She wouldn’tfiton the couch. Her legs are about fourteen miles long. And there’s not much of a distance between the couch and your bed anyway, is there, J. T.? Just one or two strides on those long, long legs.”
“Should I have sent her to the Shady Eight?”
“Good God, no, she can’t stay there,” she said, startled. In all seriousness.
“I would have stayed with you, Britt. And left her alone. Except for one word. DON’T.”
He was aware of the sound of his breath and hers rushing, rushing. From anger, from fear.
“You just don’t seem to get it, J. T. Your ex-girlfriend is on bus benches and magazines and on a freaking billboard. She towers over Hellcat Canyon on that billboard like... like... that creepy sun baby in the Teletubbies. The whole town saw those pictures of us. And then she just appears, and yesterday I stood there like an ass and watched while everyone in the Misty Cat watched you get up out of your chair and drift on out of there after her, as if she was some kind of human tractor beam.”
The image was both unflattering and priceless.
“EX.” He growled that word and raked his fingers back through his hair in frustration. “Ex-girlfriend! Rebecca’s whole goal in life has always been to take over the world. Herjobis to tower over highways on billboards. I don’t see what that has to do with you and me. And if I wanted to be with her I’d bewithher, right now, instead of out here having agreattime arguing with you.”
He thought, for a moment, she was almost tempted to smile.
He seized the moment. “I love that you said ‘tractor beam.’” He said swiftly, gruffly. He loved all those odd little things she said.
But she didn’t smile. “I think she wantsyou, though, J. T.”
“That doesn’t mean she canhaveme. Rebecca always wants what she thinks other people have. She hunts down happiness like an anthropologist. And I must have looked happy to her in those photos. And I was. I am. Was. Am.”
Hell.
Britt quirked the corner of her mouth. “Gosh. Smooth, J. T.”
He sighed. “Britt, my reflex was to just get her out of the Misty Cat. Ihadto get her out of there. It was a public service. All those jaws hanging open were bound to catch flies and Giorgio would have burned something and Glenn would have gotten the blame.”
He’d hoped for a smile. She was determined not to give him one.