The she in question showed up an hour later, and they all hung out for several hours before he headed out. He needed to be up early, and he hadn’t seen Caroline in several days between her schedule and his. He wanted to try calling her or making enough time to take her to lunch the next day.

“Jeez, hang on a second.” Anne came out of the house, his coat in her hands. “Your coat. Oh and this.” She handed him a bag. “Tate made cookies today so you’re one of the lucky recipients.”

“Nice. I’ll call her tomorrow to thank her.” He hugged Anne and she kissed his cheek. “I’ll see you later.”

“Why didn’t you bring her tonight?”

“Caroline?”

Anne nodded.

“She had court all afternoon and had to work late.” He’d been there hours, and this was the first time she’d even spoken about Caroline and now that he thought about it, it pissed him off.

“So you’re not avoiding us when you’re with her?”

“Annie, what the f**k is going on?” He leaned back against his truck.

“What do you mean?”

“Really?”

She shrugged and looked at a spot just over his right shoulder.

Royal rubbed his palms down the front of his jeans. “I’m not avoiding anyone, but everyone is tiptoeing around and it’s so stupid I could spit.”

She put a hand on one hip. “Ooh. When spitting comes up, you really do get all twitchy. Why let her, this, get between us?”

His anger wisped away as he snorted. “You were friendly with several of the women I dated since we split. But now all the sudden there’s tension and everyone is stepping carefully and damn it. I’m falling in love with this woman and it fills me with so much f**king joy I can’t begin to describe it accurately. You’re my friend and I want to share that with you because I share all the other things that make me happy or piss me off or whatever. I miss you.”

“No one is telling you not to date this chick.”

“Your opinion is important to me.”

“You know my opinion. I think she’s bad news.”

“You’re still the worst liar ever. Oh my God.” He shoved a hand through his hair.

Anne Murphy winced because he could still read her so well. A little embarrassed at how obvious she’d been, she went for a lazy shrug. “Calm down for heaven’s sake. I don’t actually think she’s bad news in general. She’s all right I guess if you like her type.”

He burst out laughing. “Her type, huh? What type do you mean? Successful? Independent? Intelligent? Beautiful? Financially secure?”

Oh. My. God. She was in hell. Why couldn’t Caroline be dumb? Or unattractive? None of the others he’d dated meant anything to him. Oh sure he was a nice guy, and he was friendly and courteous and all that junk. But Caroline had been different since that very first time Anne had laid eyes on her at the Pumphouse.

Royal Watson was truly moving on. No, he’d moved on before Caroline came to town, but before Ms. Perfect Hair blew into town Anne had all of Royal’s attention.

And now he was falling in love with someone. That someone wasn’t her.

“Enough already. No, I mean pushy. She’s very…strident. It rubs people the wrong way.”

“If people are rubbed the wrong way when another human being is powerful and doesn’t apologize for wanting to be successful, then they need to find a way to deal with it. The problem isn’t Caroline’s for being intense.”

“All this stuff about her dad is messed up.”

“It is. Which is why she’s trying to clear his name and find the real killer.”

“Oh. So you believe all that now?”

“Do you want me back? Is that it?”

“And if I did?” She couldn’t seem to stop speaking.

He looked at her for a while without speaking. “I told you a year and a half ago what I needed. I’d been telling you for years before that, and you said you didn’t want what I needed. We talked about that shit for days and days and it was awful and I was bummed out for a long time because I missed you and I loved you. I loved you after that too.”

His perceptive gaze took her in as he spoke. “But I have stumbled on this thing with Caroline. I didn’t expect it to be her. In fact I had a hard time imagining it would be anyone but you in the wake of our breakup. But it is her. This woman who I really like to be around, and I don’t appreciate that you’d f**k with me and pretend you want me back when you don’t. You just don’t want anyone else to have me. That’s shitty, Anne. I’d never do that to you.”

He gave her a hug. “I’m going to go now before I get any angrier. You need to get your shit straight. I’m with Caroline. That’s how it worked out. Don’t be destructive with my trust. She’s my girlfriend, and if you keep this up and continue to make this a problem, it drives her away. Even though she doesn’t say anything about it, it’s obvious there’s some sort of tension. It’s hard enough for her right now as it is, I’m not going to let her be in a situation where she’s uncomfortable. Which means it’s you making me choose, Anne. It’s not fair.”

She rolled her eyes but let him go because he was totally right and she had to face it. Maybe. Or maybe she needed a grand gesture.

Out in his truck he texted to see if Caroline was up but when he didn’t hear back after five minutes or so, drove away from the curb and headed home.