Finding Our Forever (Silver Springs #1)(42)

“Whoa! Okay. I see how it is.”

Irritated that Gavin would even bring her up, Eli threw a few bucks on the table and stood. “Let’s go. I should never have suggested we come here.”

“God, you’ve been a bear the past couple of days,” Gavin complained. “I’ve never seen you in such a sour mood. I’m not trying to piss you off, big brother—I’m just trying to figure out what’s wrong. So cut me some slack!”

“Nothing’s wrong. I don’t know how many times I have to say...” The door opened, and he let his words trail away as Cora walked in with a tall, thin guy who had long, curly brown hair, a goatee and glasses. He would’ve finished his statement, but he could no longer remember what he’d been about to say.

This was Matt. Eli had known he was still in town. He’d walked over to Cora’s a time or two and spotted the additional car in her drive.

Gavin followed his gaze. “Shit. She’s with someone else now? Who is that guy?”

Eli couldn’t make himself look away. “Her ex-boyfriend’s in town.”

“They’re back together?”

He didn’t know what the situation was. She hadn’t told him, and he hadn’t approached her to ask. He’d been trying to give her the space she seemed to want, had been hoping that by not pressuring her, she’d miss him the way he was missing her and come around again. “I guess.”

“Ah! Finally, it all makes sense!”

“What makes sense?” Eli growled.

“You really liked her.”

He said nothing.

“I’ve never known a woman to get under your skin before, but she’s managed to do that, hasn’t she?”

“You don’t know anything,” he grumbled.

Cora couldn’t have seen his truck outside, because Gavin drove. Eli was waiting for her to realize he was there—and watched her nearly trip over her own feet the moment her eyes landed on him. She hesitated for a moment. Then she said something to Matt and they changed direction, walking around the perimeter of the bar to the other side.

“You okay?” Gavin asked while Cora and Matt found a table.

“Yeah. Sure.” Eli tossed back what was left in his bottle. “Let’s get out of here,” he said, but he received a text while Gavin drove them home that only made his night worse.

“That her?” Gavin asked when Eli pulled out his phone to look at it. “Cora, I mean?”

Eli felt his stomach knot as he stared at the message. “No.” He wished it was Cora. Maybe he wouldn’t feel quite so terrible if she’d asked him to come back to the bar, or requested a few moments to talk.

Gavin gave him a funny look. “So...is it Mom?”

Not the mother Gavin meant and not the mother Eli claimed. But that was the name by which she called herself. “It’s nobody,” he said. Nobody to him, anyway.

Determined to ignore this message like those that had come before, he slid his phone back into his pocket.





Chapter Fourteen

“Who was that guy?” Matt asked as Eli and Gavin headed for the door.

Cora’s cheeks ached from clenching her jaw. She preferred to ignore that question, but she had to say something. The way Eli had stared them down as they came in had made an impression on Matt. She should never have brought him here. She wouldn’t have, if she’d had any clue that Elijah would be here, too. She’d just been looking for some way to entertain him, to help the time pass until he left tomorrow.

“Cora?” Matt pressed when she didn’t answer.

“My boss,” she replied.

“He didn’t look happy.”

For good reason. Eli had to be wondering if she’d taken her ex-boyfriend back. She planned to talk to him; she just couldn’t do it while Matt was in town. She wanted to make sure their paths never crossed.

“What do you think’s wrong with him?” he asked.

“He’s under a lot of pressure,” she replied.

“But if you work for him, why didn’t he say hello?”

“I doubt he even saw us.”

“What? He was staring at us the whole time we were trying to find a table.”

Desperate to escape this conversation, Cora came to her feet. “I like this song. Let’s dance.”

They danced a lot, and Matt drank a lot, which distracted him enough that he didn’t ask anything else about Eli. He seemed to be having fun, but Cora was just biding her time, couldn’t wait for this interminable night to end. She kept him at the bar until she thought everyone at the ranch would be settled in for the night. Then she drove him back to her place.

“What time will you be heading out in the morning?” she asked as she turned off the highway onto the narrow road that led, after another two miles, to the school.

“Tomorrow?” He acted as if this was the first he’d heard of his going.

She gripped the steering wheel that much tighter as they rolled under the high arch at the front entrance. “Yeah. I said I’d let you stay until Saturday morning.”

“But you’ve had to work the whole time. Why don’t I leave on Sunday? That way, we can do something fun tomorrow.”

“Matt, you said you needed some time to pull yourself together, and I’ve given you that. I’ve even let you stay long enough to avoid your difficult aunt.”