“Moira, what are you doing here?” he asked, even as she walked into the freezer obviously intent on checking something.
When she emerged, she shrugged. “What does it look like? I’m doing my job.”
He faltered at that, trying to decide if he should make an issue of this unexpected turn of events or let it pass. In the end, though, he had to understand.
“I thought you’d quit.”
She leveled a defiant look straight into his eyes then. “It was you I quit, Luke. Walking out on this job would be irresponsible.” Her expression dared him to challenge her.
Ah, he thought, fighting a smile. This was the salve to her pride, a way to come back into his life without letting him off the hook at all.
“Okay, then,” he said, grateful for the tiny opening, however it had come about. “I’ll be in the office, if you need me.”
She picked up a pot then and dropped it on the floor, causing a clatter that stopped him in his tracks. “That’s all you have to say?” she demanded.
“I’m at a loss,” he admitted. “You’re here to do a job, nothing else, isn’t that what you said?”
She clearly wasn’t pleased to have been taken at her word, but he wasn’t quite ready to bend yet, either.
“That’s what I said,” she agreed tightly.
“Would it help at all if I said I was sorry about how things ended yesterday?” he asked carefully. “I had a miserable night because of it.”
Her lips twitched at that. “Really? How miserable?”
“Lousy enough,” he said. “You’d have been quite content, I’m sure, if you’d seen me tossing and turning and wondering how I mucked things up so badly.”
“Do you need me to explain it to you?” she inquired, the faintest hint of a twinkle in her eyes at last.
“If it would make you feel better, go right ahead and tell me all the things I did wrong.”
She hesitated, then shook her head. “No, I think you should probably ponder the situation a bit longer and figure out your own answers.” She finally grinned. “I’ll be in here helping Bryan with lunch once you’ve come up with any.”
He risked a grin of his own. “Good to know.”
Though things between them were far from settled and nowhere close to back on an even keel, he felt a faint stirring of hope that he hadn’t blown any chance for them entirely out of the water.
To Luke’s utter horror, given how precarious things already were with Moira, Kristen wandered in around one-thirty as the brisk lunch business was winding down.
“Since the official, invitation-only festivities are over and this place is open to the public, I thought I’d give it a try,” she said, her expression daring him to dismiss her.
“Sure,” he said reluctantly. “Have a seat and I’ll send your waiter over.”
“I thought maybe you’d have time to at least have a cup of coffee with me,” she said.
“Why would you think that?” he asked in frustration. “You know I’m with Moira. I’ve explained that.”
“The way I hear it, there was a fight of some kind yesterday at Sally’s and she walked out on you,” Kristen said, clearly gloating about the news.
Luke muttered a curse under his breath at the efficiency of the Chesapeake Shores grapevine. Who the devil had been in Sally’s to spread the word? And why would they tell Kristen, of all people? Was there someone in town who wanted to screw with his life that badly?
Kristen laughed when he didn’t respond. “I can just about hear those wheels in your head going round and round as you try to figure out who spilled the news to me.”
“It did cross my mind to wonder,” he admitted.
“No one in your family betrayed you,” she said, “at least not intentionally. Sally was apparently worried about whatever she witnessed. She mentioned something to Susie, who dropped in to talk to Mack, wondering if she should try to intercede. She didn’t realize I was around.”
“And you couldn’t resist eavesdropping,” he concluded.
“Not once I’d heard your name, of course not,” she said unrepentantly. “Newspaper reporters often get the hottest news by overhearing things meant to be kept secret.” She held his gaze. “Is it true, Luke? Have you finally had the good sense to call it quits? She was all wrong for you, you know. Anyone could see what a terrible mismatch it was. She’d have made you miserable.”
“Is that so?” Moira said, appearing suddenly beside them.
Luke couldn’t be sure how she’d turned up so quietly, or how she’d even known Kristen was near the place. Was it some sort of female sixth sense or something?
“You’re here,” Kristen said, looking stunned.
“Right here,” Moira confirmed. “And wondering why you are. Come to pick over the bones, Kristen? That’s what predatory animals do, I’m told. Sadly for you, the news of the death of my relationship with Luke has been premature.”
Kristen looked shocked by her words, but Luke had never been more proud. This was the Moira with whom he’d fallen in love, the one who spoke her mind without heed to the consequences. And if she was publicly claiming him, he could only hope that meant she’d forgiven him and not just that she wanted to stick a sword through Kristen’s heart.
Kristen whirled on him. “Luke, are you going to allow her to say such things to me?”
He merely smiled. “You’re on her turf. It’s your battle, Kristen. You’ve always prided yourself on your ability to handle any situation. I have to admit that I’m fascinated to see how you’ll handle this one. Susie let you off too easily, if only because she was so sick, but it seems to me you’ve met a
