Jake tried not to dwell on that as he stood there watching Bree and his mom drive away, but for some reason, her hurried departure made his chest feel tight again.
Get a grip, Bishop. You’re already screwing her. What do you need to date her for?
Clinging to that thought, Jake entered the house and closed the door, then headed to the kitchen to clean up the remains of that disastrous intervention.
“This is a bad idea,” Bree told her mother as they exited the grocery store. “You know that, right?”
As usual, Barbara Lockhart dismissed any criticism directed her way. “It will be lovely, sweetheart. Your father and the mayor had a very pleasant discussion during the charity event.”
“Dad hates the mayor,” Bree replied. She juggled the grocery bags to her other hand and clicked on the electronic remote to unlock her car. Her mother, of course, hadn’t offered to carry any of the bags, nor did she help Bree load them into the trunk of the Lexus.
“They’ve been getting along splendidly the past couple of years,” Barbara said. Her blue eyes darkened with displeasure. “Which you would know, if you came home more often.”
Bree ignored the barb. When it came to pleasing her parents, she was in a no-win situation. If she came home too frequently, they ragged her about not working hard enough to be successful. If she stayed away, they complained she worked too much.
“I still don’t see how a Lockhart-Price dinner can possibly go smoothly,” she answered as she closed the trunk and returned to the sidewalk.
She and her mother had spent the afternoon in town, making arrangements for the big dinner Bree was only now hearing about. Maybe she hadn’t been visiting frequently enough, if Tanner Lockhart and Brandon Price were suddenly bosom buddies. The two families despised each other, thanks to some ancient beef between the founding fathers. Bree had been raised to loathe the Prices, and she and Lexie had barely spoken to each other during high school. Nowadays, she didn’t have anything against Lexie or the Price family, but it still surprised her to hear that her parents had buried the hatchet with their rivals.
“Dinner will be lovely,” her mother repeated. She squinted, glancing up and down Main Street before giving a brisk nod. “I need to place an order for a centerpiece. I believe the mayor’s wife favors lilies.”
Bree sighed as she trailed her mother toward the cobblestone pedestrian crosswalk. She suddenly wished she’d gone back to Jake’s after dropping his mother off. That had been the original plan, at least before he’d thrown her for a loop by asking her out.
What was up with that? Dinner? Suggesting they watch a movie? The blowout with Della and Austin must have taken a real toll on him if he was actually suggesting they engage in couple activities. In the short time they’d spent together twelve years ago, Bree had come to know Jake Bishop very well. She’d discovered he was arrogant. A risk-taker. Hotheaded. That he bored easily. And during their entire involvement, he hadn’t once suggested they do anything other than fuck.
Lovesick idiot that she’d been, she’d mistaken sex for intimacy, but it wasn’t until he’d broken things off that she’d realized she and Jake had been nothing but strangers. Strangers who happened to spend a lot of time naked.
That hadn’t changed now that they’d rekindled their affair. Take this morning for instance—he’d completely shut down when she’d asked for a few measly details about his army career. His inability to talk about himself, to share even a sliver of his life with her, told her that Jake Bishop hadn’t changed in the slightest.
Good in bed? Check.
A fun time? Check.
Boyfriend material? No way.
“I’ll meet you in a few minutes,” Bree said when she and Barbara neared the florist’s. “I need to pop into the drugstore to buy some shampoo.”
With a nod, Barbara wandered off.
Bree headed in the opposite direction toward the drugstore. Halfway there, she stopped in her tracks, her gaze landing on the blue pickup truck parked across the street. Same truck that Austin Bishop had driven over to Jake’s in. She glanced from the truck to Bishop’s Corner, the pub Nate had taken over after Henry Bishop died. Jake had mentioned that Austin was running the bar in Nate’s absence, and she found herself hesitating as she stood there in the middle of the sidewalk.
None of your business. Go buy some shampoo.
Yeah, that was probably the smart thing to do.
But…