Chapter 63
“Is there something I should know here?” Meredith coyly asked as she slid into the chair across from Tristan at the diner.
He glared at her over his cup of coffee.
“Not that I’m aware of,” he retorted. In a rather surly tone.
Undeterred, Meredith said, “Just seems like you’re putting extra effort into avoiding your new employee.”
He flicked the brim of his black Stetson with his finger and thumb and eyed her a bit more closely.
“Since when did my business become your business, Mere?”
She glared back at him. Unwaveringly.
Making her own damn point.
He grunted and amended, “I’m talkin’ about my bar business.”
“I’m not.”
He’d meddled in her life. She didn’t feel a tinge of guilt over doing the same with his.
Plus…they were friends.
He took a sip of his coffee and then set aside his mug. He told her, “Don’t go thinkin’ there’s anything going on with me and Emma Yates. You know my stance on dating women in this town. It becomes everybody’s favorite topic of conversation, and that is not for me, darlin’.”
“That’s super-hypocritical of you,” she sassily countered, “considering you were perfectly willing to make my dating life a topic of conversation.”
He speared her with a more intent look, making her think they were headed for a stare-down of epic proportions. Likely, they were.
“That was to keep you safe,” he insisted.
“Ha,” she said with a laugh. “That was to keep me a virgin.”
“That, too.”
At least he didn’t try to deny it, was straight-up with her.
Meredith continued. “I get the feeling Emma’s got a thing for you, Tristan. And let’s face facts, she’s seriously easy on the eyes. Prettiest damn thing in these parts, aside from Lacey. So…Why not explore the chemistry a bit?”
Tristan’s stare hardened, as she’d anticipated.
Thank God Meredith had known him the whole of her life, or she just might have slinked on out of the diner without saying another word to the man. Ever.
Instead, she told him, “I completely understand your plight. Gets a little complicated in this town when everyone’s talking about you.”
“And you know I endured everyone gossiping about my parents when I was a kid—and then me, when everything surrounding them blew up. So, Meredith, it is my personal preference to keep my shit to myself.”
She sat back in her chair and crossed her arms over her chest.
“All that stuff with your family was a long time ago, Tristan. And none of it was your fault or your doing.”
“You’ve dealt with your family bullshit since the beginning of time, Mere, and it came back to visit you just recently. Bit you in the ass in the grandest way, didn’t it?”
He said this neither spitefully nor cruelly. Just matter-of-factly.
Meredith couldn’t argue against his observation.
However…She did experience a crystal-clear aha moment.
She unfolded her arms, sat forward and very quietly, conspiratorially said, “You think if your name floats around this town, it will somehow summon your demons? Is that it, Tristan?”
She asked this very seriously. Honestly and wholeheartedly.
Adding, “That it’ll somehow invoke a visit from the unsavory branches of your family tree?”
“Meredith.” He let out a long breath. Scratched the side of his neck. Reached for his coffee cup and sipped.
She gave a small nod and a soft smile.
“Gotcha,” she murmured. “One-thousand percent, I fully comprehend. To the degree that, maybe I cling to the same fear. We both exist under a bleak and disastrously looming cloud sometimes, Tristan.”
Now, his gaze narrowed on her and a concerned expression flitted over his ruggedly handsome face. “What are you thinkin’, darlin’?”
Meredith sighed. “That if I’m happy and successful, my demons will continually darken my doorstep. I mean, come on, Tristan. You know how my parents treated me when they thought I was just some geeky, gangly gal who’d never amount to much. The runt of the fucking litter—if they’d actually had a litter. Then I was suddenly being hailed as one of the smartest kids in the state, because of my SAT scores, and the next thing you know…I’m actually…Somebody. In their eyes.”
Emotion tingled in hers, but Meredith didn’t cave to it.
She said, “I can’t keep agonizing over this, I know that. It’s time to let it all go. It’s just that I’m twenty-four-seven paranoid now that anything good that rolls my way is going to bring them back to Wildfire.”
Tristan told her, “And if it does, Mere, you’ll send them packin’ the way you just did.”
“It’s not just that…” She shrugged and gazed up at the ceiling for a moment or two, searching for the right words, or some sort of divine intervention to set her on the right path.
The big squares and the florescent lights above, however, had nothing worthwhile to say to her.
Eventually, she confessed to Tristan, “It makes any success I have bittersweet. It taints it. One, because I’m terrified they’re going to keep coming at me and I’m going to have to keep shutting them down. And, two…What if they start spoutin’ off at the mouth about being my parents—just to try to get some benefit out of it? What if they attempt to cash in on the attention I’m getting from this contest?”
“What if they start circulating your baby pictures and telling anyone and everyone who will listen what a lovely family unit you all are?”
Meredith’s stomach churned.
No, it downright roiled. Violently.
“I’m gonna vom.”
“No, you’re not,” Tristan asserted. “Because you’re Meredith-fucking-Jane Carlisle, my dear. And you not only have your head screwed on right, but you also know how to speak up for yourself. How to stand up for yourself. And anyone who attempts to drag you through the muck with them, bring you down to their level, will learn their lesson quick enough. Of this, I have no doubt.”
He grinned.
Tears filled Meredith’s eyes.
He said, “Chase and I didn’t exactly spend endless hours trying to convince you that Garrett Slater wasn’t the man for you. Why? Because you got in our faces, Meredith. Told us to butt out.”
“You didn’t,” she reminding him, mockingly scolding.
“Actually, yeah, we did. Trust me when I say, this could have been much, much worse for your boyfriend. And even though Chase and I truly are overprotective of you…You proved from the beginning you knew what you were doing. I’m proud of you for pushing back at us.”
“Jesus, Tristan.” She snatched a napkin from the metal dispenser and pressed it lightly to her watery eyes.
He glanced away. Shook his head. Then he murmured, “Meredith, you’ve got nerves of steel, girl. A sharp-as-a-tack mind. And a whole life ahead of you that doesn’t have to be plotted by anyone other than you. Stop worrying about your parents. They are not the type to take kindly to humiliation, and that scene in and out of this diner is enough to keep the wolves at bay. Mark my word.”
She stared at him a few seconds. Then tentatively asked, “You and Chase didn’t—?”
“No, darlin’, we did not warn them off. You and Garrett did that all on your own. More power to ya both.”
He raised his coffee cup and tilted the rim to her in salute.
Meredith sniffled. Dabbed at her eyes some more. Then she said, “You do know I adore you, Tristan. So if there’s anything you actually do need to talk about…” Her gaze slid discreetly to Emma at the counter, serving biscuits and gravy to Tucker Boyd, who owned the feed store. “I would never betray your confidence. Mum would be the eternal word.”
One corner of his mouth lifted. “Yeah, I know. It’s just that…I don’t currently have anything to discuss. So we can let this drop.”
“All right.” She held her hands up in the air. “Fair enough.”
Chase’s aunt arrived with Tristan’s breakfast order and Meredith took that as her cue to leave the man in peace.
She pushed back her chair, but before she strolled off, Tristan said, “You keep bein’ you, Meredith. You’re a helluva gal, honey.”
More tears stung her eyes.
Over her shoulder, she said, “I’m so glad I didn’t slug you on my birthday, Tristan. When I really wanted to.”
“I’ll second that.” He smiled a bit brighter. “Ouch.”
With a laugh, Meredith walked out of a sound resolution to a complicated problem—and walked smack into a complicated problem for which she was damned certain there was no sound resolution.
With Garrett.