“Why wouldn’t he stay here?” Ramona stirred the lemon slice into her drink.
Megan lifted her gaze toward Ean’s table. “I—”
“Stop staring.” Ramona interrupted her.
Megan lowered her eyes. She sipped her iced tea. It was a struggle to keep her gaze from returning to Ean and his group. She squeezed her drink’s lemon garnish into her beverage. “You’ve said yourself, repeatedly, that Trinity Falls is slow, boring and backward.”
“It is.” Ramona sipped her drink.
“Ean spent seven years in New York. How can he be satisfied with Trinity Falls after that?”
“Where have you been for the past two months?” Ramona set her glass on the table. “No one twisted Ean’s arm to get him to return to Trinity Falls. He came back on his own.”
“I know that.” Her glass was cold and wet between her palms. “He’d had enough of the rat race and came home to spend more time with his family and friends.”
“So you were listening.” Ramona pulled apart a wheat roll and slathered it with butter. “His father was dying, and he didn’t even know. Do you really think the firm’s partners would be able to persuade him to go back to working for them after something like that?”
They sat in pensive silence for several minutes. Ramona finished a buttered roll. Megan toyed with her drink. Finally their server returned with lunch. Once Megan and Ramona assured him they didn’t need anything more, the young man disappeared.
Megan stared at her soup and sandwich. “Maybe they wouldn’t be able to change his mind this time, but suppose they try again?”
Ramona’s sigh was short and irritated. “Now you’re borrowing trouble.”
“Maybe because I’m scared.” Megan stirred her chicken soup as she watched Ramona slice her salmon salad into more manageable pie
ces.
Her cousin stabbed a forkful of the salad and chewed. She seemed deep in thought. “Let’s say, for argument’s sake, Ean does decide to return to New York. Why couldn’t you go with him?”
The question caught Megan by surprise. “He hasn’t asked me.”
Ramona rolled her eyes again. She spoke with exaggerated patience. “For argument’s sake, let’s say he did. What’s keeping you in Trinity Falls?”
Megan spread her arms. “Our bookstore, our grandparents’ house. This town is my home.”
“Home is where your heart is. Is a store and a house more important than your relationship with Ean?”
The server appeared to check on their meals and refill their iced tea. He then crossed to Ean’s booth. Megan’s gaze followed the young man as he returned Ean’s credit card and left the receipt for the bill before going back to his station.
Megan looked away. A week ago, Ean had asked her to move in with him. Today he was having lunch with the principals of his former law firm. A meeting he’d never mentioned to her. What did Ean really want? Did he want to settle down to a small-town life with her? Or was he considering returning to his cosmopolitan life in the Big Apple?
Megan sighed. “I don’t know if I could live in New York.”
Ramona forked up more of her salad. “It does take some getting used to. But perhaps a better question would be, could you live without Ean?”
Megan stared at her half-eaten sandwich and cooling chicken noodle soup. “I don’t know if I can do that, either.”
She looked up as Ean and his companions stood to leave the restaurant. His eyes found hers as he drew closer. Ean offered a smile Megan couldn’t return.
Ramona’s voice cut through the fog in her mind. “You’d better figure it out.”
Megan knew her cousin was right. She also knew she was running out of time.
CHAPTER 35
Megan opened her front door to Ean later that afternoon. He wore the sexy grin that usually made bubbles pop in her stomach. Today the bubbles sat like bricks. She stepped back, pulling the door wider.
Ean shrugged out of his coat. “You’re probably wondering why I didn’t tell you I was having lunch with my ex-bosses.”