Page 78 of Recipe for Rivals
“I meant the man,” Carter said, and he didn’t sound happy.
“Found it,” Nova said, coming out of her room. She shook the box to rattle the pieces. “It’s America, but every state is covered in its state flower. The ocean is impossible. Just solid blue.”
I rose to my feet and took the puzzle, discomfort edging along my body.
“What?” she asked, her brow furrowing. “You look?—”
“Nova,” Carter snapped through the phone. “Alice, I want to talk to Mommy.”
Nova took a step away, like she didn’t want to deal with this right now, and I wondered if she realized she’d done that.
Alice crawled out from under the chair and lifted the phone.
Nova took it, pasting a smile on her face. “We’re in the middle of something. Can this wait?”
“No.”
She glanced at me apologetically.
I waved her away. “I’ll get started on Texas.” It felt weird talking, knowing her ex could hear me, but he already knew I was here.
Nova pressed the phone to her chest, blocking the camera. “I promise I’ll be quick. He’s probably worried about the tornado.”
That was extremely unlikely and we both knew it.
She looked at me for a moment longer before the phone’s speaker blew to life again. “Nova!”
She flinched. “Coming.” Then she lifted her eyebrows. “Don’t go anywhere.”
My mouth curved into a gentle smile. “I’m not planning on it.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
NOVA
I wentinto my room and closed the door. “The tornado isn’t even close to us yet, and the trajectory doesn’t look like it’ll come our way, so you don’t need to worry.”
His eyes bulged. He sat on the edge of our bed—hisbed—and loosened his tie. “What tornado?”
“Isn’t that why you needed to talk to me?” I asked, feigning ignorance. “The kids were pretty freaked out, but they’ve calmed down.” I wasn’t about to tell him I was just as worried as the kids.
“Who’s the man?” His face didn’t give anything away, but his tone did. He wasn’t happy. I wasn’t going to pretend to imagine he was jealous. I imagine he didn’t like the sense of control slipping away. Carter didn’t like being in the dark. He wanted to know everything—to be the guy to tell you things for the first time. This was new territory for us.
There were a multitude of ways I could handle this situation. The petty side of me wanted to hang up. I hadn’t called, begging him to tell me about the woman moving into his apartment. But the peacemaking side of me, who didn’t want conflict andrecognized that he was well and truly out of my life, wanted to end the conversation as quickly as possible so I could return to Alice, Ben, Dusty, and the cat.
Besides, there wasn’t anything between Dusty and me but friendship, which meant I didn’t have to broach the subject of romantic relationships anyway.
“He’s a friend,” I said lightly. “Gigi knows him well and vouched for him. He’s a good man, but I didn’t bring him around the kids until I felt the same way. Don’t worry. I’m not being reckless.”
Carter stared at the camera, his jaw working. “I don’t like the idea of men I haven’t approved of being around my kids.”
“You don’t trust me?” I asked simply, though my stomach was roiling. Between the two of us, I was the one who always put the kids first. He couldn’t even manage a ten-minute conversation with them more than once a week.
“Of course I trust you.”
“Then I don’t see what more we have to talk about. I need to go, Carter.”
He looked ready to argue.