Cover to Covers (16 page)

She filled his
blue coffee mug. “We’re close, but I don’t think it would be a good idea to get any closer. He has never given up hoping I’ll change my mind.” She put the mug down in front of him. “You want sugar?”

“No.” He shook his head
. “I mean, yes to the sugar. If you don’t want more, then why do you let him stay here?” 

Shrugging, s
he poured the coffee into her white mug. “Why not? It’s convenient when we have things to do in town.” She carried the coffeepot back to the coffeemaker on the counter.

“I don’t think it’s wise for the guy to stay with you. What if he wears you down one
day and you two begin a relationship?”

Monique picked up
a bowl of sugar by the coffeemaker. “Wear me down? Like you’re trying to wear me down?” She brought the sugar to the table.

“This is different
.” He waited as she placed the sugar in front of him. “You don’t care for him, you care for me.”

“Cared for you, Ty. Past tense.” She returned to her chair. “What we had was a long time ago.”

“It was last weekend, Moe.”

She lifted a small
white jug next to her plate filled with maple syrup. “That was just sex,” she admitted, covering her french toast with syrup.

He shook his spoon at her.
“It was more than sex, and you know it.”

“No, I’m pretty sure it was just about the sex.”

He stabbed his spoon into the sugar bowl. “Why are you being so stubborn?”

She
thumped the jug down on the table. “Why are you being so persistent?”

“I thought that was obvious.” He
dumped a spoonful of sugar into his coffee.

“Nothing with you is obvious, Ty.
I learned a long time ago that nothing is as it appears with you.”

He stirred his coffee. “Meaning what, exactly?”

“You always said one thing and meant another. I could never tell where I really stood with you half the time.”

“Oh, come on, Moe.
” Tyler banged his spoon down on the table. “You knew exactly how I felt about you.”

“Did
I?” She looked over her plate of french toast and bacon. “Funny, I don’t remember you ever saying how you felt about me.”

“Yes, I did.
Plenty of times. You just don’t—” The chimes from the front doorbell interrupted him. “Let me guess,” Tyler grumbled. “It’s Chris.”

Monique
pushed her chair back from the table. “It’s not Chris. I spoke to him yesterday. He’s at the convention in South Carolina, covering for me.” She stood and went to the kitchen doorway. Before she exited the kitchen, Monique turned to him. “Stay here. I don’t need you starting shit, in case it is Chris.”

Tyler
stood from the table. “To hell with that.”

Monique rolled her eyes. “Great.”

She hustled to the entrance and Tyler followed close behind her. She waited with her hand on the front door when he came up to her side.

“Just behave,” she whispered to him.

“I make no promises.”

Monique u
ttered a frustrated sigh, shook her head, and turned the deadbolt.

A thick, muscular man of medium height with wild, light blond curly hair and piercing blue eyes was standing on the porch, holding
up a newspaper wrapped in a blue plastic bag. His fitted, dark gray suit and yellow tie stood out against the white front doorframe. When his playful eyes found Monique, a wide grin brightened his round face.

“Hey, girl,” the stranger called in a chipper voice. He then stepped inside the door and kissed Monique on the cheek. When he raised his eyes
to Tyler, his cheerful countenance disappeared. “Sorry, did I, ah, interrupt something?”

“Jake, this is Tyler.” Mo
nique gestured to Tyler. “Tyler Moore; my friend from Dallas.”

Jake’s bright blue eyes clouded with concern. “Not
the
Tyler Moore?”

Monique nodded. “Yeah. Tyler this is my brother, Jake Delome.”

Tyler stepped forward, extending his hand, but Jake refused it and took a step back, scowling at Tyler.

“Jake, stop it,” Monique cautioned.

“This is the son of a bitch who made you a basket case when you came home from SMU!” Jake shouted.

Monique went to Tyler’s side. “That was over twenty years ago, Jake.”

Jake pointed at his sister. “Do you know what you did to her?”

“I can understand why you are angry, but I think your sister and I have worked things out,” Tyler told him.

Bart trotted into the hallway, anxious to see what all the commotion was about. He had a seat on the floor and casually took in the show.

Monique spun around to her brother. “Jacob Martin Delome, you apologize right now!”

“For what?” Jake appeared indignant.

She went to the open front door and pointed outside. “If you can’t be civil to my guest, then get out.”

“Now I’m a guest. Last night I was a stalker,” Tyler remarked behind her.

Jake
then pointed his finger at Tyler. “Hey, I wasn’t the asshole who dumped you all those years ago, Mojo.”

“Mojo?” Tyler asked.

“He’s always called me Mojo, since we were kids,” Monique explained, glancing back at him.

“You want to tell me why he is here?” Jake
implored, raising his voice.

Tyler turned to Jake. “I’m here because your sister and I ran into each other
last weekend and I wanted to catch up.”

Jake
wrinkled his brow at Monique. “I thought you were in Dallas last weekend for a convention?”

Tyler came up to Monique’s side and she
waved her hand to him. “I was. We ran into each other at my hotel.”

“And
now he’s here? Give me a break,” Jake scoffed. “Sounds like you two are still hot for each other.”

Monique blushed, and then d
ropped her eyes. “We’re not ‘hot’ for each other.”

“Could have fooled me.” Jake knelt down and patted Bart on the head.

“I know I’m still hot for you,” Tyler whispered to her.

Monique playfully slapped his arm. Tyler sensed the change in her, and knew he was making headway.

Jake rose from the floor and then begrudgingly motioned to Tyler. “Hey man, I’m sorry I jumped all over you.” His eyes then swerved to his sister. “There, happy?”

She shut the front door with a loud bang. “You’re such an idiot.” She went back to Tyler. “Come on, let’s finish our breakfast.”

“Hey, Mojo, can I get a cup of coffee?”

“It’s in the kitchen,” she called over her shoulder to her brother as she escorted Tyler down the hall.

When they entered the kitchen, with Bart bringing up the rear, Jake went to the table and inspected the plates of french toast and bacon. “I want some,” he whined, sounding more like a little boy than a grown man.

Monique went to the
refrigerator. “You get coffee, and that’s it.”

Jake
pitched the newspaper still in his hand onto the black granite countertop. “I got your paper for you. Isn’t that worth a slice of bacon?”

“
Fine. You can have mine.” She waved to her place at the table.

“Cool.” Jake went to the table
, flung his tie over his shoulder, and straddled her chair. The man-child nabbed the fork next to the plate and happily dived into the soggy, syrup-coated french toast.

“You’ll have to forgive my brother, Tyler. He got hit in the head a lot when he played baseball for LSU.”

“Very funny. So why is he staying here?” Jake jammed a forkful of food into his mouth.

As
Tyler stood next to the table, Monique came alongside him, carrying a butter dish. Placing her hand on his back, she deposited the dish next to her brother’s spot at the table. When she stepped back, she smiled into Tyler’s eyes and for a moment it was as if all the years apart had never happened. The same sense of awe he felt for her when they first met in front of that Jackson Pollack painting was still there.

“You finally slept with him, didn’t you?”
Jake’s voice intruded.

“Jake!” Monique
croaked.

Tyler
tried to hide his grin.

“What?” Jake pointed his fork at her. “It’s written all over your face. Why else would the guy be staying here?”

“Jake, I am here catching up with an old friend.” Tyler pulled out his chair and had a seat. “Monique was kind enough to invite me to stop by whenever I was in New Orleans. I got a lucky break from work and decided to take her up on her offer.” He reached for his blue coffee mug. “That’s all there is to it,” he declared.

“
Yes, that’s all there is,” Monique confirmed. “He got in late last night, but he’s getting a hotel room today. Right, Ty?”

Tyler
purposefully did not respond and took a sip from his coffee.

Jake scowled at Tyler. “You do know you broke her heart before, don’t you?”

Tyler nodded. “And she broke mine.”

“I did?” Monique spoke up
, a bit mystified.

Jake
’s blue eyes honed in on Monique’s reaction. “What about Chris? Does he know Tyler is staying here?”

Tyler
swiveled his dark eyes to Monique.

“It’s none of his business
,” she groused and spun away from the table.

Jake let out a
hoarse chuckle. “Yeah, right. If he even gets wind that you have another guy under this roof, he’ll be here with a bazooka to blow him away.”

“
I’ll make sure to keep an eye out for that bazooka,” Tyler mumbled.

Huddled over his plate,
Jake appraised the man across from him. “So what is it you do, Tyler? Mojo told me you came from money?”

“I
’m the CEO of Propel Oil and Gas.”

“I’ve heard of them. Well-established company.” Jake shoved another slice of
french toast into his mouth.

“What do you do, Jake?”
Tyler sipped his coffee.

“I’m an attorney with Barton and Lubell. We handle mostly insurance cases, defending the insurance companies, not litigating against them.”

Tyler raised his eyebrows. “Impressive.”

Jake
held out his white mug of coffee to Monique, who was standing by the kitchen counter. “Can you refill this for me…please?”

Monique
sighed and retrieved the coffeepot from the warming plate.

“How long have you been with Propel?” Jake
inquired.

“
Over twenty years. I started with them after Monique returned to New Orleans.”

Monique came to the table
, carrying the coffeepot. “What are you doing here so early, Jake?”

“I’ve got a deposition at an attorney’s office close by. So, I thought I would come and get a cup of coffee.” He
nodded to Tyler. “Didn’t think I would see you with him here, though. I thought you had put this guy behind you, except of course in those trashy novels you write.”

Tyler
put his mug down on the table with a thud. “Am I the only one who didn’t know I am in her books?”

“Her trashy novels, you mean,” Jake infused. “Yeah, she told me about putting you in them after I read her first one. I thought it was weird.”

“Would you stop calling my books ‘trashy novels’?” She finished filling his white coffee mug. “Just call before you come next time, okay?”

“Why? I’ve never called before.”

She walked back to the counter. “Yeah, and it used to drive Mat crazy when you would just show up at any hour.”

“Mat was an asshole,” Jake snorted.

“I keep hearing that,” Tyler quipped.

“Mojo ever tell you about the time I beat the shit out of her husband?”

Monique thumped the coffeepot down on the counter. “Damn it, Jake.”

“Oh, I’d love to hear this,” Tyler imparted with a
wicked grin.

“Yeah, I came over one morning and found Mojo crying her eyes out. Seems her dickhead husband let it slip about his affair with one of the girls from his office. I confronted him and he thought he could push me out the door.”
Jake’s blue eyes danced with mischief. “Asshole Mat may have been an inch or two taller than me, but I had twenty pounds on his skinny ass. So when I pushed back, he raised his fist to me. Big mistake.”

“You broke his nose,” Monique
scolded as she came back to the table.

“Yeah, and knocked out two of his teeth, too.
” Jake grinned. “Poor bastard had to get implants.”

Tyler laughed and could not help but notice as Monique laughed, too.

“It was pretty cool,” she admitted.

“Very cool,” her brother added. “Anyway, a few days later, Mat the asshole moved out.” He heaved another thick wedge of
french toast into his mouth.