Simon snorted. “Like that’s going to help. What did you do?”
I shook my head. “Nothing. I just had coffee too late in the afternoon.”
Simon’s expression said he didn’t believe it for a second. “Try again. Maybe tell me you have a tummy ache this time.”
Since my stomach was a whirling mess, he wasn’t exactly wrong.
“Go watch your own TV, oh wait, you don’t have one.” Moving toward the stairs, I tried to turn down the crazy thoughts in my head.
“Just sit the fuck down and get it out.” Simon actually turned off the TV and I ended up dodging one of my throw pillows.
“Hey!”
“I don’t have all night; just spit it out. What did you do? Because I have to say, you’re radiating guilt worse than the time you flushed all those army men down the toilet.” Simon still snickered at the memory.
“You told me they were Navy SEALs and needed to go on missions.” It’d sounded logical when I was five.
Simon was still cackling away, but he must have been serious about the discussion because he actually took a few deep breaths. “Now, what’s going on?”
“Nothing.”
Nothing I was going to admit.
Simon shrugged, looking a little too casual. “So when I call Mom later, I don’t have to point out that you’ve been edgy lately?”
“Asshole.” The last thing I needed was the horde descending on me.
Simon raised one eyebrow and started to reach for his cellphone on the couch beside him.
Yep, he was an asshole.
“It’s nothing I can talk about with you.” I sighed and leaned on the wall leading to the foyer. “Honestly, I can’t break their trust.”
It’d kill me if the reason Tanner lost his privacy was my fault.
“Then how about I guess?” Simon settled back and thought quietly for several long seconds. “We’ve already established that you like your boss, but now you’ve done something else that’s making you insane. I’m going to guess that you made a comment to give it away or did something stupid and made yourself look like a moron.”
Simon snickered again, obviously thinking that made the most sense.
“I wasn’t a moron.” I was an idiot, but a fairly smooth one.
“So then you said something.” That had his brain going again. The asshole really was an asshole, but he wasn’t stupid. “Since you’re worried, you didn’t get a clear answer about how he feels. If he didn’t flirt back or push you away, then there’s something keeping you apart.”
My eyes just widened.
He laughed. “It’s like those romance novels Mom reads.”
I contemplated how much damage I’d do to my cell phone if I threw it at his head.
“You’re insane.”
But not wrong.
“So from what Mom’s said, those stories always have an internal problem or an external one.” Simon’s eyes lit up and his grin was almost ear-to-ear. It was almost like watching the evil villain start to lay his plan out for the heroes. “I can’t see your sexy Mr. Wright as a cheat or having some kind of closet boyfriend. We’re not in a magical universe, so we don’t have to consider curses or hexes.”
“What the hell have you been reading? You really need to get a TV.”
Simon barked out a laugh. “No, Mom is reading this series about werewolves and I had to listen to fifteen minutes of her complaining about everything that was going wrong. I’m sorry, but if the universe throws magical hexes, curses, and a husband coming back from the dead at you, I think that’s a sign you weren’t meant to be together.”
