1022 Evergreen Place - Debbie Macomber [105]
Tanni shrugged. “Jeremy might come over. Kristen, too.” If anyone had told Tanni she’d become friends with the girl she despised most, she would’ve fallen down laughing.
As little as a month ago, Tanni could barely stand to be in the same room with her. These days they hung around, went places together and talked nearly every day.
Kristen had been such a help with the whole Shaw situation. She’d broken off a number of relationships herself and said it was best just to be done with it. If Shaw was sending Tanni all the signals that he wanted their relationship to end—and he was—then Kristen said she should make it easy on him. So Tanni had.
It hadn’t been easy on her, though. When she called Shaw to tell him, he seemed shocked. Kristen said that was to be expected, too. Guys might want to end the relationship, but then they had a change of heart as soon as the girl took the initiative. At first, Tanni had thought her friend was exaggerating, but everything Kristen had said would happen did.
Almost immediately after she broke up with him, Shaw started texting her five or six times a day. After weeks of driving Tanni insane by disregarding her messages, he suddenly wanted to be in contact. She gained a perverse satisfaction from ignoring him. But that only encouraged him to text more often. He’d even tried to phone. She’d had to force herself not to answer, but managed to hold firm. Kristen praised her for being in control. It felt good, she felt good, and she was determined never to let anyone treat her emotions so lightly again.
As a bonus Kristen had introduced Tanni to her neighbor Jeremy Reynolds and they’d met several times. He was very different from Shaw. Knowing that Jeremy was interested in her made the fact that Shaw was out of her life a lot more tolerable.
The doorbell rang and her mother rushed into the living room. Tanni followed her, wanting to greet Larry and hear about their plans so she’d know when her mother would be home. That was a role reversal if ever there was one.
Halfway into the room, Tanni froze. Larry Knight was at the door, but he wasn’t alone. Shaw was with him.
“Hi, Tanni,” Shaw said as he sauntered into the house.
“What are you doing here?” She made it clear that she didn’t appreciate his unexpected arrival. If she’d known Shaw was coming, she could have mentally prepared herself for the confrontation. She would’ve liked to discuss this with Kristen first and gotten her advice.
“Tanni.” Her mother said her name softly, reminding her of her manners.
“Hello, Shaw,” she said with less of an edge.
Larry had his arm around her mother’s waist. “Tanni, I brought Shaw along as a surprise.” He gave Shaw a skeptical look. “I was led to believe you’d welcome a visit.”
“You are so thoughtful,” Shirley said, smiling at him.
Larry’s expression indicated he was no longer so sure of that. “Would you rather I dropped Shaw off at his family’s place?” He spoke directly to Tanni.
“Come on, Tanni,” Shaw pleaded. “I just want to talk.”
Larry regarded each one in turn. “Is that what you want, Tanni?” he asked.
He didn’t seem any too pleased with Shaw, which was all right with her.
“Fine. I’ll talk to him,” she said.
Still, Larry hesitated. “I’d like to take your mother to lunch here in Cedar Cove, and then we thought we’d stop off at the art gallery,” he explained. “We shouldn’t be gone more than a couple of hours. Would that suit you?” Again, he looked at Tanni.
She shrugged, letting that be her response. She wanted Shaw to realize that her feelings about him were lukewarm at best.
Larry and her mother left and then Tanni was alone with Shaw. At one time she would have welcomed the privacy. That wasn’t true anymore.
“How’s it going?” he asked. He made himself at home on the sofa, crossing his legs and stretching his arm across the back.
Tanni sat on the other side of the living room, as far from him as possible. He looked different, but then so did she. With subtle suggestions from Kristen, Tanni had changed her wardrobe. She’d stopped wearing all black and added color here and there.