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it has developed into this fucked-up
situation where she freaks out while pretending not to freak out, and I pretend
I don’t notice she’s freaking out and pretending. A fucking mess.”
    Max chuckled. “You can say that again, man.”
    “I’ve been letting it slide, but this isn’t going to play
with me anymore.”
    At first James had been baffled about the situation. He knew
how to deal with an extremely combative and confrontational Tate building walls
between them to push him away, as she’d done at the beginning of their
relationship. He knew how to deal with the sweet, giving woman who loved him
and didn’t have any qualms showing it, which was what he’d been getting since
their engagement. This avoid-conflict-at-all-costs, pretend-everything-is-fine
Tate was a new creature. She’d never been one to shy from a fight, always stood
her ground, never giving an inch. Not now. She wasn’t fighting him or directly
pushing him away, but she was holding back on him. Retreating into herself.
Protecting herself as if expecting a huge disaster to befall her at any given
moment and she wanted to be prepared.
    Whenever she thought no one was around to notice, she’d curl
into herself on the sofa and hide behind those walls of hers to grieve. Her
eyes sad. Her smile sadder.
    Seeing her like that was breaking his heart.
    “What are you going to do?” Max asked after taking a swig
from the bottle.
    “What am I going to do? I’m taking the kid gloves off.”
    His first impulse had been to confront her and call her on
her bullshit, but she’d looked so fragile the couple of times he’d tried, he’d
decided to give her some leeway. He was done with that approach now.
    As he took the bottle of water Max was offering, he saw Jack
coming toward them.
    “Ready to shoot some hoops?” Max asked when Jack reached the
basketball court.
    “Ready to shoot someone, all right,” Jack muttered, dropping
his bag on the bench.
    “Why? What’s up?” James asked.
    Jack’s expression hardened. “What’s up? Look at this,” he
said and shoved his cell in front of James’s face.
    “New phone, man?”
    “No, you asshole. Look at the fucking message. I’m not
listed, and you can count with the fingers on one hand the people on this whole
planet who know my number. So can you fucking explain this to me?”
    Confused, James grabbed the phone and opened the message
while Max peeked over his shoulder.
    Yo Borg, here r ur
marching orders 4 the wedding dress op. Ignore them at your own peril. Champagne
and burgundy r IN. Try not to clash too badly. This message will autodestruct
in 5 seconds.
    PS—If it blows in ur
hand and u lose ur trigger finger, don’t say I didn’t warn u.
    Elle
    At the end there was a line of rather offensive emoticons,
some of which he hadn’t known even existed.
    James lifted his eyes in time to see Jack’s temple vein
pulsing. Scratch pulsing. About to burst actually. Max’s grin split his face.
    For the life of him, James couldn’t keep the laughter from
exploding out of him. Neither could his brother.
    “I liked that little cute ninja down there, the one without
pants,” Max said, pointing at the screen.
    “What exactly is ‘IN’?” James managed to let out between
laughing fits.
    “Fuck if I know,” Jack answered.
    “Now that Elle has violated your phone, you should whack
her. You know, as a matter of national security.”
    Jack shook his head in dismay and turned to James. “I bled
for you. This is how you repay me?”
    That got them laughing even harder.
    It took a while before James could talk again.
    “Thanks, man,” he said, giving Jack a pat on his back.
“Somehow you made my life seem so much better.”
    Jack scowled. “Glad I could help, asshole.”

Chapter Three
    A couple of days later, James entered Rosita’s around 11:00
a.m. and headed for the kitchen, where he could hear voices. The restaurant
only opened in the evenings, but every Thursday, Tate and her chef Nils