Page 106 of Lime Tree Hill
“You’re right. I’m sorry.” He offered his hand, as he always did when he wanted her to sit with him. “So, we’re good?”
Tayla shook her head. She wanted to take his hand, let him pull her into his lap, and kiss him until the noise in her head hushed. But if she reached out, letting go would be so much harder. “It’s not only Prue. I thought we could do this, step from fantasy to reality, but…”
He looked puzzled. “Are you breaking up with me?”
“I heard you talking to Luka.”
His puzzled expression remained. “Sorry, I don’t follow.”
“The day before you left. You told him that the contract’s up soon, that I’d be out on my ear. That you’d get your lawyer to sort it out.”
“Shit! Seriously? Why didn’t you ask me about it?”
“What did you want me to ask? Why you pretended to care? Why you led me on? And I shouldn’t have listened in on your private conversation, but you need to hush up when you’re having a boys’ talk with Luka.”
“I need to hush up?Youneed to communicate. And now we’re over because you assumed I was talking about you? Is that the gist?”
“I heard you.”
“I don’t doubt it. But my conversation with Luka wasn’t about you.”
“No? Everything you said related to us. Every single word.”
“We were talking about my tenant. Her lease is up soon. She’s behind in her rent, and I can’t wait to get rid of her. Next time, ask the damn question.”
“But—”
“Luka’s friend Mike wants the building for an organic café. I’ll take you there when it opens…ifyou’re still talking to me.” He stared her down. She’d never seen him angry like this, but maybe he’d change his tune when he saw the photographs. “What’s next on your Naughty Mitch list?”
Tayla went to the bedroom and returned with the envelope. She sat on the sofa and placed it on the coffee table in front of him. Mitch frowned as he opened the flap and removed the photos, and he continued to frown as he flipped through them.
“Her name is Ella Stone,” Tayla said. “She left her jacket and panties at your place. I assumed they were Prue’s or CeCe’s. But, if you look closely, Ella’s carrying the jacket in one of the shots.”
“I know who she is.” Fanning the photos across the table, he shot her a questioning frown. “Are you having me followed?”
“What? Of course not. Do you honestly think I’d do that?”
“So, where did you get these?”
“They were left at the farm gate store for me.” Her tone softened. “Are you sleeping together? You and Ella Stone?”
Tayla waited for Mitch to defend or deny, but he remained silent, one large hand rubbing his designer stubble, and his brows knitted together. Her stomach lurched.
“No. But we do have a history.”
He stood and stared out the window to the outdoor chess setacross the green. She stilled, waiting for the blow he was about to deliver.
“We were both eighteen,” Mitch said as he turned and leaned his butt on the windowsill. “Norman grew a few peaches and early apples in those days. I came to stay with him over summer break, so I could work at the orchard.” He smiled at the recollection. “Ned ran the place back then. Norman just sat around in his plaid dressing gown, counting his profits on an old Casio adding machine.”
Tayla remembered that adding machine. She’d seen it sitting in the same place on Norman’s desk every time she went to visit.
“Anyway, I arrived at work one morning, and there she was. Ella McKenzie. The most beautiful girl I’d ever seen. I dreamed about her for days, but when I showed an interest, she turned me down flat with a swift flick of her lashes. That made me want her even more. I later found out she’d had the same boyfriend since she was fourteen.”
“Chris?”
“Yep.” He returned to the chair. “I couldn’t stand the guy. Even back then, he was a smart-ass jerk with too much of his father’s money to throw around. I didn’t understand what she saw in him. Neither did any of her friends. Anyway, the week before Christmas, a group of us were at a party. He had sex with her cousin in the bathroom, and he wasn’t discreet about it. Ella dumped him the next day.” Mitch’s expression was retrospective.
“We started dating a week later. By the time summer was over, I was so in love with her, I couldn’t think straight. The night we said goodbye, she picked me up in her father’s car, and we drove to the beach. She was an emotional wreck. Crying and saying how much she loved me. And when we made love, I cried too. I wanted to call Mum and Frank and tell them I’d decided to take a gap year. But Norman and I discussed it, and he persuaded me to go to university as planned. If it was meant to be, he said, Ella would still be there when I got back.”
