Free It Had to Be Love (An It Had to Be Novel) by Tamra Baumann

happened.” And he felt rotten about it. “I’ll back off.” But he didn’t want to back off, dammit.
    He wanted Tara.
    But family came first. Always.
    Ben shrugged. “I knew I’d struck out with Tara after seeing the way she was all about you in my office yesterday. The woman clearly has bad taste.”
    Ryan’s lips tilted before he could stop them. “Maybe you’re getting old or something?”
    “Now who’s the asshat?” Ben shifted his bags and stopped walking. “My advanced age has given me seven more years of dating experience, and I can see Tara’s into you. I was looking for you earlier to tell you to go for it with her. And to remind you to tear up that ridiculous mental list of requirements for the perfect woman. She doesn’t exist!” He turned to go, then called out, “Try to have actual conversations sometimes, if you want to keep her around longer than the others. See you, lughead.”
    “Later.” Ryan walked down his driveway, relieved things with Ben were back to normal again.
    He’d take his brother’s advice and work on talking more—while he tried to extract intel on Tara from her parents.

    After Tara got her parents—and their six pieces of luggage for just one night—settled in her bedroom, she arranged for accommodations for their driver, Jimmy, at the hotel fifteen miles away in the next town south, and then sent him on his way. The hotel was part of a popular chain, perfectly fine for anyone other than her mother, or she would have sent her parents there too.
    She snuck out to the backyard to call Ryan. He answered with, “Hey.”
    “Hi. Everything under control? Need me to pick up anything?”
    “Nope.”
    Never a wasted word with the guy. “Um, would it be okay if I brought my puppy? He’s all discombobulated by my parents showing up out of the blue.”
    “Discombobulated?”
    “Sherlock likes his routine. I don’t know what he’ll do if I leave him home alone.”
    “ ’Kay.”
    “Do you always talk on the phone like this? With one-word answers?”
    “Yeah?”
    Tara smiled.
    Determined to make him utter a full sentence she said, “For my parents’ sake and to keep up the ruse of you being my real boyfriend, tell me something I should know about you.”
    He was silent so long she wasn’t sure he’d answer until he finally said, “I don’t like to talk on the phone?”
    Eight words. She’d take it. “That I already figured out. Something else.”
    “I’m an excellent cook. But stuff is going to burn if you don’t stop asking me questions.”
    Laughing, she said, “Okay. We’ll be there in a few. Thank you for doing this, Ryan. I really appreciate it.”
    “Welcome.” He hung up. No goodbye. Just silence.
    He’d hung up the last time without saying goodbye too. Maybe he did that to everyone? So she shouldn’t take offense?
    Her phone rang again. It was Ryan. “Hello?”
    “I probably should have said goodbye. I’m told it’s a bad habit of mine.”
    “Yeah. Hard to keep girlfriends happy when you hang up on them all the time.”
    “Happy would be good. My broken nose shows how hard you hit. Bye, Tara.”
    That was three whole, but short, sentences. Maybe there was hope for the man yet. “Goodbye, fake boyfriend.” She quickly hung up first.
    Shaking her head and smiling, she grabbed her dog’s leash and clipped it on her excited pup. “As for your bad habits, little man, no jumping on my mother, you hear? Be a good boy and mind your manners.”
    Sherlock’s stub tail wagged in answer as he lurched for the door, nearly tugging Tara’s arm out of the socket. He loved going on walks and still hadn’t gotten the “heel” part down.
    Once inside, Sherlock headed straight for her mother.
    Using her sternest voice, Tara tugged on his leash. “Sit!”
    Sherlock stiffened before he stopped dead in his tracks and plopped his butt down. The confused expression on his little face at her harsh tone poked at Tara’s heart. “Good boy.”
    “It’s