“I don’t want to cut in line.” Weak excuse. But he couldn’t figure out how to act normal in this situation.

Tara coughed to cover her snort. She seemed to find his discomfort amusing despite her black mood. Why was she in a bad mood? He would ask her later. For now, he was glad he could make her laugh at his expense.

“You’re joining our party of three, so you’ll just be taking our empty fourth seat,” Jack reassured him. “No harm done.”

Seth shot her a panicked glance and she lifted her shoulder in the world’s subtlest shrug. Her faintly amused expression told him she was resigned to the awkward breakfast.

“In that case, I’d be happy to have the company,” Seth said, joining their huddle.

They were seated within thirty minutes in a cozy booth, and oversized laminated menus with way too many options were handed to them. Seth already knew what he wanted, and the Park siblings seemed to have the menu memorized, so the orders were taken quickly.

“So you guys are working together on Landon’s website?” Jack asked, taking a sip of his coffee.

“Yeah, we’ve made a lot of progress,” Seth responded, then realized Tara would have no excuse to see him without suspicion if the website was finished. “But there are still some details to tweak.”

“Those little things are the time-consuming ones,” Tara chimed in, nodding repeatedly for emphasis.

“Well, you better hurry and finish that,” Alex said, accepting his skillet-sized western omelet from the server with a wide grin. “You’re leaving for Paris at the end of next week, right?”

“Right.” Seth choked on his answer so he repeated himself. “Right.”

He and Tara never talked about it. About his leaving. Without meaning to, he had been avoiding the topic entirely. But she never brought it up either. Was she planning to wave him off when the time came? Sudden frustration clogged his chest. No mess, no fuss. Why did she want that so badly? Did her relationship with her ex still hold so much power over her?

Seth caught his rising anger and relaxed his clenched jaws. What was his problem? No mess, no fuss was exactly what he wanted, too. Liar. His conscience was exhausting him this morning. Despite the tall piping-hot stack of pancakes in front of him, his hunger deserted him.

“You must be excited to start a new life in a new country,” Jack said, sounding a little wistful.

“Yeah.” Seth cleared his throat. “Sure.”

But he wasn’t sure how he felt anymore. When he’d made the decision to take the job, he was excited for a new chapter in his life to begin—the move would propel his career forward and take him away from his comfort zone. He’d hoped the change would fill up the nagging hollowness he felt in his current life. Yet in the last few weeks, he’d hardly thought about Paris.

“I love Paris,” Tara piped up, saving him from more questions. “When I was still studying wine, I went and lived there for six weeks on a summer program. Honestly, I love California wine more than French wine, but the baguette and cheese…”