Page 26 of Love In Hiding

“Sometimes,” she said, lifting her chin. “Paris is the good twin.”

“I see how you two operate. There isn’t anything wrong with that.”

“It works for us.”

“But gets tiring getting the blame for it all, doesn’t it?”

She stopped at a light, turned and stared at him. It seemed like minutes rather than seconds, but he could stay like this for days. “Sometimes,” she mumbled.

Maybe they had more in common than either of them wanted to admit.

8

MAKING IT THAT WAY

“You knew we were coming. So why exactly weren’t you prepared?” London said, her voice edgy enough to sharpen a pencil that she’d broken the tip off of stabbing on the paper.

She felt Spencer’s glare burn into her cheek. A sharp, hot, and unmistakable singe. She didn’t even have to look. The message was loud and clear:tone it the hell down.

Yeah…that wasn’t happening. If anything, she was ready to crank it up.

Especially after the welcome she got the moment they walked in. The foreman’s eyes had crawled over her like she was a product on a shelf. Something he might take home for a test run if she came with a gag to keep her quiet.

The slow, nasty smirk he gave her was enough to make her skin tighten with disgust and the quick burger she’d eaten in the car before walking in threatened to come up all over the foreman’s Redwings. Not in fear, but in letting him know what she really thought of him and his look of disdain thatshewas the one here auditing their practices.

She wasn’t stupid. She’d seen that look her whole life.

And feeling Spencer tense beside her at the exact moment said at least she wasn’t imagining it.

When Spencer straightened to his full height and leveled the foreman with a glare that basically readtry it and you go down, something hot twisted in her chest.

Andnotin a good way.

Because while part of her registered the protectiveness and filed it away, maybe even savored it for half a second, the rest of her wanted to shove him out of the way and clap back, “I’ve been handling men like him my entire damn life. I don’t need a shield.”

She could fight her own battles.

Always had. Always would.

But she had her sister’s words in her head to find a way to get along with Spencer. Relax around him.

“We didn’t have the time to gather it all.”

“Bob,” she said, leaning on her forearms across the table. “You were told weeks ago that West was sending in consultants to go over the operations.Weeks. You knew it was happening.”

Bob shrugged. “Yeah, butIjust found out on Thursday. So maybe you should take it up with my boss.”

“Oh, I will. Where is he?”

“He’s off today,” Bob said.

She ground her teeth and turned to Spencer when he nudged her foot under the table. “Can you reach him?” she asked, her voice missing some of the edge it had seconds ago.

“He doesn’t like us to call him on his day off.”

“Chad is your boss, correct?”

“That’s right,” Bob said, leaning back in the chair, hiswhite T-shirt having lost its shine and brightness years ago. “He don’t like no interruptions on his vacation.”