But tonight, Gard was coming over to her house for dinner. The girls were going to a movie after Sarabeth’s softball practice. Izzy’s stepmom was driving them to the theater, and Sarabeth’s stepdad was going to pick them up and drop them off at their respective houses.
Thinking aboutstepparents left Lia feeling awkward because… Because it was just too damn easy to think about a future that was…permanent like that. Where she’d be included and—
You haven’t even slept with him yet.
Hence why she’d offered to cook dinner for them tonight instead of go out when he’d told her about Sammy’s plans.
A home-cooked meal in her house had connotations. She was hoping it did, anyway.
And she had to get this talk with Zach over with so she could go home and finish making that dinner. She would have talked to Zach earlier in the week, but he and his family had been out of town.
And she’d maybe still been hoping to figure things out on her own. No help needed. Just relying on Lia Blair, the person she was these days.
But time had run out, and the only answers she was going to find required help.
Steeling herself, Lia knocked on the door.
Lucy was the one who opened it, dressed casually in jeans and an oversized sweatshirt, her hair pulled back haphazardly. She looked every inch a frazzled mom of young kids and nothing like her bad-girl country singer persona.
It still struck Lia sometimes that Zach’s sharp, funny wife wastheDaisy Delaney, but Lucy did a pretty great job of blending.
“Lia,” Lucy greeted with a friendly smile. “Zach’ll be down in a sec. Come on in.”
Lia nodded, trying to force a smile. “Thanks.”
Lucy nodded, leading Lia through the house. Toys were strewn through the living room, and a baby monitor sat on the coffee table, the green light on. “Kids asleep?” Lia asked, hoping conversation would keep her nerves at bay.
Lucy nodded. “Well, Rylie is. Coop is having quiet playtime.”
As if on cue, a muffled sound came out of the baby monitor, kind of like a roar.
Lucy rolled her eyes. “I thought I’d finally ushered us out of the dino fad, and what does my brother do when we visit? Takes us to a museum with dinosaur bones. Now, we’re back.”
“It was a nice visit?”
“Yeah, it was. So, is this meeting with Zach an office meeting or a living room meeting?”
Lia tried to keep her smile in place, but it faltered. Lucy took her by the arm, gave her a reassuring squeeze. “Office it is.” Lucy led her through the dining room and back into Zach’s office. “Make yourself comfortable. I’ll go see what’s taking him so long.”
Lia nodded and forced herself to sit in the chair opposite Zach’s desk.
Zach Simmons had created Hope Town. He owned all the buildings, financed all the businesses on startup. A formerFBI agent, he’d created a security businessanda down-low privatized WitSec program for women like Lia.
So Lia had been in his office quite a few times over the past seven years of her being here. At first, for updates on the people she’d helped put behind bars. Then for meetings about the bakery or Hope Town in general. As one of the first residents of Zach Simmons’s Hope Town, she’d been in at the ground floor. She and Lane Webb, who ran the antique store. They’d grown with Hope Town, had a say in what that growth looked like.
But Zach was the leader, the man in charge. When Albennie had been kidnapped this summer, he was the one who’d stepped in and dealt with the FBI, local law enforcement, and even been part of bringing in Royal to keep Franny safe—since she’d been a witness to the kidnapping. Zach was the one who facilitated keeping all the women of Hope Town safe.
Zach strode into the office. “Sorry to hold you up, Lia.”
“I’m sorry if I’m interrupting your afternoon. You guys just got back and…”
He waved it away. “No worries. So, what can I do for you?” He sat down behind his desk, impressive computer equipment all around him. The…breadth of what he did for all of them seemed to land on her shoulders like a ton of bricks and all the careful words Lia had planned just…disappeared.
Was she really going to sit here and ask this guy if she was allowed to spill all her past secrets to the guy she was dating? Wasn’t that aherdecision?
She thought of the fear she’d felt when Albennie had been kidnapped, all because of a leak from someone who’d worked on the case that had led Albennie here. Things Albennie still hadn’t disclosed to her, and probably never would.
No matter how close you got in Hope Town, there were no-go zones. Did she really think she had any right to plow into these accepted no-go zones?
