“Are you going to?”
“Maybe.”He shot me another sideways glance, gray eyes amused.“But not today.”
I huffed.“You want me to guess.”
“I like to build suspense.”
“You are frustrating.Did you know that?”
“I’ve been told.”He turned onto a narrower lane flanked by trees and scrub.
I let my head fall back against the seat.“I’ll figure it out eventually, you know.Did you know my aunt?”
“I did,” he said quietly.“And I’m sorry for your loss.It was a shock.”
“It was?”
“No one told you?”
I shook my head, throat suddenly tight.
“She keeled over in her garden,” he said.“It’s what I heard, anyway.”
“She did?”
That didn’t line up with the Aunt Alice in my memory—sturdy, tireless, the woman who could haul bags of soil in August heat without breaking a sweat.When she wasn’t elbow-deep in flower beds, she was in the greenhouse.When she wasn’t there, she was running Enchanted Blossoms like a queen holding court.
“I’m sorry, Piper.They think it was a heart attack,” Mac added.
“A heart attack?”
In all the years I’d known her, Alice had never been sick.Not a cold, not a cough, not even allergies.
“It’s weird, right?”he murmured, dropping his voice like we were sharing a secret.
He glanced at me, and I saw genuine concern in those gray eyes.
“Yeah,” I said slowly.“Weird.”
“So, tell me,” he went on.“Why are you headed to your aunt’s house?”
I seized the change of subject like a life raft.“Well, it’s my house now,” I said.“She gave me everything in her will.”
Mac slammed on the brakes.
The truck screeched to a halt so abruptly my seatbelt snapped tight, biting into my collarbone.
“What’d you do that for?”I demanded.
“Everything?”His hands tightened on the steering wheel.“Even Enchanted Blossoms?”
“Um.Yeah.Why?”
Color drained from his face.His knuckles went white.
“No reason.”
Liar,my instincts supplied immediately.It wasn’t surprise on his face.It was recognition.Like he knew something he wasn’t willing to say.
