Page 22 of Blue Jean Summer

There were no alternatives. I knew it the moment Catherine said she never used the front door.

It had to be her.

“No. I’m going to hold out as long as I can,” I said, then muttered, “which isn’t long.”

Hallie’s pursed smile was sympathetic.

I huffed and leaned back in the desk chair. “Have you heard from her at all?” I asked, exasperated. I thought for sure if Catherine was going to double down on her “no” that she would have done it by now.

Hallie avoided my gaze.

“Hallie,” I said, even though my stern tone was no match for her “mom voice.”

She raised an eyebrow, daring me to use that tone with her ever again.

I lifted my hands and conceded.

“Let’s just say I got a strongly worded text message after she left that was mostly ‘fucks.’ Did you know that ‘fuck’ can be a verb, adjective, noun, and an adverb? Because I’m pretty sure she used it as all of them.”

I chuckled. “I’d like to see that text.”

Hallie scoffed. “Absolutely not. Girl code.”

“Yeah, yeah,” I muttered.

Doors slammed, echoing throughout the house. Hallie groaned. “Something wicked this way comes,” she sang under her breath before disappearing.

Lewis quickly and unfortunately took her place. “Where’s the fiancée?” he sneered.

Suddenly, the spreadsheet on my computer screen was the most fascinating thing in the world. “Are you always this uptight and choleric, or is this a new development for you?”

Lewis huffed. “I think it’s a little suspicious that I haven’t seen that blonde around here since the funeral.”

His suspicions were spot-on. I just had to make sure he didn’t know that.

“You do realize that people can live separate lives, right? That when you’re in a relationship, you’re not attached at the hip?” I glanced up from my computer. “Don’t you have work to do? You know, with the foundation that you inherited? Maybe you should stop sticking your nose in my business and start building your own.”

“Oh, I have been,” he said gleefully. “It’s been a full morning. I gutted the board and hired a consultant to restructure the whole thing. I am absolutely exhausted.”

“You did what?!”

“Like you said.” Lewis pointed to his chest. “It’s my business.”

My phone ringing was the only thing that kept me from ripping him a new one. “Wilder,” I said without looking at the screen.

“Hi, Hayes. It’s Catherine Foster. Hallie gave me your number.” Her tone gave away absolutely nothing.

Lewis was watching me with suspicion in his beady little eyes.

“Sweetheart,” I said as I leaned back in the chair and kicked my foot up onto my knee. “How’s your day going?”

Lewis paled, and I ate up that victory.

There was a long pause on Catherine’s end, probably her debating whether or not I had just had a stroke when I called her sweetheart and if she needed to call 911.

“Lewis is in the room with you, isn’t he?” she guessed.

“That’s right,” I said with a smile.