Page 26 of Not Mine To Love

“I know. Anyway, if you need any help following him, I am available.”

The last time I let Dana go with me to follow one of the many cheaters, she set off a car alarm and insisted on wearing a trench coat and sunglasses. To say I was immensely embarrassed would be an understatement.

“I think I’m good. No help needed. Thanks though.”

She poked out her lower lip. “You don’t want my help.”

I reminded her of how she “helped” me last time.

“That was a fluke!” she insisted.

I changed the subject. “How do you have nothing planned when you have three kids?” Meredith was from her marriage to Tom and the twins were from her second marriage.

“They’re hanging out with Carter’s parents.”

“Nice.”

“Having three different sets of grandparents to drop the kids off with is a godsend.”

“Except…”

“Now that I have so much time on my hands, I don’t know what to do with myself. Maybe I should start working out again.”

“Or not,” we said at the same time.

“You know me too well.”

“Well, we are kind of like sister wives.”

Dana laughed, and I couldn’t help but still be in awe that we had the same ex-husband but were still able to be friends. It was rough to start. She hated me, but she came around when she realized how dedicated I was to Meredith. I was pretty young at the time and kind of not the best role model, since I wanted to take her to Vegas and all that, but I matured and grew over the years and luckily so had my relationships. At least, all the ones that truly mattered.

* * *

After I said bye to Dana I made my way over to the botanical garden where I was told to meet Julius, Ana, and the rest of the wedding party. I knew Claire was probably unhappy with me because I hadn’t found any dirt on Julius yet. I needed to get some surveillance done. After all, I didn’t expect Julius to do something at one of his pre-wedding events that would be questionable. What did Claire expect him to do? Get drunk during a toast and confess that he was guilty of embezzlement? Or maybe she expected him to smack one of the bridesmaids on the butt?

I couldn’t imagine any of those things happening. Julius seemed like a stand-up guy. I didn’t know why she didn’t trust him. And I was pretty convinced she just didn’t want someone like Julius to be with her daughter. She was the type who would have approved of someone like my ex-husband. Uptight, wealthy, controlling, traditionally employed, but lacking character. Yep, that was the type of person that I was sure would get Claire’s stamp of approval.

I had a job to do, but this was the first time I felt that I wouldn’t find anything. I shrugged to myself. I would just take some pretty pictures until either Claire gave up or Julius decided to go against his nature and do something wrong. I couldn’t see that happening. Ana was lucky. I didn’t believe in fairy tales. After all, I was married and divorced just barely out of my teens, but I did believe that what Anna and Julius had was special.

I got to the venue only to find everyone gathered outside of it. “Hey, what’s going on?” I asked one of the groundskeepers. I hoped he or she was a groundskeeper. They had on a uniform with the name of the park on it.

“Someone reported a gas leak in the area.”

“You can’t be too careful with those pipelines,” Claire said, coming to stand next to me. “I guess you have the day off,” she said meaningfully and walked away.

I didn’t know what she was hinting at. Was she the one who called about a gas leak? If so, she was pretty ruthless. Wow. She didn’t even want invitations going out? The lady was determined, that was for sure.

But it would be a good day to follow him around. Speaking of him, he and Ana were walking in my direction. He was dressed so nicely in a suit that did nothing to hide how strong his body was. I was surprised to find he could find a suit to fit him. He kind of reminded me of a younger Thor.

“Hey, so you probably heard from Claire there was a gas leak. We’re not going to chance it. We’ll just reschedule for another time and pay you for the day.”

I bit my lip feeling crazy guilty. He didn’t know that I was already getting paid to find dirt on him. Technically, for this job I was getting paid twice. He was paying me. Claire was paying me. I couldn’t take his money. I had some morals, after all.

“It’s no problem. Don’t bother paying me. “

“How kind of you,” I heard Claire say behind me. I sort of wanted to elbow her.

“You sure? It’s no problem… you drove all the way here after all.”