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“Oh my,” Marnie said with concern. “I hope it wasn’t the shrimp.”
“The what?”
Damn. She heard Cain’s voice, and it sounded a hell of a lot closer than it did a minute before. They were heading this way. She tried to sidestep Marnie, but the woman looked really worried and wouldn’t budge.
“The shrimp cocktail? Did you have any of it?”
The shrimp.
“Oh.” Lily cleared her throat. “I might have had one, but I’m sure that’s not it. I wasn’t feeling one hundred percent this morning, and I probably should have stayed home. I think I’m coming down with something.”
She coughed for good measure, but only managed to draw looks from Jake and Raine—and from Steven as he walked outside from in the house.
“Christ, Lily. You sound like a damn cat with a hairball,” Jake said.
“I think I’m going to have to leave,” Lily stated, ignoring Jake. She couldn’t look at him because he knew her well enough to know she was bullshitting. He’d know something was up.
Lily inched forward and then froze when she heard that voice. That deep, husky voice with a touch of sandpaper that sounded as if every word was soaked in sin.
That voice she hadn’t forgotten.
She clenched her hands so tightly that her nails dug into her palms. Hard.
What. The. Hell.
“I’ve really got to go, Marnie.”
Her stomach rolled so badly, she’d broken out in a sweat, and Lily thought she really was going to be sick.
Footsteps on the stairs below made her jump, and she gave Marnie a quick hug, still ignoring Jake as she quickly crossed the deck and tried to smile at Steven Edwards.
“I’m so sorry. I really need to get home. I just…I don’t feel well.” God, she was overdoing it. She gulped in some air. “I hope you understand.” The words came out in a jumbled mess, but Steven nodded and moved aside so she could escape into the house.
“Hey! Lily! What’s going on?” Jake’s question hung in the air.
Cain and Maggie were on the deck now, and her panic was such that for a moment Lily couldn’t breathe. She didn’t glance back, and with her hand on the sliding glass doors, she spoke.
“I have to go home, Jake. I’ll call you later.”
She pushed her way into the house and ran across the smooth stone tiles until she reached the front door. She yanked it open, slammed it shut behind her, and then rested against it for a moment.
Her entire body shook and she let out a high-pitched giggle that wouldn’t be out of place in the local loony bin. Feeling a bit light-headed, Lily smoothed the front of her pale-blue J. Mendel halter dress and pushed off from the door, her white Fendi flats making no sound as she crossed the porch and took the steps down.
Newly planted pink and purple petunias lined the walkway and followed the driveway down to the road. The lawn—thick and luxurious—had been freshly mown for the first time that morning and the smell of the grass clippings reminded her of summer. Normally she’d take a moment and enjoy it but not today. Nope.
The voices from out back echoed in her ear, and she picked up the pace, hurrying toward her car. Just before she reached her vehicle, she slid to a stop and swore—she swore like a trucker who’d just spent the last two weeks in confession.
Damn. Was nothing going to go right today?
“You’ve got to be kidding me.”
Her BMW was parked behind Cain’s truck, which in turn was parked behind his father’s car. A car that normally would have been in the garage, but for some reason it wasn’t, and there was no way for her to drive forward and turn around because of it.
She couldn’t back out of the driveway either.
“Son of a bitch.”
There was a sleek, sliver Mercedes behind her car and no room to maneuver around the damn thing. The idiot driver had pulled up much too close to her bumper.
