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Bonnie’s gaze flew to his face as if to say See?!
“I’m going out on a job and we’re going to close up here,” Rex said.
“Is that how you dress for work?” Ravinia asked curiously.
“Sometimes. Surveillance jobs,” he added.
Ravinia said, “I’ll wait.”
“Didn’t you hear him?” Bonnie snapped. “We’re closing.”
“If you won’t let me stay inside, I’ll wait outside the front door.”
“We won’t open again until Monday,” Bonnie declared, rolling her eyes toward Rex as if to say Can you believe this?
“Where are you staying?” Rex asked her.
“I don’t have an address.”
“You’re homeless?” Bonnie asked with scarcely disguised contempt.
Ravinia regarded her coolly. “I have a home in Deception Bay, but I’m not there now, so yeah . . . I’m homeless.”
“Maybe you should pay for a motel.” Bonnie sniffed.
“I’d rather pay for your services,” Ravinia said, turning her attention back to Rex. “If I have to, I’ll wait till Monday, but I’d rather get going now.”
“Well, you can’t stay here,” Bonnie huffed, opening a lower drawer in the desk and pulling out her purse.
“Watch me,” Ravinia told her, parked on the floor.
“Mr. Kingston,” Bonnie choked out, turning to him for help.
He’d had trouble before with Bonnie’s territorial streak; Ravinia wasn’t the only potential client she’d turned away because she’d made her own judgment call.
“Why don’t you come back into my office for a minute,” Rex said to Ravinia.
Bonnie inhaled on a hurt gasp.
He knew she felt he’d undermined her, but it couldn’t be helped. “You go on ahead. I’ll lock up.”
“I’ll stay,” she said hurriedly.
Rex wasn’t having it. “You said you had a date for dinner. Go on. I’ve got this.”
Clutching her purse, Bonnie stood. Undecided for a moment, trying to come up with some way to stay, she lifted her hands as if she couldn’t understand what was happening, then let them drop. “If that’s what you want.”
“I do,” he asserted and her back stiffened. It was her MO when she felt thwarted.
Rex wished to high heaven that she would just do the job he paid her for, which was manning the front desk, answering the phone, and taking down information. Bonnie was the daughter of a friend of a friend and when he’d first met her, Rex had been grateful for the help. Before Bonnie, he’d run his business by cell phone, but it was better having an actual office telephone and a receptionist as it made him seem more “legitimate” to the sometimes skittish clientele who deemed his profession seedy and full of graft. Too many television PIs, and well, there was some truth there, too.
Apparently unable to come up with another argument, Bonnie threw Ravinia a look of contempt and stalked out the front door, just coming short of slamming it behind her.
Rex locked it behind her, then led Ravinia to his office and gestured for her to take one of the client
chairs on the opposite side of his desk, while he perched a hip on the edge and crossed his arms over his chest. “I have only a few minutes, so go fast.”
Ravinia stared at him hard for a moment. A dark intensity simmered in those blue-green eyes.
