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She’d taken Greg’s golf cart already. He needed to put better shocks on that cart if he wanted to drive it over rough terrain.
“Well, I’m going to walk to the station house. If I can’t get some time with Roxanne, I’ll hang around and figure out how things work. I don’t think it’s far from here.” She knew it was close to the town square. “Where’s Major? I can walk with him.”
Her mom’s expression shuttered. “He’s not here. He went back to work.”
He’d seemed so concerned about her. She couldn’t help but feel disappointed that he’d walked away without finding out how she was. “Did he take Gavin with him?”
“Gavin is distracting that awful reporter so you don’t have to deal with him.” Her mom pulled out her cell. “I’ll tell him to draw it out since we need to find a ride.”
No wonder her deputy had gone. She’d thought all the reporters had left town when she’d started granting interviews. She’d done a sit-down with Entertain America to get rid of their crew, but she hadn’t seen the freelancer around town. She’d hoped he’d left. “Tell me you didn’t let him harass Major.”
“Of course I didn’t. I know you care for the young man. I was also worried that if Mickey kept his mouth going, your deputy might have shut it for him,” her mom replied. “I don’t think Mickey understands that no one out here cares his brother is a lawyer.”
“I’m all for TW pounding on the guy,” Ally added. “I mean, what does he have to lose? Mickey can sue all he likes and he’s not getting anything out of the deputy but a couple of pairs of briefs.”
Her sister could be so obnoxious. “He’s not some broke guy. He owns his own house and has a good job. Stop calling him that. He has a name, and he deserves your respect.”
“Probably.” Ally held up her phone and snapped a quick pic. “After all, he totally turned me down when I offered him no-strings-attached sex.”
“You did what?” Had she meant to screech that question?
Ally held the camera up again. “Could you smile? I can’t Photoshop that expression off your face.”
Her mom glanced down at the screen. “You can’t use that one. It’s horrible. Take another.”
“Stop.” She wasn’t going to do some social media campaign right now. They had other things to talk about. “Did you hit on Major?”
Ally didn’t look up from her phone. “Of course I did.”
Her mom put a hand on Ally’s shoulder. “That was a good plan. Turned you down flat, huh? I rather thought that would be his answer. Did he look scared?”
Ally chuckled even as she was typing on her phone. “Terrified. The man has no idea how to handle someone like me. He’s one hundred percent into Brynn and isn’t about to use her family to get to her. I almost think he views us as a minus instead of a plus.”
“Yeah, I’m thinking the same thing right now,” Brynn complained. “How could you?”
Ally slid her phone into the LV crossbody she’d bought a couple of weeks back. She’d claimed it was the bag of the season. “I always test your boyfriends. Not that I would actually sleep with any of them, but I test them. If they say yes, I explain the way of the world to them, complete with the recording I made of our conversation, and then they go away and can’t hurt you again. I have the one with Major. You can practically hear his revulsion. It was a little offensive.”
Brynn stared at her sister for a moment, not sure whether to be horrified or sort of grateful. It was awful, but it was also the way Ally showed she cared. By offering to sleep with her boyfriends.
“Honey, you know she worries about you,” her mother replied in a soothing tone. “But while the deputy passed the sleep-with-Ally test, he still isn’t right for you. I truly did have to hustle him away from Mickey. There’s a level of political savvy required to work in this business. We can’t have a man attached to you who punches reporters. I know you think I was looking out for you, but I was also looking out for him. He would be miserable in our lifestyle.”
“Yeah, well, maybe I’m miserable, too.” She turned and walked out. Gently. It wasn’t really a hobble.
Her mother hurried behind her. “You do not mean that. You’re sad, and I understand. He’s a lovely man and he seems to be nice, but he doesn’t fit in our world.”
There was no arguing with her mother. Not about something like this. She wouldn’t waste her breath.
The truth of the matter was she didn’t want Major to have to deal with that part of her world, either. She’d spent days doing the worst part of the job, and she was tired. She wanted to be alone for a while and decompress, but they started principal photography in a couple of weeks, and the pressure would be on.
