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Troy shrugged and continued the lie, keeping his face completely neutral. She wasn’t the only actor in the family. “Never occurred to me” he said flatly. “Besides, how do you know she’s some rich lady living there alone? I think your imagination’s running away with you again.”
She rolled her eyes. Another increasingly common occurrence. “More like my deductive reasoning’s running away with me, duh. First of all, you said ‘her windows.’ Not ‘his’ or ‘their.’ So it would have to be a lady living alone. And, secondly, she’d have to be rich to rent that place. It’s not the Taj Mahal, but for Valentine Bay, it’s pretty close.”
He gave her shoulder an approving squeeze. “That’s my smart girl.”
She smiled sweetly. “Don’t you wish brains ran in the family, bro?”
He laughed and punched her arm. “Oh, man. If we weren’t in a house full of dangerous tools, you’d get it right now.”
She laughed along with him. “Why do you think I chose now to mess with you?”
He felt love well up in his chest as he looked at her sparkling eyes, so full of mischief as she teased her big brother. He loved her so much. He’d give up his life for her. In fact, in a lot of ways, he had. And he’d do it all over again in a hot second.
“So, what does the rich lady look like? Is she old and frail and about to die mysteriously and leave a hotly contested inheritance? Or maybe a femme fatale?”
“Why does everything have to be a drama to you, Mila-bug?”
She wrinkled her nose. “Enough with the Mila-bug. I’m not six anymore.”
“You always will be to me.”
She rolled her eyes. That was three times in the conversation, just since he’d been counting. “Yes, that’s painfully apparent. But here’s the real question—why do you keep dodging the question of what the lady looks like.”
He wrinkled his face in derision, but couldn’t meet her eyes when he said, “That’s crazy. I’m not doing that.”
Her jaw dropped and her eyes widened. “Oh my God, yes you are. I wasn’t a hundred percent sure until just now, but you’re doing that thing where you’ll look anywhere but my eyes. You only do that when you’re lying or you’re embarrassed or you’re hiding something. Since you haven’t actually said anything that could be a lie or potentially embarrassing, you can consider yourself officially caught, bro. You’re hiding something. What is it?”
He just shook his head and waved his hand dismissively.
“You’re still doing it. So, what are you hiding? What are you hiding? What are you hiding? What are you hiding? I can do this all day, big bro. What are you hiding? What are you hiding? What are you hiding? What are you hiding? What are you hiding?”
“All right, enough!” he cried. He made a point to look her square in the eyes as he said, “Her name is Alison. As for what she looks like, she’s very attractive. And, yes. We’re going on a date. Tonight. Satisfied?”
She grinned from ear to ear. “Very.”
He shook his head ruefully. “And why is that?”
“Because it exponentially increases my chances of one day seeing the inside of that house.”
