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“Hi, Grams,” I answered, “what do you need?”
“I know you’re busy, darlin’, but I could do with a ride home,” she said, a slight strain in her voice.
I frowned, carefully setting aside my guitar. “Where are you? What’s wrong?”
“I was taking the dogs for a walk as usual. I don’t know if it’s the heat, but I’m having a little dizzy spell.”
Worry tore through me.Trying to hide it from my voice, I placed my notepad and pen on the table as I stood and asked, “Where exactly are you?”
“On one of the benches further down the street from the house.”
“I’ll be right there.” I hung up and began slipping on my sneakers, my pulse quickening in panic. Judy wasn’t prone to getting dizzy spells, but she never did well in the blazing heat.
She’d had a fall not so long ago, but she only took things easy for a short time. Judy had always been a very active woman, and she loved long walks and visiting friends. I’d failed to convince her to pace herself and enjoy more downtime here at home. She was too much of a doer.
Having stuffed my cell in the pocket of my jeans, I grabbed my keys from my purse and then hurried through the mansion towards the garage entry door. I’d almost reached it when my phone rang once more. Pulling it out of my pocket, I saw that it was Judy again.Shit.
I swiped my thumb across the screen and said, “I’m just about to leave, I’ll be with you soon. Are you okay?”
“Oh, I’m fine,” she assured me. “I just wanted to tell you that there’s no need to rush. One of our neighbors saw me as he was pulling into his driveway. He stopped to ask if I was okay. I told him that you’d soon be here but he insisted I get out of the sun and brought me into his home.”
My scalp prickling with suspicion, I paused at the garage door. “What neighbor?”
“Our new one. Mr. Wolfe.”
I felt my mouth tighten. Oh, the woman was diabolical. There’d been no dizzy spell. No, she’d hung near his home hoping that she’d see him so she could try her hand at matchmaking all while playing the role of damsel.Unbelievable.
My hand clenched on my cell. “Am I on speakerphone?” I asked, my tone clipped.
“No,” she replied.
I snatched open the garage entry door. “Then know this, old woman. I’m going to kill you.”
“That’s nice, dear.”
I felt my eyelid twitch.
“I’ll see you soon.” She hung up. She freaking hung up on me.
Spitting out a string of curses, I strode into the garage and over to my car. I pretty much took my anger out on the vehicle—yanking the door open harder than necessary, stabbing buttons with my finger, roughly jamming on my seatbelt.
The entire time I drove down my long-as-shit driveaway that cut through the perfectly manicured lawn, I reminded myself how much I loved my grandmother, how much she’d done for me, how she’d been there for me when no one else gave a damn …but Istillwanted to throttle her.
There was a short distance between each of the fenced-in properties along the street, giving every estate plenty of land. But it wasn’t long before I pulled up outside the gated entrance of Kaiser’s home.
Had there ever in my life been a moment where I’d thought I’d be entering Kaiser Wolfe’s home?
Not since I was a delusional teenager, no.
I reached out of the window and pressed the intercom button. I could only assume that he’d spotted me through the CCTV camera, because the gates began to swing open a few moments later.
Driving toward onehellof a grand residence, I let out a low whistle. It wasn’t much bigger than my own home, but it was far more opulent and contemporary. There appeared to be a rooftop sitting area, which looked pretty cool.
My stomach did a nervous, slow roll as I parked my car directly outside the building. Uh, I could kill Judy for this. I would have been happy to never lay eyes on Kaiser again.
Okay, that wasn’t true. He was far too much of a joy to look at for me to be happy about such a thing.
Still, I would have preferred to never be face-to-face with him again. Because it had become crystal clear that I made positively dumb decisions when it came to this man.
