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“Who’s the little brunette with him?”
“Olivia Starr, Anemone’s stepdaughter.”
Vince stopped with his hand halfway to my basket. “Is she anything like Anemone?”
“Exactly like, all that energy and will compressed into the same small package.”
He looked back at Mac and Olivia. “Do we need to save Mac?”
“She just told him she wants to climb him like Everest. Your call.”
Vince turned back to me. “The mountain is on his own. So, what’s new?”
“Olivia has a plan for the house that sounds really good. It involves you and a sledgehammer. And possibly Mac, depending on how things are going over there.”
Vince looked back again. “I’m pretty sure Mac has a sledgehammer for Olivia. How long has he known her?”
“We’re at about the half-hour mark now,” I said.
“Well, he’s still alive.”
“So, about my house,” I said. “It appears I have a door.”
“I can return it if you don’t like it,” Vince said, reaching for his wallet. “I’ve got the receipt. But I would prefer it if you consider it a housewarming gift?” He did that little eyebrow lift that indicated he was waiting for an answer.
“Yes, please. Thank you very much. You remembered the one I liked. It’s perfect.”
He smiled. “Good.” He hesitated. “I wasn’t sure . . .”
“About what?”
“If I was overstepping. Not asking first. Going in your house.”
I put down my fry. “You know that house is really me. Used to standing alone, not beautiful, but lots of potential.” He started to say something, and I held up my hand to stop him. “So, if the house is me, I’m telling you now, you can enter it as many times as you want to. No worries. You belong in there. Often.”
He had started to laugh and then he kissed me, holding me tight for a minute.
When he let go, I picked up my fry again. “And there’s a no trespassing sign, too.”
“For show,” Vince said, taking one of my fries. “But once word gets around that I put it in, I think you’ll be safe. People Over-the-Hill know me. And I’m sure Will and Patsy will put in a good word for you and everyone Over-the-Hill owes them.”
“Indeed.” I grinned at him then.People know me.That was the closest Vince Cooper would ever come to bragging, and he did it because he wanted me to know I was safe. “You signed it.”
“Until word gets around.” I grinned at him and he said, “What?”
“I love you.”
“Damn right you do,” he said, the mushy part of the conversation over, and I laughed and we ordered more food and talked about the house.
CHAPTER 27
Lunch with Liz had given me a break from the idiocy, but when Olivia had waved, telling Liz she was going up to talk to Anemone and that she’d bring Jason Leotta, Anemone’s foreman, in on the house stuff, and Mac had gone back to the fire department looking dazed, I kissed her good-bye, told her I’d meet her at seven at JB’s for tenderloins, and headed back to my own personal clusterfuck.
What I really wanted to do was track Cash Porter down and shake him until the truth came out. I had almost no doubt that he’d paid Mickey Pitts fifty thousand to take care of Thacker and to burn his siblings out of their life’s work so they'd sell it to him.
I didn’t know which was worse.
But there was also the “almost.” I had no proof. No corroboration.
