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Del shivered at his touch, her body coming alive at the possibilities. “No, what?”
“More celebration sex.”
“Excellent suggestion.” She shifted closer, her lips seeking his. “Count me in.”
*
Half an hourlater and nowfartoo awake to sleep, she pulled into her driveway and made for the back door.
“I knew you wouldn’t be able to go back to sleep.”
Del spun to find Margaret leaning over her fence, a coffee cup in hand and smug grin on her lips. Though it was muggy and warm even at this early hour, the older woman had on a thin, fleece house coat over a two-piece pajama set. Del had no doubt she was also wearing her purple fuzzy slippers. Mrs. Harper was predictable, if nothing else.
“Hard to do when you’re getting texts at all hours of the night.”
“Bah, you’ll get plenty of sleep when you start your dirt nap. Only got a few weeks to get this event off the ground.”
She had a point. Del felt her anxiety begin to grow. But just how much could they do at this hour?
Too awake—and now also too worried—to go back to sleep, she invited Margaret in and started a fresh pot of coffee. Neither mentioned Del’s very late arrival home, though the older woman’s continued smirk said enough. As Margaret pulled a small notepad and pen from her house coat, Del remembered she was sitting with a former reporter. She topped off the other woman’s coffee cup, filled one for herself, then joined Mrs. Harper at her kitchen banquette.
“Can I ask you something news related?”
“Absolutely. What’s on your mind, kid?”
“Well, hypothetically, if something were to come out in the news that…tainted someone’s reputation, but it wasn’t true even though lots of people believed it was, how do you go about fixing all that?”
Margaret smiled at her over the rim of her coffee cup. “You’re talking about Robert Manning and that ridiculous video his ex-girlfriend posted.”
Del’s jaw dropped. “Youknew?!”
“Of course I knew. Do you really think I don’t research people new to our area? Who else is going to make sure we don’t have serial killers or child molesters land in Bourbon Falls?”
“Oh my goodness, Margaret.” If she was so good at researching everyone, why hadn’t she given Del the heads up on Jonathan? Then again, she hadn’t given her the heads up on Isaac, either. Most likely, she knew about both…which meant Margaret was much better at keeping secrets than Del realized. “So what did you think of the video?”
“Pfft, total hack job. I could have done better myself if I knew how.” She took a long sip of her coffee. “Unfortunately, there’re a lot of idiots in this world, sitting around waiting for a bandwagon to jump on. Throw out the right buzzwords, and they’re quick to climb on board.”
Del shook her head. This was precisely why she avoided the internet and social media. Sure, there were great causes and real news out there, but how would she ever know what was truth and what wasn’t? Poor Isaac, thinking he was on a harmless date and suddenly finding himself in a mess gone viral.
“So how do you go about fixing that kind of slander?”
“Well, some people play ostrich like your honey bunny did, duck their head in the sand and wait for the storm to pass. Others ignore it and go about their lives. Oftentimes those are the ones hoping for any kind of attention: good, bad, or a mix of both. The third group tries to fight it, though that can obviously go bad in a hurry if they can’t win the sympathy of the audience following along with the drama.”
Apparently, Margaret didn’t know about their failed attempt at first, choosing door number three. And since door number two hadn’t worked, they’d eventually been forced through door number one.
“Isaac and his business partner have been trying to protect their company; they don’t want it to fold and leave the rest of their coworkers out on the street.”
“That’s why he moved out here?” At Del’s nod, Margaret added, “So he takes one for the team, moves out here, and then meets the woman of his dreams but is stuck playing hermit.”
“Not sure I’m the woman of his dreams, but yeah, something like that.”
Margaret arched a brow. “The man built you a website to help save your family bookstore.”
“He builtusa website to save the bookstore.”
“But he told you about the mess he’s hiding from, no?”
Del shrugged. “Last night, when Mia called him out on it.”
