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“Says he is, but his vehicle is supposedly in rough shape. I said I’d call Hank on my way to pick him up.”
Being in a small town certainly had its perks—like being on a first-name basis with the local tow truck driver.
“That’s thoughtful of you.” Mia paused. “Do you think I should maybe be the one to pick him up and take him to a rental place? That might make up for me being kinda prickly with him earlier.”
“I thought about that but decided this way was probably better. Me going will buy you a little more time.”
Mia frowned as her sister headed for the door. “A little more time for what?”
“Getting the house ready. All the rental places will be closed this late, and clearly the poor guy is gonna need a place to stay. The Bourbon Falls Motel has been closed for months, and of our two houses, yours is the only one with a spare bedroom. So of course I extended the offer on your behalf.”
“Aunt Del!” Brooklyn cried.
“What? You just heard your mom—she wants to make up for being a grouch with him earlier. This will give her plenty of time to do that.”
“You didn’t,” Mia said, calling her sister’s bluff.
Because she had to be bluffing. She absolutely had to be.
A devilish grin spread across her sister’s lips.
“Delaney Suzanne Brooks, this is not funny!”
Del blew her a kiss and disappeared out the back door.
Oh my God, she’s not bluffing.
Mia looked around her kitchen, dishes from dinner still strewn about the countertop and their dessert half eaten. But the cobbler could wait. Delaney, as usual, was charging ahead with some well-intending scheme, and Mia was not about to have Alexander Wellington walk into a messy house.
An irrational thrill raced through her. No, that had to be fear. And a healthy dose of fury. She and her meddling little sister would be having words later about this.Words.
Mia pointed to the front of the house. “You work on the living room and powder room; I’ll tackle the kitchen and guest room.”
Brooklyn frowned. “But Emily wants to—”
“No buts. We’ve gotta clean this place up, stat.”
*
Alex parked hisLand Rover behind a large greenhouse at Oak Barrel Farms, the landscaping company Del co-owned, hoping this plan of hers would work. If Mia found out they’d lied about the accident, she’d be furious with the both of them. Her sister, she would eventually forgive. But him? No way. They’d be done for good, and that’s the opposite of what he was going for.
He’d called and spoken with the manager from Books-A-Plenty along the way, claiming a schedule conflict had arisen for the second weekend in December and that he would need to cancel his signing. They’d sounded genuinely disappointed but asked him to keep them posted in case his plans changed. He’d promised he would and disconnected.
That was the first lie of the night. The second would be bigger, though. Much bigger. And far more important for him to be able to pull off if he wanted a chance at getting his foot in the door with Mia. He grabbed his things and locked up, then scanned the darkness around him. Karma watched for its chance to get even with big jerks, and right now he was sure starting to feel like one.
“Will you quit with the worrying already?” Del said as he climbed into her silver heavy-duty Ford pickup. “Mia never comes back here, and even with the leaves off the trees up front, our buildings hide this spot from the road. Trust me, she’ll be none the wiser.”
“I hope you’re right. That woman spits fire and brimstone when she’s mad. I still have nightmares from the last argument we got into.”
Del laughed, the sound musical and calming. “She mentioned you went off on her, but I can only imagine she dished it right back tenfold. Trust me, I’ve been on the receiving end of her wrath more times than I can count. Thankfully, we’re blood, so she’s got to forgive me.”
The implications of Mia’s option to not forgive nonrelatives hung in the air between them for an awkward moment. Alex watched Del’s headlights wash over the Rover as she steered for the road and contemplated telling her to stop and let him out. There had to be a better way to try to win over Mia.
Don’t be an idiot. Only fools smack a gift horse in the mouth. Stop being a chicken and start thinking of ways to make this work. The Rover will be fine.
“Okay, so we keep our story straight, what have you told her so far?”
Del turned onto the main road, empty aside from them. “Just that you hit a deer north of town on 331 and your vehicle was supposedly in bad shape. I didn’t tell her what you drove. That way, in the point zero-zero-one percent chance she does see it sitting back there, she won’t know it’s your Land Rover. Then I said I was calling the tow truck driver on my way to pick you up.”
