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Sera rolled her eyes and put both the boxes on the coffee table. “If Maby doesn’t want you guys to know, I’m not telling you either.” She pointed at Harper.
A throw pillow flew past her head as Emma said, “That was not an answer.”
“The only one I’m giving you bastards,” Sera replied and turned from the group.
In the kitchen, he was surprised at how big the room was, but still somehow cozy at the same time. Sera leaned against the kitchen cabinet as far from him as she could get. Her body was rigid when she asked, “What are you doing here?”
“Where did you go after the meeting?” With a few steps, he cut the room between them in half, hating the distance between them.
“It doesn’t matter to you. Now how do you know where I live?”
“You live by the Grog, and your house is surrounded by Jeeps. It didn’t take long once I started looking.” He took another step closer to her. No way was he mentioning that he had searched her out before today. That today, all he had to do was drive straight here to find her. He took another step towards her, and still, she didn’t move. “Why didn’t you answer my calls?”
“I didn’t need your anger today.” Sera’s arms crossed over her gray T-shirt. Harrison noticed it was almost the exact same outfit she had worn to the office the Saturday he had met her girls. Just a different color.
“I got over being angry, Sera. You were right. A court trial wouldn’t have ended pretty, whether I was innocent or not. There was no way I could prove or disprove any of it. I couldn’t even convince you I didn’t do what Kylie said I did.”
“I know you didn’t do it, Harrison. You said you didn’t, and I believed you. I didn’t need Kylie’s story to fall apart for me to believe you, but for the investigation, it was nice to have Agatha trip up Kylie on Thursday morning.”
“Agatha? Your daughter?” He looked toward the living room, though he couldn’t see any of the women from where he was standing.
“I needed a second person. Aspen has left the company, and Violet was sick all night, so I wasn’t going into the office that day. Agatha can get people to talk when she wants to,” Sera said.
“When did you believe me?” he asked as Harper came into the room.
“I need to make garlic bread, Sera. Move your convo somewhere else.” Harper started taking out the ingredients … loudly.
With that, Sera led him through the house again. This time nobody looked away from the TV as they went up the stairs. Well, nobody but a pair of little blue eyes sitting on her older sister’s lap. He waved at Violet, and she waved back.
At the top of the stairs, she led him down a short hallway and into a bedroom. Why he was surprised that it was her bedroom, he didn’t know. It was her house, after all.
The room was small compared to his, but what his was missing was the wall of pictures Sera had collected of the girls growing up. He could easily pick out who was who in most pictures, even if he didn’t know them well. The difference from girl to girl had always been there.
“I believed you the moment you denied it. Why would you lie? There are no rules against sleeping with your coworker.” She closed the door behind her and started to move across the room.
“But I’ve never slept with a coworker before.” Removing his jacket, he turned from the wall to watch her pacing. Her blue jeans were tight across her ass.
“You slept with me, and I’m a coworker. You lied about that during our last interview. You still were denying you had done that.” She stopped and folded her arms.
“We hadn’t been sleeping together before. I don’t know who said I was, but they are lying.” He had no idea who could be the liar. Somehow, this entire thing came down to her thinking he’d had sex in the office still.
“No, you—maybe you just don’t remember it happening,” she stammered, not sounding too convinced about it. Maybe he was getting through to her.
“I would remember that. When did they say it was?” Harrison tossed his jacket on her bed. He was going to get to the bottom of this tonight.
“Years ago. Many years ago.”
“Please, Sera, just tell me the name. I’ll talk to them. They must be mistaken. It wasn’t me.” He knew it was a mistake, a mistake that was getting between them.
“There’s no mistake,” she asserted, her back stiffening.
“Damn it, Sera, whoever it is, they’re lying to you!” He pulled off his tie and tossed it on his jacket.
“I am not a damn liar, Harrison. I know what happened, even if you don’t remember.” Her eyes were full of anger.
“I didn’t call you a liar.” He wanted to pull her into his arms and make the anger go away.
“Yes, you did. I didn’t have to have a damn informant, Harrison, it was me. You slept with me.” He could see her fingernails digging into her arms.
