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“You won’t have to worry about her locking it from downstairs once the new system has been installed,” Pat told her.
“Do you want me to come help you?” Lorry asked warningly. “Because reminding me of all the disruption and new-aged systems being installed at the hotel is not endearing me to want to help you.”
“Sweetheart,” Pat was about to say more, but Lorry stopped her.
“Let’s not get into this again, Mom, please,” Lorry started down the stairs. “Why don’t you tell me what’s happened that you’ve had to phone me on your friend’s phone instead?”
“You sound stressed!” Pat hedged. “I don’t know if I want to add to that.” She paused. “Maybe I should call Nicky.”
“Mom!” Lorry was already passing the hotel’s second floor. “You’re adding to my stress by hedging.” Her voice raised slightly. “Now tell me, what’s going on?”
“As it was a nice day, I decided to walk to the club,” Pat began her story.
“Walk?” Lorry asked in disbelief. “Mom, the club is on the opposite side of the island to us. Why on earth would you walk there?”
“I wasn’t at home,” Pat informed her, setting off alarm bells in Lorry’s head. “I was having an early breakfast with a friend who lives at the golf estate, which, as you know, is a block away from the club.”
“Who is this friend?” Lorry didn’t have to ask as she knew it was James Barnes.
“Who my friend is isn’t the issue here,” Pat said in a prickly voice, which meant she wasn’t going to tell Lorry. “On the way, some kid swooped past me on a bicycle and snatched my purse, which had my car keys, wallet, house keys, phone, and make-up in it.”
“Mom!” Lorry gasped, stopping as she was about to open the ground-floor stairwell door. Her heart had started to hammer in fright at the thought of her mother being mugged. “Are you okay?”
“I’m shaken, and I had a bit of a fall from my purse being yanked so hard off my arm,” Pat told her. “But other than a few scrapes, bruises, and losing my items, I’m fine.”
“I’m on my way,” Lorry told her, shoving the door open only to have it hit an obstruction. “What the—“
“Hey!” A startled male voice yelped from the other side.
Before Lorry could take her hand off the door handle, the door was yanked open, pulling her with it. Her phone and purse went flying alongside Lorry, who landed up thudding into Tom Barnes.
“You!” Lorry sneered, fumbling to push herself from his wall of muscled chest.
“You!” Tom growled at the same time.
They stood looking at each other with narrowed eyes and crumpled brows until Pat’s worried cries resounded from Lorry’s phone on the floor.
“Lorry?” Pat called. “Sweetheart, what’s going on?” Her voice raised a little higher. “Lorry!”
Lorry bent down to get her phone at the same time Tom did, and their heads collided.
“Good grief!” Lorry’s voice rang with annoyance as she held her forehead, not needing the extra pain searing through it.
“You saw I was going to pick it up!” Tom scooped up her phone and handed it to her. “Are you okay?”
“No thanks to you!” Lorry snatched her phone from his hand before sidestepping the mountain of muscle. “I’m going to pick up my purse now.”
She glanced at him and pointed to the floor where it lay.
“I wasn’t going to attempt to touch another of your items.” Tom gave her a tight smile before turning and walking off.
“That arrogant jerk!” Lorry grabbed her purse from the ground and quickly scanned the area where it fell to ensure nothing had fallen out of it before heading for the parking garage.
“Who’s an arrogant jerk?”
Lorry was so irritated by her encounter with Tom she’d almost forgotten her mother was still on the line.
“No one,” Lorry said, not wanting to start a debate with her mother, who adored the Barnes men. “I’m going to hang up now as I’m nearly at my car. I’ll be at the club in ten to fifteen minutes.” She stopped as she walked into the parking garage and sighed. “Shoot. Mom, I have to go. I’d better let Hailey know where I am.”
