“Drew!”
Dani studied Boone. “Is that true?” she asked softly. “Are you half the man you used to be because of me?”
Boone closed his eyes. He ran a weary hand over his jaw. “I don’t want to do this here. Not with my brother here. You’ve got something going on. I can tell. What’s happened, Dani?”
Dani flinched. Of all the people to ask, it was him.
Kate called out Dani’s name at that moment, with Jake right behind her.
He was beaming, and he clasped Boone on the shoulder. “I didn’t know you were out here.” He nodded to Boone’s brother. “You must be Mitch’s older brother?”
Boone gestured toward him. “This is Jake, he invited us to a poker tournament Friday night.”
“Oh, yes!” Drew held his hand out for a handshake. “Jake Cairns, you’re the deputy who’s engaged to Julia O’Hara.” Drew slid a sideways glance underneath his eyelids to Dani. “Susan was impressed with how you carry yourself. She said you were a good man to have on the team.” He seemed to remember. “Oh, sorry. I should explain. Susan’s my fiancée. She and our father are flying in Friday. Mitch and I won’t be able to make the poker tournament.”
Dani tucked that information away. Jonah would probably want to know, if he didn’t already.
Jake nodded, like it made sense, like he had friends flying to Craigstown every day. “Family before pleasure. That’s what I always say.”
Kate’s mouth opened an inch. She gazed dumbfounded at Jake. She turned to Dani, but she shook her head. Dani was giving her a silent command to let it go. Kate got the message, but she gave Jake another incredulous look. Her eyebrows were arched high.
Drew caught the look between Kate and Dani, but held his hand out again to Jake. “Not to cut it short, but we should be heading out. It was a pleasure to meet all of you.”
He shook Jake’s hand, then turned and left. Boone glanced back, looking at Dani briefly before the two got in an SUV.
“Yeah.” Kate held out her hand and pretended to shake an invisible hand. “It was a pleasure to meet you, too, Mr. Drew Billionaire and Gorgeous Quandry. A huge pleasure.” She let out a sigh, her hand resting on her hip. “Man. They’re always taken. That Mitch guy’s taken, too. I’ve seen the red bombshell on his hip around town.” She looked at Jake. “You’re friends with them?”
Jake was studying Dani. “What? Oh, yeah. Uh.” He scratched behind his head. “Julia is. Her and Jenny hit it off yesterday at a tea party.”
Kate snorted. “A tea party? Are you kidding me? You’re going to marry someone who attends high tea at noon?”
“It wasn’t at noon, and, I guess.” He asked Dani, “You okay?”
Kate cursed under her breath, whirling around. “Oh, shit. I’m sorry. That’s why we came out before we were distracted by Mr. Hoity Toity here and his new golfing buddies.” She jerked a thumb over her shoulder at Jake. Then softened her tone. “We heard what you asked Mae. Is that true?”
Dani sighed, accepting the inevitable. It was fresh, but so was her resolve to stop avoiding. She looked right at Jake. “I don’t know about the adoption stuff, but I do have something I need to tell you.”
Jake grew quiet.
She felt a lump forming in her throat again. “You asked me a long time ago why I came back. I was in a relationship, and he asked to marry me. I left him, and that’s why I came back home. I came back to heal.” He needed to know the rest, or most of it. “You warned me about being with Jonah because he’s going against the Quandrys, but they’re not going to hurt me. Mitch was the guy who proposed to me.”
“Whoa,” Kate said under her breath.
Dani was only worried about Jake’s reaction. “Jake. I’m sorry.”
He jerked back a step. Raw emotion etched over his face. His eyes looked strained. His mouth tightened. “No. I mean, good job. You got one over me.”
“Jake.”
But he was gone. He was already halfway to his squad car.
Kate laid a hand on her shoulder. “I’ll talk to him. He’ll get over it. Men are stupid sometimes. They don’t realize that when they break up with a girl, that girl is no longer theirs anymore.” She gave Dani a quick pat. “Honestly. Don’t sweat Jake. If anything, this is good for him. Maybe make him rethink some of his hoity-toity choices in life.” She murmured before following her partner, “And for the record, holy shit, woman! Mitch Quandry.” She whistled. “Blows Julia’s money out of the water.”
Their car’s back lights turned on.
Kate groaned. “I gotta go before he leaves me. And he says I’m the emotional one.” She laughed. “Please tell me your secret. I must learn from your amazingness. You’re like a goddess with men.” She took off, getting in the passenger’s side. Jake reversed the car out of the parking spot, bringing him almost right in front of her.
He wouldn’t look at her.
Jonah came over later, and she filled him in on everything that happened. He was gone when she woke the next day, so she figured he was off to work, and she was just sitting down with her coffee when someone knocked on her front door.
It was Aiden, and she wasted no time. “I need your help.”
Dani readied herself. “What with?”
“My father is coming into town tonight, and he wants to stay at my home.”
“Whoa.” Jonah hadn’t said a word. “What? Your dad?”
“You don’t understand. My father. Is coming. And he wants to stay—at my home. At my house. My house, where I’m supposed to be having a party tonight and people are supposed to be giddy and drunk and laid. And Kate and Robbie are supposed to kiss tonight.” She stopped, pressed a hand to her stomach, and took a deep breath. “My father cannot step one foot in my home. He will ruin everything.”
“Oh.”
Kate and Robbie were going to kiss?
“He will not ruin my poker night. We’re going to dress as carnies tonight. That’s the plan. The back-up is animals. Kate’s going to be one of those belly dancers. Bubba’s the bearded lady, and I was going to dress as the blind hostess. I need him to stay somewhere else, and I’m going to tell him it’s my house.” She grasped Dani’s arm. “Please don’t judge me. My dad’s not like normal dads.”
“Hey.” Dani held up one hand in surrender. “I’m still trying to figure out who my dad might be. No judgments here.”
“Oh, good.” A few tears from relief leaked out. Even Aiden’s grin was a little shaky. “All we need is a place—a very nice place—and most of my stuff can be transferred there. I’ll hire people for all the moving. Of course, whoever’s place we stay at, we’ll have to get rid of their pictures and keepsakes, but we can do it. We can do it! I just need your help. You don’t have a job. You have time.”
Dani took a step back, on instinct.
Aiden rushed inside, producing a thermos from behind her back. Aiden poured the rest of Dani’s coffee into the thermos and grabbed her arm again. “We can take my car.”
Dani managed to grab her purse and keys before she was dragged outside. “So, whose house are you going to use?”
“That’s the problem.” Aiden frowned as she gulped some coffee. “I’ve been thinking about that. My dad’s wealthy. He’s going to expect a certain type of house and our house won’t pass muster.”
“He’s never been to your house?”
“Hell no! Are you kidding? My father is stuck-up, rich, and thinks mansions grow on trees.”
“So, who has a mansion for use?”
“I’ve been racking my brain, and I can’t really—Robbie! Robbie just bought a huge house. That’s perfect. He didn’t move in too long ago. He probably hasn’t had any time to collect furniture, and I’m betting Lori got rid of most of his personal belongings. Lori’s the type who would do that. That’s great!” Aiden’s eyes lit up in anticipation.
“What am I in charge of?”
“Okay—we’re going to Robbie’s. He should be at the office right now. You charm Kelley Lynn, ge
t his keys from her, and I’ll head in to schmooze it over with Robbie.”
“Me and Kelley Lynn? No.”
“Yes.” Her head was bobbing up and down. “The girl’s been biding her time before she pounces on you.”
Dani frowned.
Aiden continued without thinking, “Everyone knows—Erica knew you were coming back. She made all her friends promise to be really nice to you. Only Julia’s the stick-in-the-mud. Kelley Lynn promised, but she thought you needed time to adjust being back home, so anyway, Kelley Lynn will only be too happy to help us. She’ll probably even help with decorations.”
“Decorations?”
“Yeah. Anything Robbie has won’t be good enough for Father Dearest.”
Aiden raced around a corner, and Dani grabbed the door handle to keep from falling. “Won’t your father think it’s weird that you give him your house and don’t stay there?’
“No. He’ll think I did it to spite him.” Aiden shrugged. “It’s something I’d do. The problem is,” Aiden continued, rambling to herself, “is that I need really rich stuff, but I can’t afford to buy it all.”
“What about your kids’ rooms and their stuff?”
“Oh, no. I’ll just tell him that they stay at the nanny’s house. He’ll believe that. He has no clue.”
Dani was taken aback.
“We’ll need bedding, a few rugs, probably a new set of dishes, um…what else, what else?”
“A chandelier?”
Aiden lit up. “Yes! Of course! Mae has one at the Grill! You think she’d let us borrow it?”
Dani frowned. Uh…what? She’d been joking.
“Okay. Okay. You explain it all to Mae. That’s your other job. Would Mae let us use some of her fancy dishes? You know the ones that she pulls out for the ‘hoity-toity’ crowd? She always says that.”
“Uh—” The truth was that she’d probably do it. And she’d definitely do it for a laugh at the expense of some of those ‘hoity-toity’ folk, but that meant Dani would have to talk to her aunt. The big emotional upheaval that her adoption talk would be hadn’t happened yet. She wasn’t ready to see her. “Why don’t you call Jonah and recruit him for that? I’ll be too busy handling Kelley Lynn, and you know she adores Jonah.”
“Hmm!” Aiden pointed at her, snapping her fingers. “That’s a good idea. You’re good at this.” Then her eyebrows bunched together in concentration again. “Okay. Plan of attack.” Then Aiden punched a button on her car. “Call Jonah.” A dial tone sounded through the speakers, but Aiden grabbed an earpiece and popped it in. Dani soon heard, “Hey, I need a favor…well, drop what you’re doing. I don’t care. This is ground zero time.”
Dani was in awe.
“Yeah—still not caring.” Aiden rushed over her brother’s protests. “Dad is staying at Robbie’s house tonight…yes—he’ll think it’s mine…shut up. You have to go and talk to Mae. Get her to let us borrow the chandelier and anything ritzy that would impress Dad.” Another moment and she interrupted again, “Not caring. You will do this, or you will not be eating at my house ever again.”
The call ended soon after that, and she beamed at Dani, parking at the same time. “Mission accomplished. Well, part of the mission.” She nodded to Robbie’s building. “This is DEFCON one to DEFCON zero. We’re going in.”
“Do you even know what that means?”
“No.”
Aiden smirked in triumph at Kelley Lynn’s offers to help with anything. Robbie took a little smooth talking, but after a quick word in private with Aiden, he offered anything and all that he owned to impress Daddy Warbucks.
Dani rode with Kelley Lynn to her own friends and family members. Impressive thread-count bedding was offered. Anything Kelley Lynn asked for, she got. She held everyone in the palm of her hand and Dani was experiencing acute déjà vu.
Erica had operated the same way.
She felt a weird sense of nostalgia, but disregarded it. That was ridiculous.
After they’d gotten added offers of a Jacuzzi and even a pool table, Kelley Lynn decided they got enough. She studied Dani a moment before starting her car. “You’ve been watching me. There’s watching and there’s watching and you’re watching.”
“People like to help you.”
Her hand let go of the keys. She still hadn’t turned the car on. “That’s not what this is about.”
“It’s not?” Dani itched for the door handle, but she stayed. She held firm because she was turning away from her running ways.
“This is about Erica.” Kelley Lynn leaned back in her seat.
Dani lied through her teeth, “I’m just amazed at how much you’ve gotten to help Aiden.”
“I’m not doing this for Aiden. Those people aren’t doing it for Aiden either, or me.” Kelley Lynn continued, “They’re doing this for Jonah.”
Not what Dani expected. “You, too?”
“I dated Jonah for a while, and I remembered him talking about his dad. A real piece of work, right?”
Dani frowned as a few raindrops splattered their windshield. “So, if Dave calls…?”
“Then I’m helping out an old friend.”
“And that’s Jonah? Or Aiden?”
“No.” Kelley Lynn shook her head. “You.”
She was stumped again. “Huh?”
“Dave’s a bit insecure when it comes to Jonah.”
That didn’t make sense either. “Just Jonah?”
“Pretty much. A lot of the guys around town are insecure about him. You’ve seen him.”
Oh, yes, she had. Dani remained silent.
“Plus—” Kelley Lynn started the car again. “This is also about all the time that you’ve been spending with Jonah.”
“Really?”
“Really.” Kelley Lynn wiggled her eyebrows in a knowing manner. “You think people don’t notice? People notice. They talk, too. They’ve noticed that you and Bannon are spending a lot of time together. And you should prepare yourself, you know.”
“For what?”
“You’re Jonah’s new girl. You’re going to be treated differently by a lot of people. People know Jonah. Guys secretly love him and secretly hate him. And all the females—they either adore him in a sisterly fashion because they know they could never have him…like Kate…or they outright lust after him.”
“Kate’s not like that.”
“Yes, she is.” Kelley Lynn leaned forward, starting the car. “If Jonah were mine, I’d keep him happy and wrapped around my pinkie.”
“Because that’s what you do.”
Kelley Lynn heard the bite in those words. She turned the car off again. “Is that what the watching’s for?”
Dani looked out the window. “You haven’t changed much from high school. You and Erica had everyone wrapped around your finger. That’s what I remember.”
“Not Jonah,” Kelley Lynn pointed out. “And Erica couldn’t hold him either, remember that? So you one-upped her.”
“That’s great. That’s why I came back—to one-up my dead little sister.”
“Erica wouldn’t care anymore.”
“Or maybe she would. Maybe she’d roll over in her grave.” Dani knew she was baiting Kelley Lynn, but she couldn’t stop. “Or maybe I should drop the guy who dropped Erica and take my revenge. I could have Jake back.”
Kelley Lynn searched Dani’s closed features. “I don’t know what you want, but I’m not doing this. I’m helping out Jonah because I care about him. If you want to pick a fight with anyone who cared about your sister or Jonah or whomever this is actually about—then go and fight with them.”
Dani forced herself to relax, making a concerted effort to loosen her shoulders up. “I’m sorry. You’re helping, and I’m grateful.”
“I’m not helping you.”