Page 120 of Roommate's Guide to Love

“Yeah, why?”

“Um, because you’re jumpy, and late. And your face is beet red, and I don’t think it’s because you were running.”

She waves me off. Literally. She even adds a “psssh” with it.

“No. Seriously. Are you ill? This isn’t normal behavior, and I’m truly worried. You look…”

“Flustered,” Simon finishes my sentence. “Everything okay?”

“Yeah, totally fine,” she says in a tone that makes it seem that it’s everything but fine. “Just ran late at the hospital, which means I ran late getting to the lawyer’s office to pick up the papers. Today was a hospital visit from some of the players from the Nashville Fury. When that happens, it’s always chaos.”

I tilt my head, trying to figure out Ainsley’s lie. She’s never told one so I know that something is off, but I can’t figure out what she’s lying about. Lucky for her, Stella comes running into the bar, cell phone waving in the air.

“She just turned down the road,” she says. “ETA two minutes!”

“Okay,” I say, giving everyone last directions. “Ainsley, go put the documents in the office. Stella and Simon, just hide somewhere so she doesn’t see you and…wait…where’s Maeve?”

I turn to Logan, hoping he knows where his wife is.

“She’s on her way,” he says. “Start without her.”

I want to press him more, but I can’t because the front door of The Joint swings open.

Here we go…

“You ready?” I whisper to Porter as we take a seat.

He leans in to kiss my cheek, but also to whisper, “This ends today.”

We give each other reassuring nods as Bonnie confidently walks to our table.

“Well, well, well, I didn’t expect to hear from everyone again so soon,” she says. “I’m glad I was still in town.”

It’s been a week since our first meeting, and one of the biggest question marks in our plans was if Bonnie was going to stay in Rolling Hills or make her way back to Indiana. Luckily, because small town gossip for once was working on our side, we learned that she’d checked into the extended stay just outside of town. And since the manager of said motel is a longtime patron of the bar, we had daily updates on her comings and goings. We were going to try and hold out for a few more days, hoping we could find Missy, but we got word that Bonnie was planning to check out tomorrow, so we had to act fast.

“Thank you for meeting with us.” Logan’s distinct voice draws her attention, and I’m not really sure she noticed he was here until just now.

“Who are you?”

“Porter and Quinn’s lawyer,” he says, making sure he doesn’t need to give a fake name unless he needs to.

“Lawyer? You didn’t say anything about lawyers.”

“I’m doing this out of courtesy,” Logan asks. “We’re just hoping…well, Porter, I’ll let you explain.”

“Explain what?”

Porter and I share a look, and I give him a reassuring nod. The parts we’re playing in this scheme are sad, but that nod? Nothing but in encouragement.

It’s time to end this bitch.

“You were right.”

I know it killed Porter to say that, but it certainly has Bonnie’s attention. “And what was I right about?”

“That we should do everything to keep this out of the courts,” Porter says. “I don’t think either of us really want to drag this on.”

“You’re right, I don’t,” Bonnie says. “So give me Grace and I’m out of your hair.”

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