Page 91 of Look at Her and Die

“That was the worst night sleep I’ve had ever,” she proclaimed. “I hope you don’t mind, but I fed your horses, mucked out a single stall before I realized that life wasn’t for me, then came in here to cook dinner. Yates and Kent are taking care of the other stalls.”

Then she wiggled free, and I reluctantly let her go.

“We’re making spaghetti,” she continued. “Now that you’re home, I can put the noodles on.”

“Thanks,” I said. “What’s going on with the kiddos?”

She sighed. “Good news and bad news.”

“What’s that?” I asked.

“I took the kids and left because my mom decided to put herself a million dollars in debt today because she thought I’d pay it back.” She paused. “Oh, and she sold the diner. All in the six hours I was being illegally detained.”

I opened my mouth to say something, then saw Anders watching me curiously.

I snapped my mouth shut. “You’re joking, right?”

“Not even a little bit.” She laughed. “My mom spouted from the rooftops that I’m a millionaire. Then got a loan for a two hundred-thousand-dollar car from a friend that owns a BMW dealership in Plano. He gave her the car and the loan based solely on the fact that he knew my mom, me, and trusted me to pay it back. Which, I’m just telling you now, I won’t be. I pissed her off when I said we were leaving, and that I wouldn’t be paying anything. She got mad and blamed me for ruining her life. And then Fiona called me to tell me about the diner, and her selling it for next to nothing, to Lenny. Fiona is still working there, though. Just wanted to keep me apprised of everything that was happening.”

“I don’t know what to say,” I admitted.

“You can’t say anything.” She shook her head, clearly just as befuddled as I was. “The only good thing was that Koda called me today. He’s flabbergasted that we’re rich now and informed me that I needed to invest the money and not spend a dime. Oh, and in other news, I won that beach house.”

I grinned. “Looks like we get to go on a beach vacation for school breaks.”

“You’d have to hire a ton of staff,” I pointed out. “Oh, and Kent volunteered to work here for room and board. Yates said that they had room in the bunkhouse.”

I shook my head. “Are you telling me you’re moving in?”

“Well, not really.” She paused. “I was going to talk to you about it. I started looking at apartments, but there aren’t any in Decatur that aren’t horrible.”

“You’re not moving into an apartment,” I insisted. “And, after what happened with Taryn today, you won’t be moving anywhere but in with me. Someone has to keep an eye on you.”

She winced. “I probably shouldn’t have forgotten about that, but I did.”

I trailed a finger down her neck, then messed up Anders’s hair before heading to the bedroom.

I came back out a while later, freshly showered and changed into jeans and a t-shirt.

I still had some shit to get done tonight, and despite Yates saying he’d take care of it all, I wanted to make sure he could go to bed at a decent hour.

“What about Calliope?” I asked quietly when she came closer to me.

She stopped and stared up at me for a few long seconds before she said, “She’s my sister.”

I winked. “That she is.”

“You can let her work for room and board, too,” she said. “If you don’t mind giving up another one of your bunk rooms.”

“That’s fine with me. Or, she could stay in here, but I’m not gonna kick Scottie out of her room,” I said. “She and Anders could share.”

“She can stay in the bunk room,” Searcy blurted.

“As for working for room and board, I think I can find something for them to do,” I said. “But I want you to let them know they’re welcome here, whether they work for me or not.”

Her shoulders softened, and I pulled her against me, wrapping my arms around her and dropping my head down onto the top of hers.

“Tell me what happened with Taryn.”

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