Page 54 of Tell Me All Your Lies

“We all have our secret talents.”

Cara gets up and leaves me sitting in the living room alone. I watch as she climbs up the stairs to the bedrooms.

I gave her the primary bedroom, and I’ll be taking the set-up guest room. It’s a way for us to try to keep it professional. At the hotel, it was a nice gesture for her to share the bed with me and nothing more than that.

There wasn’t any way I could tell her that I slept well that night for the first time in ages. That normally, my past haunts me in my dreams. That seemed a bit dark for five a.m. over coffee.

“Never thoughtI’d see the day,” I say.

Cara perks up from the oven where she’s pulling out a pie.

“It’s called homemade.”

“I thought you were an order or buy kind of woman.”

“I am.”

I lean against the nearby counter, cross my arms against my chest, and kick one leg over the other.

“That’s for a different phase. This is the ‘we’re new to the neighborhood and don’t know how to fit in’ phase.”

“Brad knows me.”

“And Ace wouldn’t have his wife make homemade pies?”

Cara sets down the freshly baked pie next to the others before planting her hands on her hips. A piece of her deep-brown hair falls around her face.

The way the bright-red tank top and short denim shorts she’s wearing make her look like any man’s housewife wet dream is a disturbing realization.

“Brad will think I’m one lucky bastard to get a wife like you.”

Cara smiles, and it’s in this moment that I realize I’d like to keep making this woman smile like this.

“Good. Well, I think this is the last one,” she says while turning her attention back to the pies.

“How many did you make?” I ask while scanning the pies.

“Just four. For Brad’s house, one of the neighbors across the street, the ones on the other side of us, and Ms. Miller down the road.”

I uncross my arms and grip the edge of the countertop.

“Why Ms. Miller?”

“Something about her profile just jarred me. I’d like an opportunity to talk to her in person.”

“Is that how you’ll start the conversation?”

Cara gives me an annoyed look as she shakes her head.

“I think I’ll talk to her about anything she wants to talk about. Maybe even the neighborhood painting class she teaches on Thursdays.”

“You can paint too?”

“I’m a woman of many talents.”

I bet you are.

“You’ll bring them over with me still, right?” she asks.

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