Page 25 of Kiss Me Now
“A dry white,” Ian said. “Interesting. I’m guessing we’re having poultry.”
The first course was the stuffed mushroom caps Miss Lily had raved over. I bit into one and gave a nod. “She wasn’t lying. These are delicious. I have faith in whatever else she chose.”
“Gran has excellent taste. Usually.”
There it was again, that hint of ... something in his voice. An undercurrent. I wasn’t imagining it.
What was the best way to disarm this man so that he’d stop with his overbearing protectiveness of his grandmother? Miss Lily could handle herself with anyone, and I posed no threat to her. She’d vaulted over a dozen people in line ahead of her to become my favorite in a month flat.
Maybe this called for a charm offensive. I could pull out my best, most sparkly cocktail party self, brush off a few anecdotes, convince him of my friendliness, and then maybe he wouldn’t feel the need to supervise me at every turn. Because it definitely felt like Ian the Investigator from the bigshot DC firm had me squarely in his sights.
I stifled a sigh. That type of suspicion was bad for the soul, especially if it led him to suspect someone as unobjectionable as me of...anything, honestly. But that was par for the course with people who spent too much time in DC. I hadn’t escaped without acquiring my own shell of cynicism.
The world needed less of that. And maybe mustering up some charm to get Ian Greene to back down was its own kind of cynicism, but it was the right move. If he’d truly rediscovered a love of visiting his grandma, well...I could admire that. Maybe I could keep that in mind if he was going to be a regular weekend nuisance.
Visitor. Time to give him the benefit of the doubt. Weekendvisitor.
“Miss Lily seems happy to have you here two weeks in a row. It’s sweet of you to come out.”
“There’s nothing I wouldn’t do for her.”
Again, his tone held a note of warning. I dabbed at my mouth with the thick linen napkin and tried to find one last bit of goodwill toward this obnoxious man.
Nope. I had nothing.
“You have a tone.” I cut right to the heart of my annoyance.
“Tone? What do you mean?”
I rolled my eyes. “You talk like you’re the smartest guy in the room, holding onto secrets no one else knows. It reads as smug. You did it just now, with your fake innocent, ‘What do you mean?’ And comments like how Miss Lily has excellent taste except when it comes to me somehow.” I set the napkin on the table and leaned toward him. “Say what you want to say, Ian. I’m tired of subtext.”
His expression didn’t give away much. He watched me for a long, measured moment before he nodded. “All right. I know what you’re up to with my grandmother. And I’m watching. Back off.”
My mouth dropped slightly, but I literally had no words.
“Don’t play dumb,” he said, his voice growing rough. “My investigation of you over the last week has shown that you may be a scammer, but you’re definitely not stupid.”
“Your ‘investigation’? What exactly do you think I’m up to with Miss Lily? Trying to wheedle all of her best gardening tips out of her? Guilty. I scammed her out of her secret fertilizer for tomatoes: coffee grounds. You got me.”
“Don’t be cute,” he said. “I promise you I’m taking this very seriously. You may have fooled your uncle, but Gran hasmewatching out for her.”
I wasn’t sure if I was more confused or indignant. Both emotions were fighting for the upper hand.
Confused, I decided. “I have no idea what you’re talking about. It’s nice that you’ve shown up after months to express some interest in your grandmother’s life, but what does that have to do with my uncle?” I wasn’t playing stupid, Ifeltstupid, like I was trying to play catch up, and I hated feeling stupid.
“You forget what I do for a living. I never take people at their word because I have too much evidence that I shouldn’t. So I’ve been digging into you over the last week, uncovering your tracks.”
His words sent a physical pang through my stomach, a wave of queasiness even though I’d eaten nothing but a mushroom cap with a sip of wine. If he was talking about the senator ...
“I’ll paint a picture.” He set his wineglass down hard enough to slosh it. “You volunteer in a nursing home in high school and con those lonely old people into funding a scholarship that they can’t afford, and it gives you a taste for what’s possible. I’m not sure what other scams you pulled, but the next one that shows up is you going to visit your uncle with whom you had little prior relationship, and suddenly he’s leaving everything to you in his will. And somehow in the middle of all that, you manage to have an affair with a married senator that results in a big financial settlement for you that I can only assume is to buy your silence. It certainly explains why Highmark Wealth Management would take you on as a client when nothing in your job or family history would point to that kind of income.” He patted his own mouth with his napkin and set it down with studied indifference. “How did I do?”
How did he do?How did he DO?
My fists clenched as I resisted the bodily urge to reach across the table and wipe the smirk off his face. I took three slow breaths in, then out, and finally uncurled my hands to reach for my phone.
I opened the rideshare app and requested a car. Creekville didn’t have much of a Lyft force, but it also meant the few drivers were always available.Five minutes. I could handle five minutes if four of them were spent outside on the sidewalk, away from Ian’s smug face.
“Nothing to say for yourself?” he asked.
