Page 26 of Hiss and Make Up
“And now I’m cutting you out of it.”
She couldn’t believe it.Hehad called her.Hehad asked her for help. Now he was blowing her off and denying her the perfect solution tobothof their problems? Un-freaking-believable.
And what about Denise and her kids? He was right that she didn’t have a lot of love for Denise, but seeing those toys where they’d found a water moccasin ticked her off. Who would do something like that?
“You’re not making any sense.” She took a deep breath and tried a different approach. “Why are you being so stubborn about this? Why won’t you let me help?”
“One, because I don’t need someone else caught in the middle of this.”
“I don’t need you to save me from anything.”
“Right,” he said. “Because you’ve never gotten in over your head before.”
She glared at him. He’d almost witnessed an example of that just a moment ago in this diner, but her track record also included a lot of cases where she’d gotten in over her headwithhim. Or at least taking up for him. And now he was using that against her?
“Which brings me to reason number two,” he added. “I don’t need you rushing in and causing more problems.”
“I don’t cause more problems.”
“You never mean to and always have good intentions, but you do tend to jump into things that get us both in trouble.”
“And you’veneverjumped the gun and caused any problems?”
She regretted the words the moment they came out of her mouth. Not regret that she’d said them. She meant every word. But regret for bringing up the subject at all.
She did not want to talk about it. Them. That.
He’d kissed her right before she left. And it wasn’t some magical fairy tale kiss that could make her dad not move them across town. The whole situation had been hard enough, and that kiss had made everything so much harder for her.
Then he went and messed things up even more by going out with Kassie Bergeron when Sierra had barely left the neighborhood. Okay, so maybe it was a few months later.
The point was that here they were now, fifteen years later, arguing about who was the bigger screw-up. But it didn’t matter who it was. They had their shot. You don’t get second chances at stuff like that.
Sierra crossed her arms and stared down at her basket of food that she didn’t even want to eat anymore. Great, not only was he denying her the reward money, but he’d also ruined her appetite.
Marc nodded at her food. “Something wrong with it?”
“Not hungry anymore.”
He opened his mouth to say something but decided against it. Instead, he waved the waitress over for the check. Sierra offered to pay, but he handed over a twenty before she could reach her back pocket. They sat in silence until the server returned with Marc’s change. He left a tip, then stared at Sierra and sighed.
“What?”
He shook his head. “You’re going to leave straight from here and look into this mess anyway. No matter what I say. Aren’t you?”
“Maybe,” she said. “Probably.”
He stared at her for a good long time. She’d been avoiding direct eye contact as much as she could all through this non-meal. Always feigning some distraction or another. Smiling at the cute old couple at the next table, gazing up at the news feed on the TV, whatever she could find. Something in his dark brown eyes had changed in the last fifteen years. Something that made her uncomfortable. Those eyes threw her off guard. Drew her in. And she didn’t like it one bit.
But he’d been patient and caught her in his gaze this time. After staring her down until her insides squirmed, he broke eye contact and relaxed.
“Okay, fine. You’re right. I need to find out who put those snakes there, if anyone. This could all be just a string of coincidences, but I need to be certain. And since I got you involved from the start, I need to make sure you don’t end up a target along with the rest of us.”
She started to say that he didn’t get to save her from herself, but he held up a hand for her to wait until he finished.
“So, here’s the deal.” He leaned forward and propped his elbows on the table. “I’ll let you help me find out what happenedifyou promise not to go all rogue on me and try to do this by yourself. I’ll even let you look into the theft. And if you follow your end of the deal and help me, the reward’s yours.”
“You’llletme look into it?”
