same bad night.”

  “I’m sorry. It’s still raining, so the foyer and your office

  were the only places that were empty. I didn’t want to

  invade your space.”

  “No need to apologize. Sawyer’s dad again?” She sat on

  the bottom step and patted the spot next to her. Charlotte

  immediately sat and leaned against her.

  “He waited until I started trying to pursue my dreams

  before making unrealistic demands when it comes to

  Sawyer. I’m beginning to think he’s waiting for me to earn a

  higher salary so he can ask me to start paying him.”

  “Why not talk to my guys and see if there’s something to

  make him not only stop making demands, but to get him to

  stop calling altogether. I don’t want to be a pest, but you

  shouldn’t wait.”

  “Maybe…I don’t know. He’s never been so interested in

  Sawyer’s welfare, so part of me is shocked, but another part

  of me is happy. Does that make sense? I mean, she’s his kid,

  so this is how it should’ve been all along.”

  “Go with your gut, but keep my offer in mind. Did you

  eat?”

  “Not really.” Charlotte held up her phone and smiled.

  “This killed my appetite.”

  “Can’t have you starve on me. Go get my buddy and let’s

  go out.” The rain was still falling but had slacked

  considerably, so they took Malcolm’s Jeep again. She drove

  the short distance to Port of Call for some of their famous

  burgers and loaded baked potatoes.

  “This place is cool,” Sawyer said as the waiter put down

  their drinks.

  “When you consider the calories per serving, it’s the last

  place in the world you’ll find a supermodel, for sure, but I’m

  glad you like it.” She laced her fingers together and decided

  to enjoy what little she had to be happy about right then.

  “Do you think Mr. Epstein will wait for us?” Charlotte

  asked.

  “Harold will no more incur my mother’s wrath than he’ll

  set his hair on fire, so he will. If it makes you feel better, I

  told him to go home and have dinner, and I’d call him when

  we were done.”

  Their meal arrived, and like all the other times she’d

  been here, she didn’t finish the entire thing. Charlotte and

  Sawyer tried their best, but food was still on their plates

  when they clutched their stomachs and moaned, which

  made her chuckle. She laughed harder when Charlotte

  wadded up her napkin and threw it at her head.

  “I’m warning you, I bruise easily,” she said as Charlotte

  grabbed Sawyer’s napkin.

  “I doubt that, and don’t you know you’re not supposed to

  make fun of a woman who eats herself into an almost

  burger coma? Though I doubt any woman you know actually

  eats anything resembling a burger.” Charlotte threw the

  napkin, only this time she aimed for the middle of her chest.

  “Maybe that’s what I’ve been missing all my life. A

  woman who actually admits food tastes good, which in turn

  keeps the bitchy to a minimum,” she said and winked at

  Sawyer. “Sorry, kid. I’ll try to keep the cursing to a dull roar

  so your mother doesn’t accuse me of being a corrupting

  influence.”

  “I don’t mind,” Sawyer said, smiling.

  “The first time anything like that comes out of your

  mouth, you’re grounded,” Charlotte said, touching the end

  of Sawyer’s nose gently.

  “How about Ellis, Mama?”

  “Ellis isn’t too big for me to ground as well, if she gets

  out of hand,” Charlotte said, and her snort made Charlotte

  blush.

  “Maybe you were right about red being my favorite

  color,” she said, starting to touch Charlotte’s cheek and

  stopping at the last minute. Putting her hands on someone

  uninvited wasn’t her style. She liked being with the two

  Hamners and didn’t want to mess things up. “You two ready

  to go look at some fabric?”

  Harold was already at the store when she called, but the

  material wasn’t what she’d envisioned. It wasn’t all bad,

  though, so she knew it gave him another opportunity to visit

  her mother.

  “One more stop and we’ll call it a day.”

  “Where we going?” Sawyer asked.

  “It’s a surprise, but I’m not sure it’s open this late so

  don’t get your hopes up.” City Park was out of their way, but

  Storyland had always been one of her favorite spots when

  she was a kid.

  Sawyer was too old to appreciate it, but no matter your

  age, everyone enjoyed a carousel. The park had a beautiful

  one that she visited every year when she came home. It

  was one of the places she’d taken a few of the interns, and

  they all pretended to love it because she did. When Sawyer

  and Charlotte saw it, she saw nothing fake in their reaction.

  “It’s gorgeous,” Charlotte said.

  “I’ve always wanted to do a show here, but it wouldn’t

  accommodate a very big audience.” She paid and picked a

  large black stallion after Sawyer had found what she wanted

  to ride. Charlotte climbed on a horse next to Sawyer and

  laughed when the ride started.

  “I’d never ridden on one of these,” Sawyer said loudly

  when they came to a stop, so Ellis paid for another go-

  round. They ended up riding two more times, and the

  adventure and talking about it put Sawyer to sleep about

  halfway home.

  Ellis didn’t think Sawyer was fully awake when Charlotte

  walked her to her room and led her to the bed. She was sure

  Amis had done the same thing on many occasions, and as

  she looked at Sawyer’s sleeping face she realized that it

  vaguely resembled hers at that age. Hell, maybe the

  excitement of the day was making her crazy tired too.

  She left to wait in the other room when Charlotte started

  with Sawyer’s shoes and socks. Charlotte came out and

  joined her on the sofa and stared up at the ceiling with her.

  “You’re a good mom, and I’m glad you’re getting some fun

  out of this trip as well as working your butt off.”

  “Thanks for that, but are we taking up too much of your

  time? I mean, do all your interns get this much attention?”

  Charlotte seemed to have a shovel in her mouth and was

  doing a good job of digging the hole she was in deeper with

  each word.

  “That’s an interesting shade of red, Ms. Hamner.” She ran

  her finger down Charlotte’s cheek and smiled. “And to

  answer your real unasked question, this isn’t part of my

  grand seduction plan. The internship was my idea from the

  first bit of success I enjoyed to give back a little of the luck

  I’ve had through the years. I thought of it, and when we

  began, I figured why do something unless you were actually

  going to do it. Did that come out as convoluted as I think it

  did?”

  “It didn’t, and that’s not what I meant.” Charlotte turned

  to face her with an expression of near pain. “I just didn’t

  want to put you behind.”

  “Hey, take a breath, okay? Usually, well mostly, I don’t

  spend this much time with my interns, but I’m having fun,

  and you guys are helping me get this done. Do you need me

  to step back some?” Maybe she’d let the fame go to her

  head more than she thought, if she’d simply assumed her

  companionship was welcome just because of the offer she’d

  given Charlotte. Perhaps the world at large didn’t think she

  was as great as her mother thought she was.

  “No. Jeez, I really screwed this up.” Charlotte grabbed her

  bicep and squeezed. “Getting the job was a major win for

  me, but spending time with you and watching you with

  Sawyer is a gift. You’ve been so incredibly kind, so I was

  trying to be polite. I didn’t say it right, but that’s all this was,

  really.”

  “Thanks, and you only have to keep to yourself if you

  want to. If you stay, and you think this is a good place for

  you, we’ll talk about making it permanent.” Making such an

  offer should’ve scared the hell out of her, but she didn’t

  think offering Charlotte a job was a rash decision. “But take

  your time. We’ve got plenty of it, so make sure it’s a good fit

  for you before you decide.”

  Charlotte smiled and nodded. “Eventually, you’ll see that

  I’m not some rude nutcase who doesn’t appreciate all this.

  I’ll do my best to prove to you how much it means to me.”

  “Yeah, yeah. Go to bed and cut all the ass kissing. When

  you’re ready to literally kiss my ass, we’ll take this up

  again.” She winked and wiggled her eyebrows, making

  Charlotte’s fading blush reignite.

  “Not going to happen, so get out of here.” Charlotte’s

  words didn’t contain a threat since she was smiling as she

  said them.

  “Eventually you’ll see what you’re missing.”

  “Maybe, but I’m not that easy, Ms. Renois.”

  * * *

  “Do you have a print date?”

  Jennifer relaxed the hand she was holding the phone with

  because her fingers hurt. She didn’t need this shit on top of

  everything else she was facing. “Don’t harp on that since we

  all knew it wouldn’t be easy.” When they’d put their plan in

  motion, they’d tried to plan for every pitfall and take every

  precaution. Using names on the phone was their main rule,

  but these phone calls were as much a pain as trying to get

  everything done.

  “Not what you said at the beginning of all this. Get it

  done or—”

  “Or what?” Jennifer had reached her limit of bullshit, and

  it wasn’t even ten in the morning. “Or else? Is that what you

  were going to say? Just remember all the steps and leave

  the rest to me.”

  “How’s Dalton holding up?”

  “He isn’t, but don’t worry about that either. You wanted

  to keep in the background, so stay there and let me get this

  done.” The ring of the condo’s phone interrupted her, but

  she was glad for the perfect excuse to end the call. “Got to

  go.”

  She silenced her cell and answered the call from the

  doorman. She granted him permission to send up her guest,

  taking a minute to calm down and compose herself. The

  ease of everything except printing the book was surprising.

  At this point she’d have thought they would’ve had to shell

  out way more money, but Kyle was Mr. Bargain Basement.

  She was glad she’d forced Dalton to go see his wife and

  kids, so she could take this meeting alone. Whatever Dalton

  decided about his future with his family might not make a

  difference when it came to their future. Sometimes if you

  procrastinated in an effort to avoid the uncomfortable, the

  feelings of the person who really wanted you cooled. That’s

  what she was experiencing now, since Dalton had put off

  the unpleasantness of divorce until he had a gun to his

  head.

  “Come in,” she said when she opened her door after the

  soft knock. “Do you want anything to drink?”

  “I just want my money.”

  Kyle Snyder was good-looking in his physical appearance,

  with his dark hair and green eyes, but he was a complete

  moron in the brains department. From what she knew of

  him, Kyle wasn’t successful except when it came to using

  women. He had quite the string of females who would gladly

  neuter him, if given the chance, as payment for him using

  them and throwing them to the curb once he was done. If

  she had to guess, the done-with-them part most probably

  took less than five minutes.

  “We’ll get to that,” she said, sitting in the middle of the

  sofa.

  “Wrong. We’ll get to it now.” He stood with his hands on

  his hips, his legs spread—a classic alpha male pose that

  wasn’t impressing her in the least.

  She went to the desk and took out two stacks of

  hundreds. “This is what you’re here for, but let’s talk first.

  Sit down.”

  He glared at her but took the chair next to her. “Look, I

  did what you asked for, so hand it over.”

  “Mr. Snyder, the money’s yours, but there’s plenty more

  if you’re up to it.”

  “How much more?” His back came off the chair, and she

  knew she had him.

  “The ten grand I promised you for the phone calls,” she

  dropped the money on the coffee table, “but I could add

  substantially more.”

  “How much, and what do you want now?”

  “If you want to move forward you’ve got to be

  convincing, so think before you agree. You don’t have to fool

  me. You’re going to have to do that with people trained to

  weed out liars. Think you can do that?”

  “Believe me, I’ll get it done, but it’ll cost you fifty grand.”

  Cheap and easy, she thought as she held her hand out to

  him since she’d been willing to pay so much more. “We

  have a deal.”

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  Two weeks went by with no more information about the

  missing bible, and Ellis knew she was on borrowed time if

  she wanted to capitalize on her misfortune. If she wanted to

  blunt the fallout of the theft she believed she’d never be

  able to prove, she’d have to pull her plan off within the

  week, and it surprised her that she had any time at all.

  She’d been up for a couple of hours refining some of the

  first pieces they’d started, and since early mornings were

  the only time the house was completely quiet, she was

  learning to go to bed with the chickens, as Uncle Malcom

  liked to say. It was the only way not to roll over and forget

  the alarm when it went off way before sunrise. It was early,

  but someone was always not only up but didn’t mind

  bothering her, and she usually came with company.

  Sawyer got up every morning appearing ready to handle

  anything, but Charlotte was usually dragging in behind her

  with one eye closed. This morning was most probably going

  to be the same, but Ellis had her mind on Rueben. Her

  oldest friend and business partner had fallen into a pattern

  that was more of a downward spiral than a routine.

  Rueben had started drinking every early afternoon and

  was totally useless by the time dinner was delivered. She’d

  tried to talk to him every morning, but nothing she said was

  penetrating his assumptions of how she felt. It was like

  everything they’d shared and been through together had

  disappeared as effectively as his copy of the bible.

  There was that problem, and Charlotte was facing an

  escalating Kyle. She didn’t know the guy, but she couldn’t

  understand how Sawyer could be his, or how Charlotte had

  ever fallen for his bullshit no matter how young she was.

  Every time Charlotte hung up from one of his calls, she

  found comfort in Ellis’s arms. It was a new and surprising

  development, but in Charlotte she’d found a friend that she

  felt she’d known and cared about all her life.

  “Thinking deep thoughts this early? That could be

  trouble,” Charlotte said, making Ellis blink rapidly after

  jerking up. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you.”

  “I see a lot of ripping in your future.”

  Charlotte snorted and shoved her. With a little time,

  Charlotte had gotten a lot more comfortable about her as

  well, and she’d started to unearth some more of Charlotte’s

  talent now that her defenses were down. So far, she’d

  included six of Charlotte’s pieces in the lineup, and Sawyer

  had finished her first canvas.

  “What’s on your mind?” Charlotte asked, taking her by

  the hand and leading her into the kitchen. Charlotte’s

  newfound level of comfort was leagues away from where

  they’d begun. “And it’s got to be something since this is the

  only time in the day you don’t have a huge frown line in the

  middle of your forehead. If it’s made its appearance already,

  something’s off.”

  “You want honest or the line I’ll repeat to the press if they

  asked me the same thing?”

  Charlotte got everything ready to make coffee and shook

  her head. “The truth first, and I’m curious about the press

  one, so follow up with that.”

  “This year’s been so strange. It’s like everything that’s

  familiar and true just isn’t anymore.” She rested her hip

  against the counter and looked Charlotte in the eye, not