Page 75 of Tell Me Something True

While Reed had taken his cash wordlessly and without expression, Verity looked horrified.

And tucked her hands behind her back.

“Thank you, but I can’t accept that.”

“I insist,” she said, but short of shoving the money into Verity’s pocket, she couldn’t force her to take it. “Please.”

“Let it go,” Reed told her. “The princess owed you.”

“What does that mean?” Miles asked.

“Nothing,” Verity said, a quick denial that may as well have been a flashing neon sign that she was guilty of something, especially when accompanied by the furious, hurt look she gave Reed.

Like he’d betrayed her.

“Verity,” Miles said. “What did you do?”

“If I did do something—and I’m not saying I did—that I shouldn’t have done—and, again, I’d like to make the point that this is not a confession but a completely hypothetical situation—then you can trust that I also rectified that mistake in a swift, responsible, adult-like manner. Just like I was taught.”

He did the whole cop waiting for a suspect to break under the pressure of his intense stare and silence routine on her, but Verity didn’t so much as blink.

Then he turned to her. “Tabitha?”

She raised her eyebrows. Oh, no. He wasn’t about to use her to get information about what had happened before he’d arrived. Not after he’d spent the past hour and a half not speaking to her.

Asshole. Thinking he could mess with the sisterhood.

“Nothing happened,” Tabitha said, not the least bit guilty over this white lie.

Lying to protect others didn’t count.

“And since nothing did happen,” she continued to Verity, “certainly nothing that you need to make up for, I really wish you’d let me pay you.”

“If you really want to repay me, I wouldn’t say no to pizza for lunch. But only if you agree to eat it with us.”

It was a compromise. One that allowed Tabitha to hold onto a scrap of her pride along with most of the money she’d offered Verity.

And, for once, she wouldn’t have to eat a meal alone.

“Deal.”

Verity grinned. “Great. Half cheese, half mushroom okay with you?”

“I’m not picky.”

She hadn’t had that luxury.

“We’ll get it ordered to be delivered in an hour.” Verity glanced down at Ian. “Say goodbye, bud.”

“Bye,” he said to Tabitha, even though they’d be seeing each other in an hour. He turned to Reed. “Sorry I thought Uncle Miles was going to arrest you.”

“You’re not the first,” Reed said. “You won’t be the last.”

Miles snorted. “Got that right.”

Reed ignored him. “You did a good job taking care of Titus.”

“Thank you,” Ian said solemnly. He hugged Miles around the waist. “Bye, Uncle Miles.”

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