Page 44 of All Signs Point to Malibu

She nods. “Haven’t had time to rehang them yet.”

Do not offer to—

“If you have tools, I can do it for you.”

She looks just as surprised as I am by the offer that escaped my lips without my conscious blessing. Then her expression changes to slightly unreadable as she stares at them. “Actually, I haven’t decided if I will just yet.”

Odd, but none of my business, so I shrug.

She reaches for a sweatshirt from the back of an ergonomic desk chair, pulls it on over her head—thank God—then sits at her desk.

I sit across from her and empty the take-out bag.

Hailey eyes the French fries with longing. “How do you eat this junk and still stay in shape?” she asks.

“You checking me out?”

Hailey rolls her eyes and ignores the question, instead getting straight to work. “I have the engagement party guest list.” She slides it across the desk toward me as I take a bite of my double-decker sandwich. I lick mayonnaise from my lip and scan it. Two pages? Single spaced? I quickly tally. “Eighty-six people?”

“Yep.”

She stares at me expectantly.

I blink as I chew. “What?”

She huffs in exasperation. “See anything odd about the list?”

I look closer, flip the pages over. I recognize none of the names. “Where’s Liam’s family?”

“Not coming. Apparently, they don’t support this,” Hailey says, leaning forward with a self-satisfied look.

Great, she thinks she’s right about this wedding being a mistake. I’m sure there’s more to it. “Sure, they do.”

“Nope,” she says, as though she’s got hot gossip. “Not according to Sonia.”

Now she’s caught my attention, but not in the way she was hoping. “You’ve been spending time with her?” Hailey and Sonia hanging together makes me uneasy and it shouldreallymake Liam uneasy. Dude is too trusting of his ex, which I know in my gut is going to come back to bite him in the ass. Thank God, I’m not about to letmyguard down anytime soon—body like a temptress or not.

Hailey looks away. “Had to get the guest list,” she says, but she’s definitely hiding something. “Anyway, his parents must not be happy that he’s given up his own dreams of skyscrapers in New York to build hotels here on the coast.”

“That’s quite an assumption...” I stop. “Wait.Hotels?Thought it was one resort?”

“Nope. Three.”

That’s quite the ambitions plan. The night we had drinks together, Liam made it seem as though he was doing this as a one-off favor to Sonia but had no plans to design resorts the rest of his life. He’d alluded to going back to New York and continuing to work with bigger developers on the cityscapes he was passionate about.

Maybe those plans had changed? Maybe he decided the Bankses’ family business was a better fit? Either way, I refuse to speculate about something I know nothing about. “Don’t look so smug,” I say over another bite of my sandwich. “Liam wouldn’t be doing this if he didn’t want to.”

“I’m just stating for the record that I’m not the only one with concerns,” she holds her hands up innocently, but she does not pull off the look. She looks quite naughty indeed and she’s definitely scheming. I can see the wheels turning in that pretty little head.

“Well, keep them to yourself,” I say, popping a handful of fries into my mouth. “Let’s get to it. Do you have the invites?” I glance around.

Hailey sighs and opens her laptop. “It’s too late to send out invites by mail. We’ll have to email the guest list.”

“Email invites? Seems off-brand for the great Hailey Harris.”

Hailey shoots me a look as she sets up her tripod and selfie light. “We’re not sending a regular email. We’re going to record a fun video.”

I shrug. Have at ’er.

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