Page 48 of Just Add Mistletoe

She blew out a breath. Shecouldask him—it wouldn’t hurt to do that. But did she want more scrutiny from her friends? And did he want to be in a social situation while he was dealing with whatever was going on with the company and his brother? Whatwasgoing on? Had there been progress? New revelations? Bad news? Good news?

Lori moved to the kitchen window that overlooked the street. The sun was in its final stages of setting, and in the purple twilight, she could see that a light was on in the trailer across the street. Malcom’s truck was parked next to it. She’d noticed it had been gone the last couple of hours. But now, apparently, he’d returned.

Maybe she could text him. Just something friendly and casual to check in. She wouldn’t make him feel obligated to respond. Even though she told herself that, she still wanted him to. Was it selfish to want to ease her own worry? Inviting him to dinner the next night could be an ice breaker.

“What do you think, Tiger?” Lori said. “Should we go visit our friend Malcom?”

Tiger purred in response.

Lori didn’t know why she thought that heading to Malcom’s with the kitten was a good idea, but that’s what she did a few minutes later. She’d bundled up Tiger in a blanket so he wouldn’t get scared and leap out of her arms.

Her heart was pounding by the time she reached the trailer, and she second-guessed herself more than once. But she’d made it this far . . . She knocked on the trailer door, and moments later, it opened.

Malcom stood there, wearing a T-shirt and shorts, hair damp. Had he just taken a shower? He smiled, and it gave her a little more courage.

“Hi,” she said. “Tiger wanted to see you.”

He chuckled. “Is that so? Bring him inside. It’s getting cold.”

It was getting cold, although the daylight hours had been mild.

“Good timing,” he said. “I just got back from a run and showered.”

Tiger wriggled at the sound of Malcom’s voice, and once the door was shut, Lori let the kitten out of the confines of the blanket.

Tiger meowed at Malcom, and he picked the kitten up. “Thanks for the cookies by the way,” he told Lori. “I haven’t had a chance to text you yet.”

“Everything going okay?” she asked.

“Define okay,” he said, irony in his tone. He settled at the kitchen table, and she sat across from him.

He looked less stressed than he had the night before. “You went for a run, so that’s good.”

He nodded and scratched the top of Tiger’s head—the kitten immediately started purring. “It’s remarkable that such a small cat can make so much noise.” Malcom paused, then lifted his hazel gaze. “My partnership with my brother has been dissolved—I’ve already signed everything on my end.”

Despite knowing he’d wanted to leave the company, doing it this way was rough. “I’m sorry about all of this—especially your brother’s role.”

Malcom released the kitten, and it strutted across the table to Lori. “I am too. I do hope that someday I’ll get the real story. I don’t know where the breakdown happened—was it my brother’s idea? Kari’s? Penny’s? They’re all involved. It seems I was the only one in the dark. And I keep asking myself why they’d do this—is money really so important to risk fraud charges and family relationships?”

Lori’s heart hurt because even though Malcom’s tone was matter-of-fact, she could see the pain in the depths of his eyes. “Have you talked to any of them today, or are you letting your lawyer handle everything?”

“I talked to my brother this morning—well, ‘talk’ is a relative word,” Malcom said. “He brought up a bunch of stuff from our high school days, stuff I thought we’d worked through. He accused me of always trying to take the limelight, stealing his friends, stealing his scholarship opportunities. None of which is true.”

“So this was all payback?” she asked.

He rubbed a hand over his face. “It’s the only thing that makes sense. I mean, I think it started out as just wanting to keep tabs on me and profiting from my work—but I truly believe that once he married Kari and Penny got involved, things escalated.”

“But Penny was trying to date you—how does that all factor in?”

“That’s a good question,” Malcom deadpanned. “Maybe to have more control over me? To monitor me more?”

Lori winced. “As terrible as it sounds, it kind of makes sense.”

He gave her a half smile, a sad smile. “Like I said, someday I’d like the full story, but right now, I just want this to all go away. As if I never knew any of them.” He exhaled. “I’ve had to take myself off the condominium project. My lawyer says thateven if I worked as an independent contractor, it would muddy up the legal waters.”

Lori stared at him. “You’re out of a job?”

He spread his hands. “As of five p.m., I’ve been unemployed.”

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