Page 16 of Trouble Walked In

Renic glanced at the window and huffed out a sigh. “It’s been a long couple of days for all of us. How much for a room?”

Lizzie’s jaw dropped. “Are you serious? You can’t be serious.”

Renic rubbed the back of his neck. “We’re clearly not getting all of this sorted out standing in the hallway. Let’s take a break and pick it up again later.”

“You’ve said more than enough already.” Lizzie choked on indignation and had to clear her throat. “You’re not staying here.”

He looked confused. “Why not?”

“You can’t stay here.” A tiny bit of panic made her voice squeak. She didn’t want him here.

“Are you saying there’s no rooms available?”

“No.” She gave him a hard stare. “I’m saying there’s no room available foryou. You can go to the Budget Inn down the street, back to the airport, or straight to hell. I don’t care, but you’re not staying here. Now get out.”

Renic’s mouth dropped open, and he seemed on the verge of saying something, but he clicked his mouth shut. He looked at Della, then Lizzie, then turned and left without another word.

Lizzie rubbed Della’s back while she watched Renic pull out of the driveway. When she was sure he was gone, she gave Della a pat. “Come on. I’ll help you finish those last two rooms.”

Della pulled away from her and nodded. Her eyes were bloodshot, and her nose was running. “He’s not wrong. The fanswillmiss me. At least at first. I hadn’t thought of it like that. I’m a selfish asshole.”

“No, you’re not. Not usually.” Lizzie picked up the cleaning bucket and handed the mop to Della. “You’re just having a moment. Everyone does, sooner or later.”

“You haven’t.” Della sniffed. “You always have your ducks together.”

Lizzie snorted a laugh. “Oh, I definitely had a moment. I got a divorce and bought an inn. All you’ve done so far is have a weekend away. I’d say you’ve got a little ways to go before you catch up with me andmymoment. Not only were my ducks not in a row, they were swimming in someone else’s pond.”

Della’s watery giggle made Lizzie feel better.

They started up the stairs with the cleaning supplies in hand.

“I can’t believe you kicked him out,” Della said.

“He deserved it.”

“He said a lot of the same things you said just this morning,” Della said. “The whole letting the crew down and all that. It’s like you two had a meeting or there was a memo or something.”

Lizzie felt a hot spot of unease in her chest. After all this time, she hated to admit she had anything in common with Jackson Renic. But she’d seen the look in his eyes and heard the passion in his voice, and she knew it came from genuine concern for Della. Her anger toward him softened, just a little.

“As your oldest and wisest sister, it’s my job to say stuff like that to you. If anyone’s going to lecture you it’s going to be me, not Darth Renic.”

Chapter Six

Renic pulled into the cracked parking lot of the decrepit, centuries-old Budget Inn and swore out loud. There were a million reasons why Della needed to get back to work, both for her sake and his, but listing them wasn’t going to work. He’d scored a small victory with the last tweet he read out, going by the reaction it generated. But it wasn’t enough.

The only way to get Della back on track was to keep the conversation going, and he couldn’t do that if Lizzie wouldn’t even let him in the house.

He drummed his fingers on the steering wheel and tried to think of a solution. The chances of casually running into Della seemed remote at best, and she wasn’t answering the phone or his texts.

The Budget Inn sign flickered to life, casting a garish orange glow onto his knuckles. He should go in and get a room, but one look at the filthy door to the lobby kept his butt in the car.

Maybe he could convince Lizzie to help. There’d been amoment of agreement in her eyes. She’d nodded her head ever so slightly when he’d brought up Della’s crew.

For a few seconds, it felt like it used to when they talked through band issues together. Lizzie helped him navigate the shark-infested waters of music public relations, while he helped her steer her sisters in the right direction. Some of those talks went on a lot longer than they should have. She’d been married at the time, but damn, if she hadn’t been, it would have been a lot of fun to see how far they could have taken things.

But now…

Crap.

---