Page 17 of Trouble Walked In

This hadn’t gone at all as planned. Now what?

He drummed his fingers a few more times, then hit the steering wheel with his fist. “Dammit.”

He needed help with this one.

He needed backup, and a better plan.

He needed to get back in that house.

He swore again, tugged his phone out, and dialed the one person he could count on for things like this.

Two rings later, Morgan answered the phone with a chirpy, “Hey, you two on the way back?”

“No.” He almost growled the answer. “Round one goes to Lizzie.”

“Lizzie. What about Della?” Morgan asked. “What the hell happened?”

He glared at the dirty orange sign. One of the letters had flickered out, so now it read,Budge Inn. “She kicked me out.”

“She kicked you out,” Morgan repeated slowly. “Why?”

He put his head back against the seat and closed his eyes. “Imighthave made her baby sister cry.”

“Damn, Renic. What the hell did you say?”

“I read out the tweets you sent, plus a few more I found on the way up here.”

“None of my tweets should have upset her like that.”

“I added one from a dad, talking about spending time with his girls.”

Morgan made a strangled sound. “Oh. Oh, Renic. You didn’t.” The disapproval in her voice was palpable, even from this distance.

“I know, I know. It was a shitty move. I thought it would make her feel nostalgic.”

“No, you didn’t.” Morgan scoffed. “You thought it would make her feel guilty. You thought you could guilt her back to work. If you’d bothered to ask I would have told you that was the wrong move.”

“Yeah, well,” Renic rubbed his face, “Lizzie won’t let me rent a room at the Belhurst so now I’m sitting in front of a shithole down the street. Pretty sure I’ll catch a disease just walking through the door.”

Morgan snorted a laugh. “I’m sure they have other hotels in that town somewhere.”

“This is closest.”

Morgan paused. “You’re not hoping to just run into Della on the street or something, are you?”

The thought had crossed his mind, but he wasn’t about to admit it. “No. Far as I can tell she hasn’t been out of that house since she came here. If she had, there’d already be people camped out in the driveway.”

“And as it is, you’re the only one laying siege to the castle. Unsuccessfully, I might add.”

The amusement in her tone wasn’t helping the situation.

“Snotty comments aren’t helpful.”

“Okay, so what’s the grand plan to win her back now that you’ve emotionally brutalized the poor girl?”

Renic thought for a moment. He was at his best face-to-face, no question. “I need to get back in that house.”

“Have you considered astral projection?”

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