Page 95 of I Can't Even

This is why it is impossible to be mad at Em. Soph grinned and I threw my arm around her and hugged her.

“Here’s the thing, Em-bolism,” I said.

“That’s just mean,” my baby sis said.

“We have another situation,” I continued, ignoring her frown.

I went on to explain everything that had happened and what we suspected about Courtney and Paisley and Bab’s missing urn.

“Wow,” Em said. “Okay, first we need to distract Paisley. She called Mr. Loren three times while he was in a meeting and now he’s finally on his way over.”

“Oh, shit,” Soph said.

“Exactly.” Em glanced at Dante and Jessie. “Do you two think you could help me with that?”

“Absolutely,” Jessie said.

“I’m in,” Dante agreed.

“Liam, you’re going to have to confront your girlfriend,” Soph said.

“Ex-girlfriend.” I felt compelled to correct her.

“Ex-girlfriend, just so.” Soph nodded. “If she’s friends with Paisley and she took the urn, she is either out for revenge against Jules for ending your relationship or Paisley is paying her.”

Liam’s expression became determined. “We’ll get the urn back. No worries.”

“We?” I asked.

“Yes, we.” Liam closed the shades on the window and reached down for my hand. “Come on, let’s go get Babs.”

“Wait!” Soph opened her purse and took out her keys. “Take my SUV. Your girl—ex-girlfriend might recognize your truck and there isn’t room for the urn on the motorcycle.”

“Good thinking,” Liam said. “Soph, if you are staying here, that makes you ground control for the operation. We’ll call when we have the urn.”

I could hear the others discussing their surprise visit to Paisley. Dante was arguing that he could pose as an architect or an interior designer while Jessie was thinking they should be town employees there to inspect the property lines. Meanwhile, Em was busily tapping on Soph’s phone, muttering something about a much better idea. I didn’t get to hear what they decided as Liam hustled me out of the room to the back door.

He paused to grab a Padres baseball hat from a peg on the wall and shoved my hair into it. Next, he slid a pair of sunglasses on my face and kissed my nose.

“Let’s do this!” He opened the back door and we sprinted around the side of the house to Soph’s car, which was parked on the street.

We slammed into the SUV, Liam fired it up, and we shot out onto the road and away. I didn’t realize I’d been holding my breath until I sucked in a big gulp of air.

“Okay, let’s devise a plan,” I said. “First, we need to figure out where Courtney is. You know where she lives, obviously.”

“She won’t be there...she’s at work,” Liam said.

I gave him a look, you know, the one that says How do you know that? And I had better like the explanation, buster.

“Settle down,” Liam said, correctly interpreting my expression. “We dated long enough that I know her work schedule.”

That made sense even though I desperately wanted to wrestle his phone out of his pocket and delete her from his contacts, along with any social media pictures, texts, emails, or you know evidence that the busty girl had ever been in Liam’s orbit ever. So mature, I know.

“Okay,” I said. I gave myself a mental back slap for sounding so reasonable. “Now we just have to figure out how to get into her house.”

“I have a key,” Liam said.

He turned onto the highway headed north. I waited until he had finished merging with traffic before I spoke. “You have a what?”

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