Page 108 of Guilty as Sin
Hunter laughed. “Fair enough.”
Lily said, “One more announcement, and I’m going to climb down off this thing and sell some lingerie. We’ll be having a big event for Memorial Day weekend, introducing the most beautiful new line you’ve ever seen. I hope you’ll come check it out. For the husbands and boyfriends in the room—trust me, you’ll be glad she did.” With that, she accepted Jace’s hand, stepped daintily down onto the chair and then the floor, gave Jace a smile and Paige a hug, and said, “Thanks for coming, sweetie. How are you feeling?”
“Fine,” Paige said. “Close enough,” she amended at Lily’s narrow-eyed look. She turned to Hailey, who still looked shell-shocked, and said, “I’m sorry to have to fool you. I want you to know how much you helped me, even when you didn’t know it. You’re very good at your job.”
“Well, Iwondered,”Hailey said. “I did. But my goodness. Twins. I’d never have guessed, but Ishouldhave guessed. Iknewnone of that was like Lily.”
“The bad hot dog?” Paige suggested. “My clumsiness with the stock?”
Hailey laughed. “Go stand with your sister, hon. The newspaper wants to take pictures.”
So that was all very satisfying. Telling her lieutenant that she’d injured her index finger hadn’t been so much fun, but you couldn’t have everything. He’d sighed and said, “Light duty. Right. There’s such a thing as accident-prone, you know. I guess we’ll have to get you backonthe streets to keep you out of danger.”
It had all been fine, in fact, except that she had a ticket to fly back to San Francisco, and it was for tomorrow morning. Last night, she’d finally asked Jace, “Will you come visit me?” and he’d said, “Yes.” Which made it easier. But not much.
Jace dropped Paige at Lily’s at seven the next morning. He hauled her suitcase—Lily’s suitcase—out of the bed of the ute, heard Tobias’s welcoming bark from the comfy bed inside the house where he was meant to be resting his broken leg, and said, “Goodbye, then.”
He’d offered to take her to the airport. She’d said, “Lily will do it. We need a little time,” and it had felt like a slap to the face.
She climbed down. “You’re coming to visit me, though.”
“Yeah. I am.” He tried to smile, because she looked so sad. “Today, though, I need to bite the bullet and shop. If Tobias and I are ever going to live at home again, I need a bed. Not to mention crockery. I foresee a long walk through a big store. And two trolleys.”
“Flour, too,” she said. “And sugar for your tea.”
“Yeah. Everything.” He put a hand on her face. “No worries, baby. She’ll be right.”
“No. I’m fine.” He gave her a kiss, and she kissed him back, but there was too much finality in it. Like she couldn’t even pretend to believe.
She reached for her suitcase, but he got it first, carried it up the stairs, and set it in front of Lily’s door. “Last time I get to carry something for you,” he said. “I should make it a good one.”
She nodded, opened the door, and went inside without saying anything else, and he climbed back into the ute, breathed in, breathed out, then put it into gear and drove away.
Two hours until her plane left. If he drove to Kalispell now, he’d be filling up that cart when she was boarding. It would be better to be busy.
His phone rang while he was choosing a pillow. Two pillows, actually. He was trying to be optimistic.
For one unguarded moment, his heart leaped, and then he saw the name.
“Mate,” he said to Rafe. “How you goin’?”
“All right,” his brother said. “Other than that last time I heard from you, you were being threatened, and you haven’t answered my last three calls, you wanker. I wasn’t sure if I should call you, call the morgue, or catch the next flight out.”
“Could’ve been the morgue,” Jace said, “but it wasn’t. I’m all good. Some mad woman was after me, yeah, but she’s—well, dunno where she’ll end up. Mental hospital for a few days, anyway. Then we’ll see.”
He heard the sigh. “Mate. When these things happen, we ring our brother.”
“Didn’t ring you every time I went into combat,” Jace pointed out. “And I came back every time, you’ll notice. You don’t actually provide a protective shield outside of the movies, you know.”
“That’s told me,” Rafe said. “So if you’re so all good, why am I hearing that?”
“Hearing what?”
“That’s what I’m asking myself.”
“You know,” Jace said, “I’ve been seeing this twin. She and her sister have what anybody would call an eerie connection. But damned if you’re not nearly as bad.”
“A twin,” Rafe said slowly. “Identical twin?”
