Page 13 of Liar For Hire (For Hire 1)

Declan appeared at her side as she wiped down the counter, and he laid a hand over hers. Goose bumps popped out on her skin. He stood so close and brought his face within inches of hers. She thought she could hear his heart beat.

“Okay?” he whispered.

That’s one thing she could say about Declan. He might have been clueless to what she thought at the beginning, but he never failed to pay attention to her after they were friends.

“Me? What about you? Did we hurt your feelings teasing you?”

He snorted. “I’m not some weak little boy.”

“You know what I mean.”

“I don’t care. Tease me all you want if it entertains you.” He wiggled his eyebrows at her. “I know how to give as much as I get.”

“Yikes.”

He laughed, and she chuckled with him.

His hand chilled hers, and she laced her fingers between his, giving him warmth. They were weird. She knew that, but for the most part she didn’t care. Declan was a part of her life, integrated into it. If they dissolved the business, she had the feeling they would still be close. It has enough.

“Nessa, tell me exactly what the client said to you.”

“We’re back on that?”

“Yes, it’s important.”

She looked at him. “Why, Declan? What makes you so worried about it?”

Chapter 5

Declan drove to the appointment. He had insisted on picking Janessa up, and she didn’t argue. Not that she wasn’t in the mood to argue. After she questioned him about his worries he clammed up. She was so mad she sent him home.

Over the following days leading up to the client meeting, Declan phoned her, but she refused to talk to him. If he was going to be secretive and juvenile, so was she. Of course it meant she was tense, had a headache, and wasn’t in any kind of mood for soothing the client to confirm his business. So be it.

“You’re not speaking to me this morning?” Declan asked. She heard the annoyance in his tone and kept looking out the window rather than at him.

“I said good morning when you picked me up. Did you feel like I should keep saying it? Or maybe you want light conversation on the way there.”

“Never mind.”

Janessa keyed the client’s address into her phone’s GPS and hooked it into the dash holder. Declan glanced at the screen, and his jaw tightened.

“What? You don’t know how to follow GPS? I should have driven.”

“I’m not that ignorant. I have a great sense of direction even without GPS.”

“Excuse me.”

He sighed. “I was just observing that he lives within the state lines.”

“And that’s a problem?”

“No.”

Clearly it was.

“We’re not meeting at his place. He lives on a ranch, by the way. So cool. I wish we were meeting there. He let slip that they’re holding the wedding at the ranch. I don’t suppose we’ll get an invite once our job is done. Anyway, we’re meeting at a restaurant. I think his distant cousin owns the restaurant.”

Declan’s countenance darkened even more.

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