Page 63 of Whisper Of Attraction (Whisper Lake 3)

“International Baccalaureate.” Again, she said it as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. “And Brynn said—”

“Ms. Daniels,” he corrected her.

She lifted her arms, palms facing forward. “I tried that, she asked me to please not call her that because it made her feel old.”

He grinned, thinking of Brynn saying that. Everything that woman did made him smile.

“Anyways, when I told Brynn,” she emphasized, “that I left Mercy Prep and was planning on enrolling in Whisper Lake tomorrow, she said that she could take me to the registrar’s office and speed up the process.”

“That’s nice of her, but we can’t stay.”

“Why not?” she demanded. “You said that you’re not going to be done with the theater for a couple more months.”

He obviously hadn’t told his sister the real reason he was here. The fewer people that knew it was a cover, the better.

“And I love it here!” she exclaimed.

“You said that you were going to love it at Mercy Prep.”

“No, I didn’t.” She shook her head. “I said that I wanted to go because of their academic program. I never said that I would love it. And it wouldn’t have counted if I did because I’d never been there. I’m here and I love it.”

“You got here two seconds ago.”

“I know. Don’t you believe in love at first sight?”

Not before meeting Brynn, but now…now he wasn’t sure.

His phone buzzed and he pulled it out and saw that it was Seth Sloan. “I have to take this.”

He started to walk back out, but Izzy beat him to the punch. “It’s okay. I’ll go. I want to talk to Jess about her salon. Did you know that she owns the Mane Attraction?”

He did, but he wasn’t sure how his sister knew that. He doubted she could find that out on Google. “How did you…?”

“I told her I loved her hair, and she said that she owned a salon called The Mane Attraction. I asked her why it didn’t have a fairytale name and she said that that’s what it was named when she bought it, but she was thinking about expanding so that it also had a barber shop and she wants to call it Beauty and the Beast. She’s so cool.” Izzy said in one breath before shutting the door and practically skipping down the steps.

And that speed of talking was how she’d managed to fit so much in in the less than five minutes she’d been there before he’d seen her.

Axel lifted the phone to his ear, not sure how to tell his boss how badly he’d fucked things up. “Sloan, I need to—”

“I know things have gotten personal and that Izzy is there.”

Well, that was easy.

He watched as his sister bopped across the deck and before she even made it halfway, the sliding glass door opened and Brynn and Jess joined her with huge smiles on their faces. It was so odd to see two of his worlds collide, but what was even more odd was just how not-strange it felt.

Too bad it was over.

“I’m going to be packed and ready to go as soon as you can get a replace—”

“Nothing about your assignment has changed on our end.”

“I slept with Brynn,” he said bluntly just so there was no confusion. “And my sister is here.”

“This is an owl job. Eyes only. There’s no imminent threat. We are monitoring all communication and the web and there’s been no searches for Brynn. Nothing to raise any flags that anyone knows who she is.”

“But I slept with Brynn,” he repeated.

“This isn’t The Bodyguard and you’re not Kevin Costner.” Seth joked. “This is an observe and report job. Technically, Brynn isn’t even our client. And do you think you’re the only guy that’s blurred those lines? You’re not. Dax and Billy, they both had the same issue.”

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