Page 81 of Whisper Of Attraction (Whisper Lake 3)

CHAPTER 24

“Iknew it!” Jess pointed at Brynn with her knitting needle.

“Shh.” Both Brynn and Ali admonished their friend.

Silence was more than just the golden rule in knitting club, it was the platinum rule. Brynn was a new member of the Needlepoint Mafia but even she knew that. Tonight was the first chance she’d gotten to talk with her friends since her emotional rollercoaster of a night two weeks earlier. She’d given them the CliffsNotes version over text but this was the first face-to-face they’d had. Ali had been busy with work and family, Jess had been busy with work and the wedding, and she’d been busy with work and her mother.

Shea had insisted on staying for a couple of weeks to make sure that Brynn was okay. She’d left four hours and twenty-seven minutes ago. Not that she was counting, or anything. Brynn loved her mother, but her relationship with her was definitely better in long-distance form.

Jess lowered her volume but not her enthusiasm. “I knew that there was something about him!”

No one could argue that Jess had said that from the beginning.

“So your dad hired him?” Ali spoke so quietly that Brynn had to resort to lip reading.

“Sort of.” She’d learned the art of whisper-talking when Ryder was a baby and went through a phase where he’d wake up anytime he heard her voice. “He had it put in his WITSEC agreement.”

Jess looked all too pleased with herself that she’d been the one to know there was something not adding up with him. “So the restoration of the theater was just a cover?”

Brynn nodded as she cast on.

“But his work was beautiful.” Ali whispered. “Did someone else come in and do that?”

“No. He really did learn that from one of his stepdads, Duke.”

He’d told her about Duke the first night that he was in town. Ten weeks had passed since that fateful night, but it felt more like a lifetime.

“One of his stepdads?” Nothing got by Jess. “How many does have?”

“Eight,” Brynn mouthed.

“So if the woodworking is just a cover, why is he still in Whisper Lake?” Jess asked harshly.

“For Izzy.” Brynn’s heart squeezed thinking about him leaving before the holidays. “He promised her they could stay so she could finish the semester.”

“Aww,” Ali said wistfully.

“No awwing,” Jess snapped, prompting a few dirty looks from the women around them. She lowered her voice. “He doesn’t get an ‘aww.’”

“Why not? I think it’s sweet that he’s staying for Izzy. I know Ricky’s happy that she gets to stay till the end of the semester. And, yes, he should’ve come clean about who he really was, but he was here to do a job. But, did he lie about anything else?”

Did he?Brynn realized that was the million-dollar question. She didn’t know how to trust him. After everything she’d been through with her father and Max, she already had issues in that department. Even if it wasn’t done in the same spirit of premeditated deceit, it didn’t change the fact that he represented himself as something he wasn’t. And she just wasn’t sure she could get past that.

“You’re taking his side?” Jess said with disgust.

Ali looked between her friends. “I’m not taking his side, just playing devil’s advocate.”

“Exactly.” Jess nodded. “You’re advocating for the devil.”

“He’s not the devil.” Brynn defended him.

“Wow, he’s even got you doing it.” Jess shook her head to indicate that Brynn and Ali were hopeless.

“Have you talked to him? I mean, since everything happened.”

“No.” Brynn had been so overwhelmed that she’d told him not to talk to her and that she needed time. He’d frustratingly respected her wishes.

Even when he moved out of the apartment he’d left her a sweet note explaining that he’d be staying in town until the end of the semester for Izzy. He said that he knew she needed space and time to think and so he was giving her that. He said he’d be there if and when she was ready to talk.

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