Page 136 of This Heart Of Mine (Chicago Stars 5)

His eyebrows shot up and his voice grew as soft as an assassin’s footsteps. “No, Molly, he didn’t say that. What he said was ‘Get some help, man!’ “

She winced.

“Now what do you suppose he meant?”

“What was it he said again?” she croaked.

“Exactly what did you tell him?”

She fell back on the Calebow kids’ technique. “Why do you think I told him something? There are lots of people here who could have said something to him—Troy, Amy, Charlotte Long. It’s not fair, Kevin. Every time something happens around here, you blame me.”

“And why do you think that might be?”

“I have no idea.”

He leaned down, braced both his hands on her knees, and brought his face inches from hers. “Because I’ve got your number. And I’ve got all day.”

“Yes, well, I don’t.” She licked her lips and studied his earlobe, perfect just like the rest of him, except for a small red tooth mark she was fairly sure she’d put there. “Who fixed breakfast this morning?”

“I did.” He spoke softly, but the pressure on her knees didn’t ease. He definitely wasn’t letting her up. “Then Amy came in and helped me. Are you done stalling?”

“No… yes—I don’t know!” She tried to move her legs, but they weren’t going anywhere. “I didn’t want you to sell the campground, that’s all.”

“Tell me something I don’t know.”

“Eddie Dillard is a fool.”

“I know that, too.” He stood up, but he didn’t back away. “What else have you got?”

She tried to stand herself so she could let him have it, but she was pinned in by his body. It made her so agitated she wanted to scream. “If you know that, how could you have done this in the first place? How could you have stood there and let him talk about painting the cottages brown? About tearing down this cottage—the cottage you’re standing in right now!—and then turning the B&B into a bait shop?”

“He could only do those things if I sold the campground to him.”

“If you—” She whipped her legs around him and jumped up. “What are you saying? Omigod, Kevin, what do you mean?”

“First I want to hear about the tuna.”

She gulped. The moment she’d conceived her plan, she’d known she’d have to tell him the truth. She’d just hoped it wouldn’t be quite so soon. “All right.” She backed away a few steps. “Yesterday I bought some fish at the market, and last night I put them in the lake, and then I woke up Eddie and took him to see them.”

A pause. “And you told him what exactly?”

She made eye contact with his elbow and talked as fast as she could. “That an underground chemical dump was leaking into the lake and killing all the fish.”

“An underground chemical dump?”

“Uh-huh.”

“An underground chemical dump!”

She took another quick step backward. “Could we talk about something else?”

Oh, jeez, that made his eyes flash fourteen different shades of mad. “Eddie didn’t happen to notice that some of those fish shouldn’t have been in a freshwater lake?”

“It was dark, and I didn’t let him have a really good look.” Another quick step backward.

Countered by a quick step forward from him. “And how did you explain away my trying to sell him a fishing camp on a contaminated lake?”

Her nerves snapped. “Stop looking at me like that!”

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