Page 22 of Texas Scandal

Tiernan knew women like that. In fact, he’d dated one. Corinne. All sparkle and no substance. “Mothers should be there for their children, offering unconditional love and support.”

“Or be like me and just don’t have kids,” she said.

“Not everyone is cut out to be a parent,” he agreed. “But, somehow, I think you’d be different.”

“How so?” she asked, her eyes widening in shock. “Why wouldn’t I be exactly what my parents taught me to be? Cold and indifferent?”

“Because you’re not built that way,” he said. “For one, you could be living a whole lot more comfortable life but you chose to give it all away.”

“In favor of earning it myself,” she quickly added.

“Which speaks to your character,” he pointed out.

She gave a reluctant-looking nod. “Speaking of family, I can’t help but wonder if Jason’s mother knew my father was married when they had an affair.”

“No doubt, she is grieving the loss of her son, but I still think we should go talk to her and get the lay of the land,” he said.

“Agreed. Do you think we could stop off at my house first?” she asked. “I’d like to get clothes and check out the damage after the law searched my apartment.”

“We can do that,” he said. “Is there a back door, by chance?”

“No. I live in an apartment on top of a UT professor and his wife’s garage,” she said.

“Then, we’ll have to play it straight,” he said. Her expression twisted, so he added, “I’ll do everything I can to protect you from reporters or bloggers. If we’re lucky, they’ll assume you’re not coming back and take off.”

“Sounds almost too good to hope for,” she said.

“It probably is but we’ll charge ahead anyway.” A hoodie would help so she could hide as much of her long russet locks as possible. They could be tucked inside. Sunglasses would shield at least some of her face. “I have a hoodie you can wear that should swallow you whole.”

“That should help hide me,” she said. “What about bottoms? All I have is the skirt I wore yesterday.”

“My ex was about your size,” he said. “She left a few pieces of clothing that I didn’t have time to donate, even though they’ve been sitting here six months.” He stopped short of retracting the offer when he realized how much he didn’t like the visual of her in Corinne’s clothing. “Your undergarments are in the dryer. At least those are yours.” He also didn’t need the image of her silky pink panties stamped in his thoughts, especially when his mind wandered to envisioning her wearing them. The matching silk bra didn’t help matters, either.

“That would be nice,” she said. “I don’t want to wear my interview outfit, and the baggy clothes should help me hide.”

He nodded. “I’ll get your things.” He stood up. “Are you hungry?”

“I could probably eat,” she said. “Ishouldtry to get something down before we head out.” She stood up and then paused. “You know, rather than speak to my father first, I’d like to find Bebe Riker and hear her side of the story. My father is a master manipulator and liar, and I’d like to go in with as many of my ducks in a row as possible.”

“Sure,” he said. “I’ll dig around on the kid’s Instagram and see what I can find out about her.”

“Do you think Prescott already did? Shouldn’t we just ask him?”

“I’d like to stay under the radar with our actions until we find something worth sharing,” he said. “Prescott will definitely do his own investigation with a small army to help. Having you follow the trail might spark something. It’s possible you’ve seen Bebe before hanging around and it just hasn’t clicked yet. The same could be said for Jason. This could be the first time he was coming to you. Maybe being around his mother or seeing some of his things will stir something. You never know.”

“Will you be okay to slack off work today?” she asked. “We have a lot of plans, and it sounds like it’s going to take a good chunk out of your day to follow through on all this. I don’t want to take you away from your livelihood.”

“I’ll figure it out,” he reassured. There was no way he was letting her do this alone if she was willing to accept his help. One person was dead and they had no way to narrow down possible suspects. At this point, everyone they came into contact with had to be treated like a threat.

“If you’re sure,” she said, doing that thing with her head while she studied him.

“Scout’s honor,” he promised.

“Why don’t I believe you were ever a Boy Scout?” she asked.

His response came in the form of a chuckle. He clamped his mouth shut and then walked into his bedroom to grab the clothes. He needed to finish getting dressed, too. After he threw on a shirt and socks, and then located Corinne’s sweatpants, he headed into the living room. “Give me five minutes to feed Loki and let him out before we grab a bite and then take off.”

“It’ll take me that long to get myself together,” she said with a small smile before taking the offerings and heading toward the guest room.

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