47. Chapter 47
Go fuck yourself.
That was it.
No hysterical tears, no profession of love, no slap in the face. No begging Graham to stay. He stared at the door, waiting for the punch line.
She let him off easy, he knew. Jase, on the other hand.
Graham dragged his unopened suitcase next door to his brother’s room. Jase answered wearing boxers and a smile that immediately faded.
“Expecting the maid?” Graham asked.
“Asshole.”
Cologne or aftershave hung in the humidity from Jase’s shower. Graham was going to start in with the pitch he practiced in the car when—keen for an excuse to delay—he noticed both beds were fully made, as if they hadn’t been slept in.
“You work fast. Go home with someone from the bar?”
Jase glanced at the beds then pushed two fingers into Graham’s chest. “Cut the shit. Where the fuck have you been?”
“Ouch, take it easy.” Graham rubbed the bruise Jase left behind. “With Helen.”
“You said a few hours, man. A few hours. And you show your face now at”—Jase looked behind him at the alarm clock—“eleven in the morning?”
“You don’t need to be pissed. Everything is okay, I promise you.”
“How is any of this okay?”
“Dad wanted me to go.”
Jase swiped the air in front of Graham’s face. “Don’t start that shit again.”
“If he didn’t, why would he send Helen his bottle of Pappy for us to drink last night?”
Jase stopped putting on his shirt.
“Yeah, I thought you’d be fucking speechless,” Graham jabbed.
“Not the Pappy 23 he was saving?”
“The same. The bottle’s in the car. Go have yourself a sniff.”
Jase shook his head, pulling on a T-shirt with a torn collar. “You’re still an asshole. Why even have you bring Lindsey?”
“Who knows? It’s Dad we’re talking about. He wants to put us through the wringer to earn the money. How do you explain the bourbon if he didn’t want me to go there?”
“He probably figured your dumb ass would do it no matter what.”
“Whatever. The point is, I went, it happened, and it’s done. Now Helen’s downstairs—”
Jase did a double take. “She’s here?”
“Of course she’s here. Lindsey already left. That’s what I’m trying to tell you. Helen’s going to finish the trip with us.”
“Come again?”
“We just got back together, and we need time to figure it out. She has to come. I’m not missing this chance, and I think this is what Dad wanted.”
“Shut up—go back. Did you say Lindsey left?”
“What else was she going to do?” Graham stepped out of his brother’s way as Jase forced his legs into a pair of worn jeans. “What’s wrong?”
“You’re a fucking idiot, that’s what.”
“I already talked to her, and it went surprisingly well.”
“That’s why you’re a fucking idiot. Where’d she go?”
Graham was confused by the question.
“Where did Lindsey go?”
“Bus station.”
“When? Did she tell you how she’s getting there?”
“There’s a shuttle. Am I missing something? What’s the problem?”
“The problem is, this trip was written for three people: me, you, and Lindsey. Not me, you, and Helen. What do you suppose Whitlock’s going to say when he sees the woman in the pictures is not who she’s supposed to be?”
“Well.” Graham hadn’t considered this, and it took a while to roll around his brain. “Should it matter?”
“Are you willing to risk six million bucks to find out?”
Graham ruffled the damp curls on the back of his head and cursed between his teeth.
At the will reading he’d been so confounded by the mere mention of millions he couldn’t remember Whitlock saying anything specific about Lindsey, other than his dad intending for her to be on this trip.
Did that mean she was required to finish, or the wild dogs of Australia came into sudden wealth?
If Dad knew I’d get back with Helen, he had to know Lindsey would leave.
Unless that was part of it too—ensuring the greatest misery before coughing up his fortune.
“Shit.”
“Yeah. I’m not.”
“I’ll call Whitlock and talk to Helen.”
“You’d just better hope I can find her and get her to come back after what you did.”
Graham’s phone buzzed. He was afraid to look at Helen’s text.
So…how did it go?
Graham swallowed hard. He couldn’t lose her—not when they were finally getting a second chance.
But the one thing that could ruin all things was on her way to a bus station in a cream-colored sundress.