Chapter 21
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
To Do:
- Buy blackout curtains
- Emergency preparedness meeting
“Can you get that?” Luke called with half a piece of toast hanging out of his mouth. “It’s probably the security guy.”
“Got it.” Claire loaded her plate in the dishwasher and picked her notebook off the table. She stifled a yawn and uncapped her pen. Sawyer had provided some questions for them to ask the technician. In her other hand, she clutched her cell phone, ready to call the security company to confirm the identity of whichever technician showed up. She may have temporarily moved 2,500 miles away, but if it didn’t stop ESA when she went to Paris last year, a simple cross-country trek wasn’t likely to dissuade them either.
She opened the door with a smile, prepared to make excuses for her identity-confirming behavior, but faltered when it swung wide. Rosie and Winston sat at her feet. Rosie, who normally jumped onto the legs of anyone who visited, remained stationary and growled softly.
“Oh—uh, hi,” Claire said, taking in the woman in front of her. She was stunning—easily 5’10”, legs for days, yoga booty shorts and a crop top showing off a toned and tanned body. She was carrying a plate with a raised mound covered in tin foil. Who the hell was this mysterious plate-toting woman? Was this how people in California sold drugs? Or got people to join cults? Or worse, pyramid schemes?
The girl’s thousand-watt smile slid off her face like tree sap when she saw Claire. “Oh. Sorry, I was looking for Luke.”
“He’s—uh—” Claire looked behind her. A choking sound came from the kitchen, then footsteps hurried down the hallway, and Luke appeared. A toast crumb clung to his maroon button-down, and Claire brushed it away.
“What are you doing here?” Luke asked flatly.
Claire jabbed him in the ribs. Being rude to strangers was almost never acceptable, especially when the smell of icing was drifting from whatever they were holding.
“I just—uh—I saw lights on last night and figured you had come back. I just wanted to bring this to you and apologize for…” She paused and stared at Rosie and Winston. “How we left things.”
Claire bristled. What the fuck did that mean? How they left things? Was this one of Luke’s LA girlfriends? She lifted her chin.
And how had she seen lights on? Did she live nearby, or was she actively stalking Luke? Claire drew her shoulders back and stood up straight. She wasn’t generally a jealous person, but she would roundhouse kick a cake-making stalker right off the front stoop if the occasion called for it.
A light clatter in the hallway announced Mindy’s presence. Luke’s jaw clenched.
“Aren’t you going to introduce me?” The girl asked, arching one perfectly manicured eyebrow.
“Claire, this is Olivia. My…” Luke trailed off. His face was screwed up in concentration.
“Ex.” Olivia extended one hand to Claire.
The bottom dropped out of Claire’s stomach. This gorgeous, leggy, ultra in-shape woman was Luke’s ex? And he had settled for a girl who could barely even reach the top shelf wines in the liquor store? Oh, boy.
“Nice to meet you, Olivia,” Claire said as gracefully as she could manage as they clasped hands.
“So nice to meet you,” Olivia said with another smile that didn’t reach her sapphire eyes. Her hand was frigid and bony like a salmon.
Claire pulled her hand back and suppressed the urge to shudder. “Well, it looks like you two have some catching up to do. I’ll be in the living room getting ready for the meeting.” She squeezed Luke’s arm and walked back down the hallway.
Mindy joined her. “You’re going to let them talk?” she hissed. “Did you look at her?”
Claire ducked behind the corner of the living room and craned her ear toward the foyer. “Obviously I’m going to listen,” she said, drawing her finger to her lips. “Shh.”
Mindy ducked down next to her.
“Wow, so you replaced me with two girls? That’s quite a compliment.”
“Why are you really here?” Luke asked gruffly.
“I told you. I felt bad about how we left things. That day can’t be the end of our story.”
Was it Claire’s imagination, or was her voice closer now? Did she let herself into the house? Was she stepping closer to Luke? Over Claire’s dead body.
Luke laughed, but it was a hollow sound. “How we left things?” His voice grew quieter. Claire and Mindy leaned farther into the hallway. “You mean when I asked you to marry me and you said you couldn’t because you wouldn’t leave LA?”
Claire faced Mindy and their mouths both fell open. A hand flew to her chest as hot shockwaves coursed up and down her body. Luke had proposed to someone, and that girl was stupid enough to say no? No wonder he thought proposals were a waste of time and money.
“I was young and stupid,” Olivia said. “I didn’t know what I wanted. But now I know. When I see you here, in the place where we met, and see this scar?—”
Scar ? What scar? Luke only had a handful, and she’d better not be talking about the one on his upper thigh.
“It just feels inevitable. You and me,” Olivia purred.
Claire’s hands clenched into fists at her side. This Booty Bootcamp twat was not going to sink her acrylic claws back into Luke. If Claire could escape a serial killer, she could absolutely headbutt this woman off her property. She straightened up and took a step forward, but Mindy dragged her back into the living room.
“Remember the last time you assaulted a woman?” It had led to a months-long lawsuit that only ended because Claire had saved Wendy’s life.
Claire crossed her arms and pressed her ear toward the hallway again.
“Right,” Luke said. “And I’m sure the timing of this realization has nothing to do with the fact that I was nominated for an Emmy and I’m about to launch the biggest documentary of my career.”
“How dare you?” Olivia sounded indignant, but it felt fake even to Claire. “I came here to apologize. I even made your favorite cake.”
Claire straightened again. Luke didn’t like cake. It was one of the first things he had told her on their first date after her kidnapping. That was why she had served mini pies at his birthday. Either this bitch didn’t know him at all, or she had permanently poisoned him against an entire classification of dessert.
“You’re too late, Olivia,” he said. “I was an idiot when we dated, end of story. You can take your cake and get out.”
“Luke, come on,” she said in a sultry voice. “Don’t pretend like you can’t feel this.”
Rosie barked her full-on danger bark, and Olivia screamed.
“Good girl,” Luke said. “Seriously, you need to leave.”
There was a huff, and the front door slammed. Mindy and Claire rushed deeper into the living room and sat on the couch. Claire picked up her emergency binder and flipped through it to a random page while Mindy grabbed her tablet.
A cabinet door opened in the kitchen, and something heavy landed on the counter. Claire crept down the hallway and peeked around the corner. Luke had a screwdriver in his hand, and he was frowning at one of the cabinets.
“Everything okay?” Claire asked at a barely audible volume. She cringed, bracing for the fallout.
“Can we move the meeting to tonight?” he half growled. “I’m going to fix this and then head in to the studio.”
Oof. Luke hadn’t angry-fixed anything since Thanksgiving when his semi-estranged brother had followed him around, critiquing all of the legal hazards on Luke’s property.
“Of course.” As much as she was dying for more details, she wouldn’t poke Luke with a ten-foot pole right now.
In the living room, she tossed one of Brad’s binders in her purse and left the emergency preparedness one on the coffee table. Luke needed space, that much was clear. There would be time for earthquake safety training later. She had to get ready for their first in-person meeting with Brad anyway. Hopefully there weren’t any natural disasters before the end of the day because they hadn’t even agreed on a secondary meetup location in case the house was compromised.
She ducked back into the living room and gave Mindy a very knowing look. “Min, you want to head out early and see if we can find some coffee before the meeting?”
Even though it was a ruse, she did desperately need the coffee. Every sound the house made had shaken her out of sleep the night before. Thankfully, it had prevented her from sleepwalking. But she definitely wasn’t on her A game this morning, and she needed to be for Brad.
“Sure.” Mindy closed her tablet and picked up her purse. “Let me just grab my shoes.”
Claire hesitantly approached the kitchen again. “You sure you’re okay with us taking the spare car?”
“Yep,” Luke said flatly, not even bothering to turn around.
“Okay, thank you.” She backed out of the room. Yikes. Olivia had really rattled him. Was it cause for concern? She pushed the thought to the back of her mind and focused on the day ahead.
“Bye, babies,” Claire said, bending down to kiss Rosie and Winston on the nose. “Mommy will be back later, and we’ll take a nice walk in our new neighborhood, okay?” And if they happened to find Olivia on their walk, they would chase her into the Pacific Ocean.
Oh, the ocean! They had been in LA for half a day and she still hadn’t put her toes in the sand. That needed to be remedied. If Brad left them any spare time, anyway.
Outside the front door, Claire danced three times on the porch to make sure she had locked it.
“I thought you didn’t do that anymore.” Mindy lowered her sunglasses to stare at her.
“What, the dance?” Claire said, pausing in the middle of a disco point. “I don’t. Well, I haven’t been. But I think the move and the warehouse and all the stress from work is…making things flare up again.”
“Are you sleepwalking again?” Her green eyes burned into Claire’s as they stepped down the concrete steps to the short walkway.
“Only a little,” Claire said. Those two times Luke caught barely even counted. She hadn’t even made it off the property.
“So you are,” Mindy said. Her perfectly shaped eyebrows wrinkled.
“It’s not a big deal. I’m doing my cardio and meditation.” Claire kept her eyes on Luke’s second car, a 2000 Porsche 911. It wouldn’t be great for hauling proposal stuff, but at least a smaller car would be harder for other vehicles to hit.
“Did you talk to Bernice about it?”
Claire waved one hand. “I will when we get back. I have a session on the books. Don’t judge me. By the way, you’re driving.”
“Obviously.” Mindy accepted the keys and slid into the driver’s seat. “By the way, why does Luke keep two cars at a house he doesn’t even live in full time?”
Claire patted the dashboard. “This was his dad’s favorite car. Luke drove it cross-country when he was discharged from the Navy.”
Mindy froze. “And he’s okay with us taking it out into the absolute zoo of LA traffic?”
Claire shrugged.
“He must really love you,” Mindy mused as she buckled her seatbelt.
Claire smiled. “By the way, I’ve been meaning to ask. Does Dr. Goulding try to psychoanalyze you at family dinners?”
Luke and Olivia’s interaction was still buzzing in her mind, but it was time to discreetly question Mindy about her decision to marry Sawyer. In-laws were a key section of their Ready To Marry questionnaire, so Mindy’s response should be telling.
Mindy thought for a moment, then turned the key in the ignition. The engine roared to life, and angry metal music blared from the speaker. “Ugh, let’s find something a little happier, shall we?” She twiddled the dial until she found a song by Big Z.
It felt kind of gross to listen to his music after what they had learned, but apparently it didn’t bother Mindy.
“Sorry, what did you ask?” Mindy asked as she adjusted the rearview mirror. “Does Bernice psychoanalyze me? Probably. But if she does, she at least keeps her opinions to herself. That lasagna recipe you gave me was a huge hit at dinner two weekends ago.”
“Oh good. It’s my—well, it’s Jack’s.” Until nine months ago, she had assumed that her legendary family lasagna recipe had come from a friend of her mother’s, probably because that was what her mom had always told her. As it turned out, it was her father’s signature dish. Alice loathed the man, but let the lasagna live on.
Mindy hummed noncommittally. She wasn’t the biggest fan of Jack either.
“Let me just find a coffee place close to the studio. Ah, here’s one.” Claire pulled up the driving directions and mounted her phone to the built-in holder on the dashboard. “Brad seems like a black coffee kind of guy, don’t you think?”
“Probably. Okay, enough small talk,” Mindy said as they pulled out of the driveway and went west. “What the fuck is happening with Luke and Olivia?”
Claire slapped both hands on the dash and turned to look at Mindy. “I know! He proposed? No wonder he’s such a fucking grump about our business.”
“Right? I was ready to stab that bitch myself. She’s such a gold digger, you could just tell. He totally called her out.”
“I’ve never once heard him mention her name.” Claire crossed her arms and surveyed the palm tree-lined street as though expecting to find the cake-making harlot doing naked jumping jacks on the sidewalk. “What do you think she does for a living?”
“Professional boyfriend stealer?” Mindy guessed, making a left-hand turn at the stop sign.
“If she can afford a house anywhere in Los Angeles, it must be something big.”
“Don’t internet stalk her,” Mindy said, waggling a finger in Claire’s direction. “That won’t help anything.”
“I wasn’t going to,” Claire said, even though she had been reaching for her phone.
“I know you will. We’ll do it together later, after the meeting if Luke’s not back.”
“I have a feeling he won’t be.” Claire sighed. The more stressed out he was, the more deeply he tended to dive into work. “Okay, enough about Olivia. Let’s focus. Today is a super important day. We need to make sure Brad’s not a serial killer, ensure that his feelings for Karen are genuine, and confirm that he hasn’t tried to change anything else last minute.”
“If he has, we’ll figure it out.” Mindy pulled to a stop at a red light.
How many red lights were in this damn town? Would they make it on time for the meeting? Maybe they should skip the coffee run.
“Don’t worry,” Mindy said as she accelerated through the intersection. “We can handle this. Remember the fake event you threw together in twenty-four hours so we could draw out ESA? The girls in the historical society still talk about that event. I think they’re making it a thing again this year.”
“Only because the mayor throat-punched an attempted murderer,” Claire admitted.
“No way. We can do this. Just imagine what we can do with almost three full weeks. We will absolutely kill Brad’s proposal, we’ll make a crapload of money, hire someone amazing to handle things on the West Coast, and save the shelter. Oh, and pay back our gigantic business loan.”
Claire tightened her seatbelt as Mindy careened onto the freeway. Everything was riding on Brad’s proposal. They had no choice but to succeed.