Chapter 10
Quinn had given Colby an earpiece to wear so he could listen, although the transmit function was disabled. The Foxworth man had started to explain why, but Colby shook his head.
“I get it. I’m liable to explode if I have to listen to her for long.”
Quinn nodded in approval. Colby settled the tiny device in his ear just in time to hear Grace’s voice.
“Who are you?” Bless his girl, she was playing it perfectly.
“I’m your new neighbor,” Ali said brightly. “I just moved in next door a couple of weeks ago. And this is my dog, Cutter. I thought you should meet, so he knows you’re friends. I have a puppy at home too, but he hasn’t quite learned how to behave yet.”
He thought he heard the sound of movement, as if the dog were walking across the hard floor. Toward Grace, if he had to guess.
“He’s pretty,” Grace said, and he could tell from her voice she meant that sincerely.
“And he’s very sweet. Go ahead and pet him,” Ali said, then added with the same sort of obsequiousness he’d heard so many use with Liz, “Assuming it’s all right with your mom.”
“Mother?”
Colby saw Quinn’s glance. “She always calls her ‘mother.’ She told me that one of her friends said ‘mommy’ was for a mother you loved.”
Hayley’s head snapped around. She covered the small mic that came around in front of her mouth. “She put that together on her own?”
He nodded. “I never said anything about it. I try never to say anything bad about Liz in front of her.” His mouth twisted. “Probably for my own sake as much as Grace’s.”
“Wise decision,” Quinn said. “Cuts down on the ‘He told Grace this or that’ claims, if and when it comes to that.”
“Exactly.”
“That,” Hayley said as she uncovered the mic again, “is one smart girl.”
Colby only nodded.
“Could I come over and play with him sometimes?” Grace asked. “If it’s all right with my mother?”
“Of course you could,” Ali said. “What a lovely idea.”
“Why on earth,” Liz asked, “would you want to have her over there bothering you?”
There was a second-long pause during which Colby guessed Ali had shifted to look at Liz. It also gave him that time to rein in the surge of anger at his ex’s dismissive words about the child he so loved. Her child, who she clearly did not love. Not like she should, anyway.
“You have raised a wonderful daughter, Ms. Hollen,” Ali said, somehow managing to give Liz the credit, which Colby knew would go over well. “I’d be delighted for her to come over any time to play with the dogs, since I work from home anyway.”
“What’s your work?” Liz asked.
“I’m an interior designer,” Ali said.
They’d talked about that, and how even though she hated the title, it was more likely to impress Liz. And it would also make her reaction to that ridiculous painting more believable, he thought now.
“And I know Cutter would love it,” Ali added. “She’d be totally safe, with him around.”
“He would…protect her?”
“He would protect her against any threat,” Ali said.
Colby saw Hayley nod approvingly, and gathered they must have discussed that exact response. Judging by her satisfied expression, that they’d chosen it to include Liz herself, although Liz would never interpret it that way. The only threat she ever saw was him.
“So I can go?” Grace asked.
She sounded as if she were holding her breath, waiting for an answer that would determine…everything. She was handling this so well, as if she understood exactly what was going on. How on earth had ordinary him managed to father the most brilliant seven-year-old in the world?
“I think that would be all right. As long as you don’t make a nuisance of yourself. And tell Irene where you are.” A pause, then an explanation. “Irene is my housekeeper and child minder.”
Colby heard a tiny sound he was certain was Grace suppressing a squeal of delight.
“She knows not to act too happy,” he said at Quinn’s look. The Foxworth man gave a short shake of his head, and Colby saw that his jaw was tight.
“I’ll make sure she knows when Grace comes to visit, Ms. Hollen,” Ali said.
“I think,” Liz Hollen said slowly, “you should call me Liz.”
Colby sat up straight.
“Damn,” he said under his breath. Hayley turned her head to look at him. “She’s got her,” he explained. “She doesn’t give first-name rights to anyone she hasn’t decided she can trust.”
He got to his feet then, because he had to. He could feel it swirling inside him again, that feeling of hope. He was pacing when Liz started what he’d figured would be coming.
“It’s only fair to warn you, Ali,” Liz said, “Grace’s father is a good-for-nothing slacker who thinks he still has rights, and he may come looking for her.”
There was a soft whuff it took him a second to recognize as coming from Cutter. To his surprise Grace said nothing, so there was a brief silence before Ali said, “Oh, dear.”
“If he does while she’s there, just call me and I’ll handle it.”
“What if you’re not home?”
“I’ll still see to it. I have people.”
“Well, that’s a relief, that you have it handled.”
“Ask if she has a photo of him,” Hayley said quickly into the mic, and Ali did so. Colby wasn’t sure what that was for, but he was sure there was a reason.
“Here,” Liz said. “Be on the lookout.”
“His driver’s license?” Ali asked. Liz had a copy of his DL? How had she managed that?
“I snuck a photo of it one time when he was here to visit Grace. I thought I might need it one day.”
Always planning ahead, that was Liz.
“Does he still look like that?”
Colby blinked at that, wondering why she’d asked when she knew perfectly well he didn’t. Well, not much.
Liz let out a rather unladylike snort. “Hardly. He’s much…scruffier now. I held him to a certain standard, and he was quite handsome then, but he quickly reverted to type once we separated.”
Colby rubbed a hand over his stubbled chin, but resisted shoving his hair back again. She just never stopped, never passed up a chance to slam him, even to, in essence, a total stranger.
A stranger who’s helping you for no reason other than kindness and liking Grace.
A stranger who had gotten past Liz’s considerable walls in less than an hour. Speaking of brilliant females…
He heard a sigh that he knew had to be Ali because Liz would never betray that much emotion. “I hate it when men do that. Appear to be one thing, or pretend, but turn out to be something else altogether.”
Instinctively Colby winced, even knowing those words weren’t an accusation of him, but part of the plan.
“Exactly,” Liz said, with a firm sort of approval. And then she turned to Grace—he could tell by the change in her tone to an irritated sharpness—and began to instruct her.
“You may visit, if and when Ali says it’s all right. You may pet the dog, but I don’t want you coming home dirty or muddy or covered in dog hair, do you understand?”
Grace’s tone was sour. “How about if I don’t—”
He heard that small whuff of sound again, and his girl stopped abruptly. That had to have been Cutter. There was a sound of movement before Liz repeated her demand.
“Do you understand?”
“Yes, Mother.”
Quinn looked at Colby. “What do you think she was about to say?”
“Probably ‘how about if I don’t ever come back,’” Colby said. “Which would have made Liz beyond angry.”
“Then that’s what Cutter sensed. And stopped.” Colby looked at him curiously. “Just like before, he could tell whatever Grace was about to say would likely set Liz off. Don’t ask me how, he just knows when things are about to go sideways.”
He was still looking doubtfully at the obviously tough, experienced man who was saying something that seemed ridiculous about a dog, when Hayley spoke into the mic.
“Go ahead with our plan, Ali. Just make sure you bow down first.”
Then he heard Ali speak again. “I have an idea, Grace. You know that big window on the side of my house?” There was a pause, and he guessed Grace must have nodded because Ali went on.
“How about if I put a big blue piece of paper in the corner, maybe with your name on it, whenever it’s okay for you to come over. ”
“That would work.”
He could hear the excited undertone Grace was trying to suppress. He doubted Liz would; she never paid that much attention.
“You must always, always check with your mother or Irene first,” Ali cautioned, and he gathered that was the bowing part.
He was a little amazed at how thoroughly Hayley in particular had grasped exactly what kind of woman Liz was, and what she would require in the way of sucking up.
But then, Foxworth had dealt with several people of an even higher echelon than the Hollens.
Ali went on, and there was a lighter, almost teasing note in her voice now. “And if I put a red paper in that spot, please come over as soon as you can, because Cutter really needs someone to play with.”
Grace couldn’t smother her gleeful squeak at that, but to his relief Liz didn’t react or call a halt to the whole thing.
“I’ll have a friend from school visiting for a while,” Ali added, “and poor Cutter may feel neglected. So if he really, really needs to play, he may come looking for you.”
Colby went still. Had they worked that out, too? He looked at Quinn. “Is that a way to get her out of there if necessary? You send the dog over?”
Quinn nodded. “And if we do, he won’t leave without her.”
This dog of theirs was starting to sound like some Special Ops guy or something. Maybe he was, maybe he’d been a military or police dog or something. He was still boggling over that idea when he realized that Ali was saying goodbye.
“See you soon, Grace.”
“Okay.” His little girl was making a valiant effort to hide her excitement. It was something he knew all too well.
“That sounded pretty uninterested,” Hayley said with a glance over at him as she straightened up from her intent, monitoring position.
“She has to hide anything she really likes or wants. If her mother finds out she’ll use it against her.”
“Well, we were convinced before, but doubly so now,” Quinn practically growled.
Colby looked back at Hayley. “I’m guessing you’re the ‘friend from school’ she mentioned?”
“Yes. So Ms. Hollen won’t be surprised to see another person here.”
Ali came in through the back door, Cutter at her side. Automatically Colby got to his feet. The redhead bent to stroke Cutter’s head.
“You are such a good dog,” she crooned. “And so smart!”
She straightened up to look at the Foxworths, who were smiling at their clever pet. Or fellow operative. Probably both.
Then she walked into the room, shifting her gaze to Colby.
“And I don’t ever use this word, but your ex,” she said with a sour twist of her mouth and an eye roll, “is a bitch.”
He couldn’t help it—he let out a snort of laughter.
“I know, you warned me,” Ali said, “but holy cow, she’s…”
She waved her hand as if there were no way to describe the woman she’d just left. Colby couldn’t argue with that, so he merely nodded.
“And you,” Hayley said, coming over to take the earrings Ali removed, reminding him to pull out the earpiece they’d given him, “handled that perfectly. You got more than we’d hoped. So now that we have the groundwork laid, we have to plan what’s next.”
She sounded so confident it filled Colby with hope all over again. And he couldn’t stop himself from taking that half step between them and giving Ali a heartfelt hug.
“Thank you,” he said, his voice more than a little hoarse.
“Grace is a treasure. Thank you for trusting me to be a part of this.”
He no longer had any doubt that slicing up his arm on that window was the best thing that could have happened.