Chapter 29
Ali leaned back, stretched, took one final look and closed the file, satisfied.
She’d been worried about this one, since it was for one of her most loyal clients, and she hadn’t been able to really focus on it—or much of anything—since that day a bloodied, desperate Colby Kendrick had tumbled into her life.
But Grace had given her the inspiration for the project—a redoing of the client’s daughter’s bedroom.
Ali had already redone their living room and kitchen, and that they’d come back a third time made them invaluable in her book.
And like Grace, the child, who was a year older, loved to read.
So Ali had taken something Grace had said—that she would love a secret place with her books so she could live in that story world—and designed it, raising the bed to give a cave-like spot beneath it, lined with bookshelves and pillows.
The parents had been a trifle iffy, but the child had practically shrieked with delight when she’d seen the mockup, and that had decided it.
Unlike poor Grace, who had learned so young not to show enthusiasm for anything she truly wanted, because it would guarantee she would never get it.
And if it was for something she already had—like her father—her mother would do her best to take it away.
Ali couldn’t imagine what it must be like, but to see clever Grace fight back however she could was… well, inspiring.
As for her father…
She sighed. Ran a hand over Ziggy’s soft fur. The pup had been snoozing in her lap after a morning spent romping with the big dog who made such an excellent puppy sitter.
She stood up abruptly, feeling the sudden need to move.
Ziggy woke, swiped his tongue over her chin, then made the tiny sound that she had a suspicion meant it was time for a trip outside.
Cutter was on his feet the moment she was.
She looked down into the dark, amber-flecked eyes.
In a movement that was almost automatic now, she reached out and stroked the dark head.
That same, soothing calm seemed to flow through her fingers to her heart.
“If you can teach him to be one quarter as smart as you, I’ll be happy. Not as smart, mind you, because I’d be exhausted just keeping up.”
Cutter’s mouth opened and his tongue lolled out to one side, and he looked for all the world as if he were laughing.
“Hayley and Quinn must miss you like crazy, but I’m so glad you’re here. And so is Grace. We’re going to make her life better, aren’t we?”
Cutter let out a sharp bark, echoed by Ziggy.
“I’m going to take that as two yeses,” she said, laughing herself now.
As she sat watching the two dogs play and admiring her new greenhouse, she instinctively glanced over at the big house now and then, even knowing Grace was still at school.
She’d seen Liz leave at about the right time this morning, so assumed she rather than the child minder had dropped her off on her way to the Hollen offices.
Irene was here, though. She’d seen the woman arrive just as they were leaving.
Good timing. On purpose?
She wouldn’t blame Irene if it was. If she had to work for that woman, she’d avoid direct contact as much as possible.
Although from what Grace had said, her minder was almost as strict as her mother.
Still, she had little choice. Grace had told her there were nanny cams all over the place, watching every move, every step.
She wasn’t supposed to know that of course.
I figured it out when she knew I ripped the new dress she bought me. But I did it in my closet, she shouldn’t have known. So I did something else—not bad, just something she told me not to do, touch the books on the shelves—and she knew that, too.
In fact, now that Ali thought about it, she wondered if perhaps Liz had some of those outdoor “security” cameras aimed at Ali’s house, to watch what happened when Grace was here playing with the dogs.
A chill came over her as a new thought struck her. Would she? Could she?
She pulled out the Foxworth phone. She hesitated, not wanting to hit the red button that indicated everything a red button should, an emergency. Instead she just hit the speed dial for Foxworth headquarters.
Quinn answered on the first ring. “Ali?”
“Yes.”
“Everything all right?”
“As far as I know, but… I just had a crazy thought.” She told him what Grace had said about the nanny cams. Then asked, “How paranoid is she? Enough to maybe…plant cameras in my house, for when Grace is here?”
Quinn didn’t answer her. “Let’s go to video,” he said, then called out, loudly, “Colby! Question.”
It took her a moment to remember how to make the switch to a video call on this phone. As she was doing it, she heard Quinn repeat her question. It was only a moment before she heard Colby’s voice saying grimly, “More than paranoid enough.”
The video opened just as he said it, soon enough for her to see his worried expression.
“There have been a couple of times when she’s been there and I’ve had to leave for a client meeting,” Ali said. “I haven’t seen any sign, but…I wasn’t looking, either.”
“So she’s had opportunity,” Quinn said. Then, decisively, “Well, since she’s already seen Liam as a coworker, it’s a good thing Teague’s freed up now. Ali, you just gained a boyfriend.”
She’d been focused on Colby, which was the only reason she saw him wince at that last word. And crazily, it gave her a little thrill, that he didn’t like even the word let alone the idea that she had a boyfriend. Even a fake one.
“How about a brother,” she said. “I get the feeling Liz would react less to that.”
“Agreed,” came Hayley’s voice the moment before her face appeared next to Quinn’s. “Good idea, Ali. Here, take a look at your new brother. Think you can sell it?”
Quinn backed away and another face came into view, a guy who looked close to her own age, with sandy-blond hair and blue eyes that were a shade lighter than Colby’s darker blue ones.
He was smiling as he said, “Hi, sis.” He was cute, but had that same brisk, businesslike air Quinn did, and she’d guess former military. “Teague Johnson, ma’am,” he amended.
“I liked ‘sis’ better.” He laughed, and she knew they’d do fine.
“We’ll need to work up a story,” Hayley said. “Just in case.”
“Been thinking about that,” Teague said. “Understand Cutter’s undercover as your support animal?”
“Yes,” Ali said.
“Then how about my wife, Laney, found him for you? She’s a groomer, and does a lot of volunteer work for programs like that. That way if she happens to see Cutter being friendly with me, it’ll make sense.”
“Sounds good,” Hayley agreed.
“So I’ll come by to visit and see how things are going with the dog, and in the process do a sweep for bugs and cameras. And show you how to do it, so you can check regularly.”
“That would be great,” Ali said, meaning it.
“All right,” Quinn said. “And in the meantime, Liam can get to work on trying to hack into that nanny cam feed, although with some it’s tricky because it’s completely localized.”
Ali had noticed Colby in the background, and that his jaw was beyond tight. She thought she might know what was bothering him, but didn’t want to bring it up in a crowd, as it were.
The security check was thorough, using some device Teague said their tech guy in St. Louis had developed.
She let out a breath of relief when he pronounced the place clean.
Then he quickly showed her how to use the handheld scanner, and pointed out likely places for someone to hide any devices.
That part made her a little nervous, and she wondered how long it would take her to get that idea out of her head, how easy it would be for someone to spy like that.
He was as nice, and clearly as dedicated as everyone at Foxworth seemed to be.
And when he noticed she was a bit antsy about all this, he entertained her with the story of how Cutter had brought him and his wife together.
She couldn’t help laughing at the tale of the usually fastidious Cutter rolling in every mudhole he could find, requiring a trip to Laney’s grooming shop every other day.
And how everyone else at Foxworth had magically been too busy to go and pick up the mischievous dog when Laney was done with him.
“If he’s got his mind set you belong together, you might as well give in. And by the way,” he said over his shoulder as he headed into her office to check her computer gear for any sign of incursion or spyware, “he’s never been wrong.”
In the time it took him to complete the scans, she worked on convincing herself that all the stuff about Cutter connecting couples who belonged together was just a teasing story they told to put people at ease in stressful situations. She even almost believed it.
The whole time she kept looking next door, warily.
But as it happened, they didn’t have to deal with Liz, only Irene, who noticed him getting ready to leave as she was preparing to go pick up Grace from school.
Knowing it would be reported to Liz, Ali cheerfully dragged him over as if he truly were a reluctant sibling, introduced him as her brother, neatly dropped in that his wife had gotten her the dog sitting politely between them, and that he was just here for a short visit.
“Nicely done,” Teague said with a smile when the woman had gone. “You sure you’ve never done this before?”
“Never.”
He got back into his car, still smiling. “Well, you pulled it off like you’ve been performing all your life.”
“Unless you count a school play once, I’ve never acted at all.”
Except when I told people I was fine, after Josh died. That was the biggest fakery of all time.
As she watched him go, she pondered the memory that had just hit her. She hadn’t thought about those days much at all lately. Well, since Grace had come into her life, actually.
And Colby.
That was the biggest shift. She had to admit it.
She hadn’t denied that from the first she found him attractive.
Even when he’d essentially kidnapped her puppy, and they’d found him worried and bloody back in those trees.
But when the full story had come out, when she’d realized what he’d risked, how much he’d put up with for the sake of the little girl he so loved, it had moved him way beyond just attractive.