Chapter 30
30
Sloane
The sun’s already up, but Davis is still sleeping as I sneak out of bed.
That man.
He would be so easy to fall for.
If I let myself.
Bad, bad idea, Sloane .
And that’s why I’m creeping through the pool house, pulling on clothes and hoping to not wake him after I once again completely passed out on him as soon as he gave me a single orgasm.
At least I got him naked too this time.
And not for him.
For me.
I like naked Davis, even if I’m disappointed his penis isn’t tattooed.
Which I should not think about.
Ever again.
What I need to think about is getting out and finding a treasure.
Checking in with Tillie Jean to see if she’s found us a fake minister and what else I need to do to plan my own pretend wedding.
Figure out how to not fall completely head over heels for my pretend fiancé.
But first—food.
Sex and treasure hunts and finding crime scenes and battling raccoons and arguing with family and planning a fake wedding makes a woman hungry.
Who would’ve guessed?
I spot Giselle parked on a pool chair just outside the pool house, so after a long, relieved breath that she didn’t actually quit, I hit the code Sarah gave me on the keypad, wincing with every beep, and stick my head out of the door.
“Morning,” I whisper to her.
She gives me a head-to-toe look-over, then smirks. “You forgot the good part.”
“Do you think it’ll be okay if I have some of the food in the kitchenette? I’ll replace it.”
“Manbun still sleeping?”
“He was thirty seconds ago.”
“Then no. You can’t have food in the pool house. Go on inside. Ms. Ryder brought her cinnamon rolls, and I’d be fired if you missed them.”
“Why does that answer depend on Davis sleeping?”
She smirks again. “It would give me joy if he missed them.”
“Why don’t you like him?”
The smirk fades into a sigh. “Because he wasn’t built to be a lone wolf, but he insists on being one anyway, which means that sooner or later, he’ll do something stupid.”
Again?
No one will come right out and say it, but in the past few days, I’ve gotten the impression that Davis has done something stupid before.
I would’ve had to be voluntarily clueless to have missed it.
“You care about him, but he frustrates you.”
“I care about my clients and they care about him, and he frustrates all of us. The thing about ghosts—they haunt you until you fully let them go. That man’s lying to himself if he thinks he’s let go of his ghosts. And he’s the only one who doesn’t see it.” She blows out a breath. “Go on inside. Nobody will care what you’re wearing. Ms. Wilson and Ms. Remington are making eggs and bacon and spoiling the kids too.”
Ms. Remington .
Oh my god.
Davis’s mother is here?
Giselle cocks a brow at me.
“I’m glad you didn’t quit,” I tell her.
She grunts, then makes a face that tells me I have about three seconds to get my ass inside the house before she has to tell me twice, and she won’t enjoy telling me twice.
So I dash across the deck around the pool and head inside.
Beck’s feeding Francie, Ava’s not-quite-one-year-old sister, at a table near the back door as I slip inside. He grins at me. “Hey, you woke up! We weren’t sure that would happen. When Sarah’s parents stay with us, they sleep for hours. They say it’s the bed.”
Every adult in the dining room, living room, and kitchen peers around whatever they need to peer around to look at him.
“I’m just glad he married someone who knows where babies come from,” an older woman murmurs to a second older woman while a third snickers.
He winks at me.
The man might be funny, but I don’t think he’s stupid. And I don’t know how, but he doesn’t look tired at all.
He should. He was up at least as late as the rest of us, but he’s bright-eyed and radiating with energy.
“You want some cinnamon rolls?” he asks me. “My mom made them. They’re famous. And better than Grady Rock’s cinnamon rolls. Ask anyone except for the Rocks. And anyone from all of Shipwreck and Copper Valley when the Rocks aren’t around. Actually, maybe only talk about it when we’re in Copper Valley. Oh, hey, this is my mom, Michelle, and Levi and Tripp’s mom, Donna, and Davis’s mom, Alice.”
I say a soft hi , and the next thing I know, the three older women are shoving me into a chair with a plate of scrambled eggs, bacon, cinnamon rolls, and a side bowl of fruit salad in front of me.
Giselle appears with a cup of coffee that she couldn’t have had time to make in the thirty seconds since I walked in here, then disappears again.
While I sit here with three of the four women who gave birth to Copper Valley’s most famous residents.
Okay then.
Not weird at all.
“It’s so good to meet you, Sloane,” the one with Levi and Tripp Wilson’s eyes says. Donna. Beck said her name is Donna. “Ingrid told me you helped Hudson out when he stuck pirate coins up his nose. That boy. I’m so glad he finally grew out of the things-in-noses stage.”
“We all are,” I reply.
“And I hear you’re—” Michelle Ryder starts, only to be interrupted by her two-year-old granddaughter.
“ Sooooooooaaaaaaaaannnnnnneee!!! ” Ava barrels into the dining room and dives at me. “You have sucka?”
I catch her and pull her into my lap, fully aware of why I’m her favorite nurse.
I told Doc I’d only work with him if he started stocking better suckers for when we have to give the kids shots.
“I have a strawberry,” I tell her as I pick one up off my plate.
She makes a face at me. “Dat not a sucka.”
“Hey, Ava, how about you let Sloane eat something?” Beck says. “You know how you get hungry? She gets hungry too. But she hasn’t had two bananas and an orange and applesauce and four eggs and six pieces of bacon and two cinnamon rolls yet. She hasn’t even had one . Of anything.”
“Was that your breakfast or hers?” I ask Beck.
“Hers,” Sarah supplies.
“We had to take out a loan to feed him when he was a teenager,” Michelle Ryder says.
Beck stares at her, clearly horrified. “I paid you back.”
I don’t actually know if they’re joking, so I do my best to suppress a smile until the other two moms crack up.
“Sucka?” Ava asks me again.
I try again with the next piece of fruit on my plate. “I have a blackberry.”
Her frown gets frownier.
“Did I hear you like mushrooms?” I ask her.
One minute, she’s mad that I’m offering her blackberries, and the next, she’s vibrating with what I’m assuming is unrestrained joy. “ Mush-ooms! ”
Beck winces. “Ava?—”
“Don’t worry, I saved you from your own incompetence,” a new voice says.
But still a familiar voice.
Weirdly familiar.
I look around, and it takes me twice to spot the woman lurking in a chair in the corner.
Slender.
Brown eyes.
Serious face.
Brown hair in a bun.
Good thing I haven’t eaten anything yet, or I’d be choking.
“You brought mushrooms?” Beck whispers reverently.
“Don’t mistake me not being here often for me being ignorant.”
“You’re Vanessa?” I’m speaking in the same reverent tone.
“All my life,” she replies. “Nice to meet you in person when I’m not trying to run over our mutual ex.”
“ Vanessa ,” Alice Remington says. There’s no mistaking her because she’s also slender and has her hair tied up in a bun.
“She’s joking,” Beck says.
Alice sighs. “I would love to believe that, but I know her a little too well.”
“ Mush-ooms! ” Ava yells.
“Eat,” Vanessa says to me. “Long day ahead of you.”
“Don’t say anything funny, okay? I don’t want to have to Heimlich myself.”
“I know the Heimlich,” another man says. “Beck, you know you have a shipping crate full of mushrooms on your driveway?”
I register Tripp Wilson strolling into the dining room at the same time the deck door slides open.
Davis steps inside, looks around, and his eyes soften when they meet mine.
Like he’s saying you didn’t leave .
Like he’s glad I’m here.
Like he wants to try what we did last night again, even if I don’t really care how fast he came.
I kinda owed that one to him.
Also, I would’ve left him a note, but I made a fatal mistake with that plan when I stopped to talk to Giselle first.
“Hi, uggy,” Ava says to Davis.
“Hey, bottomless pit,” he replies to her as Beck sighs.
Sarah pokes her head out of the kitchen again. “Did my daughter just call you ugly?”
“Yeah, but she’s right. I make an ugly panda.”
Sarah winces like that makes sense.
“She wishes I was in her favorite cartoon show,” Davis tells me.
“Mush-ooms?” Ava says in my lap.
Michelle Ryder rises and holds out a hand to her. “Here, sweetheart, Grandma will take you to find the mushrooms. And clean them. If we have to. Which we probably will, because Vanessa might not have cavorted with your daddy and his friends when they were younger, but she still has the same sense of humor that fits in with this crowd.”
“Gamma, what cavabornded?”
“Cavorted is what you’re going to do one day with all of your cousins, and you’re going to have the time of your life, and hopefully give your daddy a heart attack or two that he very much deserves.”
Ava stares at her for a minute. “Mush-ooms.”
“Exactly, sweetie. Let’s go find the mushrooms.”
While Ava dashes off with Beck’s mom, Davis’s gaze swings to his sister, and if I’m not mistaken, that’s some oh shit creeping into his expression.
And are his cheeks turning pink?
What the hell is that about?
She folds her arms. “So you know I know.”
“Know what?” Alice asks.
“Who told?” he asks.
“Know what ?” Alice repeats.
I’d second that question, but I’m not sure I want to attract any more attention.
I eat a bite of eggs instead, wary of the fact that any of these people might say something hilariously funny at any moment, though probably not this moment.
Vanessa keeps staring at Davis. “My dear twin brother found bones and an unexploded mortar ball in that old cabin he’s staying next to, and he wasn’t going to tell us.”
Tripp Wilson takes the last empty seat at the table. “I can’t believe I’m about to say this, but I think I’d prefer popcorn to cinnamon rolls.”
“Popcorn is delicious,” I whisper to him before shoving another large bite of eggs into my mouth.
He grins at me.
“Don’t flip your friends off in your head,” Alice says to Davis.
“And don’t hide crime scenes from the authorities,” Vanessa adds.
Davis rolls his eyes.
Davis.
The man of no expression.
I bite into a cinnamon roll to hide a smile, and oh my god .
Everyone turns to look at me now.
Probably because I’m moaning like I’m coming over a cinnamon roll.
But holy crap. Beck’s not kidding. This is better than Grady’s. And I will never repeat that out loud so long as I live in Shipwreck.
Also, it suddenly occurs to me that I’m meeting my pretend fiancé’s whole family while demonstrating that I can make porn star noises.
What the fuck ever.
If they’re prudes, they can fucking get over it too.
“It’s good,” I say with my mouth full.
“Legendary,” Tripp agrees.
“She told me I could only have seven,” Beck says. “It’s not fair.”
“Honey, where’s Lila?” Tripp’s mom asks. “I thought she was coming too.”
“I’m here.” Lila, the redheaded owner of the Fireballs, also strolls into the room. Unlike Tripp, it appears she stopped in the kitchen first, because she’s holding a plate of food. “Had some weird texts from my uncle.”
“He broke into the museum last night and when Sloane caught him, she broke his rib with a water bottle,” Davis says.
Vanessa stares at him.
He pops half a grin.
And that’s when I realize everyone else is now staring at me.
But once again, I realize I don’t actually care what they think of me.
And the guilt? The shame over hurting someone?
Nowhere to be seen.
Huh.
I’ve apparently hit my limits with bullshit this week.
Or maybe I’m very chill after hard, man-induced-orgasm sleep.
I shrug at all of them. “He wasn’t supposed to be there, and I’m getting very tired of people invading my safe spaces.”
“He says he’s going on an extended trip somewhere in Asia and we shouldn’t worry if we don’t hear from him for five years,” Lila says.
“Do you believe him?” Tripp asks her. “He’s actually leaving? Leaving leaving? He won’t randomly be sitting in my office when I walk in the door or jump out of the shower when I walk into the bathroom?”
“I actually think he’s leaving. He said he’s retiring from retiring, and that it doesn’t mean he’s going back.”
Tripp turns to me. “You like the Fireballs? We can get you tickets. For life. Pick your seat.”
“Told you so,” Davis says to me.
“You don’t get to told you so anyone this morning,” Vanessa replies.
He rolls his eyes again.
But he’s smiling.
Davis.
Full smiling.
So this is what he looks like when he’s fully in his element. With the people who love him. The people he feels safe with.
My eyes burn. With happiness for him? Jealousy that he gets to have an awesome family?
Whatever’s prompting me to feel emotional about this, the biggest thought in my head is that he looks good.
Right.
Happy.
“What’s with the hat?” Vanessa asks, nodding at the beanie he’s wearing again.
“Like it,” he replies. “Any food left? I’m hungry.”
“Crime scene, Davis.”
“It’s at least a hundred years old,” I say. “When the murderer is clearly already dead too, justice can wait a few more days so that we can get all of the justice and I can get back to my life.”
“Exactly that,” Davis agrees.
He takes the seat Michelle Ryder just left, which leaves him sitting next to me.
And that makes my heart pitter-patter.
“Fruit?” I ask him, pushing my bowl closer to him.
“Thank you.”
“My pleasure. I worked very hard to make all of breakfast this morning.”
His eyes meet mine again, and his take on an amused glow. “Sleep well?”
“Clearly, if this is how I’m behaving while meeting new people.”
“New family ,” his mom says. “Was I going to be invited to this wedding? Or was this going to be another thing that I found out about from your annual Christmas letter?”
“You send Christmas letters?” I ask him.
Alice snorts. “No, he doesn’t, which makes how I find out about these things even worse.”
“I send the Christmas letter detailing all of his exploits,” Vanessa says. “And if I don’t know, I make it up. Like whatever happened to his hair. I’m thinking he had a mishap when he tried to take up juggling.”
I blink at her, then begin to smile. “He started with flaming batons?”
“You know it. Men and their egos. Eat . So we can find this fu—dging treasure.”
“I brought my see-in-the-dark glasses that you got me for my birthday,” Alice says.
“Mom. You’re not going.”
Tripp grins again and pulls Lila into his lap. “She should go. We should all go.”
“Who are you, and what did you do with the guy who used to tell us no to everything we wanted to do on the bus?” Beck asks.
Francie shouts in agreement.
Or possibly she’s shouting for more food.
She’s been in to see Doc too, but only once. The round of colds hasn’t hit her yet. Lucky duck.
“Request came through to shut down the preserve for a Fireballs promotional photo shoot,” Tripp tells Davis. “No one else will be there. You should let your mom go treasure hunting too if you want to go. It’s as safe as hunting treasure can be.”
Oh no, this is bad. Bad bad. They’re taking pictures in the preserve today? “The Fireballs are doing a promotional photo shoot at the preserve?” I ask.
Davis shakes his head. “Cover story to get it closed.”
I don’t ask when he asked Tripp for help.
I slept like the dead last night.
Again.
For obvious reasons.
“Also, Lila and I are coming on the treasure hunt,” Tripp says.
“Ingrid says she and Levi are on their way too,” Sarah reports. “And Aspen knows a lot of cuss words. In case anyone needed to know that about her.”
“What about Ellie?” Mrs. Wilson says. “And Wyatt. Wyatt’s military smart. You should get him out here too.”
“Someone say my name?” a woman calls from the front of the house, then a door slams.
“I get bwekfast!” a new little voice yells. “Gamma wolls! Gamma wolls!”
I tense.
And then a hand squeezes my thigh, and my shoulders drop.
Ellie doesn’t hate me.
Patrick is the dick.
And I think Davis would fight anyone who tried to say otherwise.
“Thank you,” I whisper to him.
“Don’t thank me yet. I’m stealing your cinnamon rolls.”
I blink at my plate, and then at him.
My second cinnamon roll is gone.
He grins.
Full-on grins.
“Pretend, my ass,” Lila murmurs to Tripp loudly enough for me to hear.
“ Aaassssssss! ” Francie yells.
“Wasn’t me,” Davis says.
“Or me,” Beck says. “Sarah, I didn’t teach her that word.”
“You have the best family,” I whisper to Davis.
“I know.”
“Do they know you know?”
“Yes.”
“Good. This deserves recognition.”
He squeezes my thigh again, and then chaos erupts.
Good chaos.
The kind of chaos that comes in a house full of people who have been friends forever and their mothers and their spouses and their kids.
And for just a little while, I let myself pretend that this is real.
That I belong here for real.
Even when Davis and I go our separate ways after the fake wedding, after we find the treasure, after everything’s back to normal—I still get to see these people sometimes.
And that—on top of having a really good found family of my own with the Rocks—will have to be enough.