Chapter Fifteen
With a huge bowl of popcorn in her hands, Miley curled her feet up under her on the couch at the same time Luna grabbed the remote.
Midnight lounged on the carpet in front of the fireplace, basking in the glow of the flames.
“What are you in the mood for?” Luna asked.
“Anything that doesn’t include hospitals.”
Luna clicked through the thousands of shows the various streaming stations had on offer. “When was the last time we did this?”
“Right before Christmas. We burned through everything Hallmark filmed in the last two years.”
She laughed. “Maybe next year we should do a bingo card before we start watching.”
“I’m not sure I know what you mean.”
Luna paused on an action movie.
Miley shook her head.
Luna kept clicking. “You know, by trope. Hometown hero returns. Heroine returns to take care of sick grandma. The family business needs the elusive daughter to rescue it.”
“North Pole needs to find Santa and save Christmas.”
“In love with the boss’s daughter,” Luna added.
“Single mom fired before the holiday.” Miley tossed more popcorn in her mouth.
“Stranded in the snow with your ex from high school.”
“The gardener is really a prince.”
“Did we see that one?” Luna asked.
Miley shook her head. “No, but I like the idea.”
Luna reached for the popcorn and kept scrolling. “This one?”
“We saw it.”
“I don’t remember,” Luna said.
“That’s because it was dumb and we both fell asleep.”
“Maybe we should pick a subject and look from there. Action?”
Miley shook her head. “All this rom-com talk has me craving a Disney ending.”
“Why do we do this to ourselves?” Luna asked and at the same time clicked on the romance heading.
“We’re hopeless. We want what isn’t out there.”
“You’re not kidding. This divorce case I’m working with Harper on . . . holy cow. This guy was such a scum ball. He had a two-year-old with the wife, and an eighteen-month-old by the mistress. Both boys.”
Miley wrinkled her nose. “How did he keep the names straight?”
“That’s easy, Russell Junior. Both of them.”
“No.”
“I can’t make that shit up. He has an office here and another in the Bay Area. Two houses but claimed the one with the mistress isn’t his.”
“That should have been easy to find,” Miley said.
“That’s public record, but the money that went into the mistress’s bank account came from a company she was a ‘consultant’ for.” Luna made air quotes with her fingers.
“His company?”
“It was hard to find, but yeah. It was buried in a shadow company.”
“What does that mean for your client?” Miley asked.
“It’s a fifty-fifty state, the wife is entitled to half of the San Francisco house,” Luna explained.
“Why would she want it?”
“She doesn’t. It’s leverage for her to get one hundred percent of their home here, plus alimony, child support, and she’s asking that he pay for her to go back to college.
” Luna smiled. “Judges don’t like it when you hide assets and lie in court.
This guy has money. He’s going to have to part with some of it. ”
“Is this the case you did for free?” Miley asked.
“Yup. When Harper’s boss didn’t find anything on their initial investigation, he advised the client to settle and deal with moving and living on less. Baby daddy owned his company before they got married and convinced the wife she wouldn’t get shit. Harper smelled a rat and called me.”
“Does that mean you’re going to get paid?”
Luna shrugged. “It should mean that Harper gets a raise.”
“Considering Jerry can’t keep a job, she needs it,” Miley pointed out.
Luna had to agree. “It’s a good thing they decided not to have kids. That would be a lot of stress on my sister.”
“The term is DINK. Dual income no kids. Emphasis on dual. He needs to stop dreaming of making it big with a start-up and get a secure job like everyone else.”
By now Luna had stopped scrolling through their movie options. “It sounds like you and Ash have been talking.” Ash had been wary of Jerry from the beginning, and through the years Ash became less tolerant. He didn’t like the fact that Harper supported a grown-ass man capable of doing his part.
“It’s one of the rare things I agree with your brother on.”
“I know. But Harper loves him.”
“Charm and good looks only go so far,” Miley argued.
Luna went back to looking through their movie options.
“Speaking of charm and good looks. How is Nate? You had coffee with him today, right?”
Luna dropped the remote to glare at her roommate.
Miley just laughed.
“This will get you going, so get it out of your system now.”
Miley stopped laughing and leaned forward. “He made a pass at you.”
“No. No!”
“What then?”
Luna took a deep-cleansing breath. “We have to go to Texas a week from Wednesday for this case we’re on.”
Miley slowly started to nod. “Niiice . . . forced proximity. That’s always a good Christmas movie.”
“It’s not Christmas. And the hotel has plenty of rooms. I need to look at the books and he needs to interview people. We probably won’t see each other outside of driving and dinner.”
“Do you need more than that?”
“We work together.”
“Barely. Besides, where else are we supposed to meet men? Bars attract the wrong guys, and dating apps are dead. That leaves work or friends that set you up.”
“Or construction workers and roofers,” Luna suggested. Putting the spotlight onto Miley.
“True.”
“I deliberately suggested next week for Texas so one of us is here when Brian comes in for the roof. You should have plenty of time to flirt with him.”
Miley placed a hand to her chest. “I’ll take one for the team.”
Luna tossed a kernel of popcorn at her.
“Try and distract him after the roof is on, please.” Luna squared herself back to the TV.
“You ruin all my fun.”
Luna settled on a movie and pressed play.
And for an hour and a half watched two fictious neighbors fall for each other while co-parenting a stray dog they both thought was theirs.
Luna unearthed Miley’s snowboard from the garage and set it out onto the driveway for her friend.
The sky had turned a special shade of gray and threatened to release a decent amount of rain before the day was done.
So much for starting the roof before the weekend.
According to Brian, the next window of opportunity was when Luna and Nate were in Texas.
Luna ran from the garage to the house in an attempt to avoid getting soaked but failed.
Miley had rolled her suitcase into the mudroom and set her ski boots to the side of that.
“It’s getting cold.”
Miley was all smiles. “It’s snowing at the pass. Fresh powder.”
The alarm chimed and both Luna and Miley turned to the back door.
It was crazy how quickly they became accustomed to a house alarm alerting them to a car coming up the drive.
Miley’s friend Reese drove a double cab long bed truck that she backed up the driveway.
Reese left the engine on and jumped out of the cab.
“I’m glad you’re ready. It’s dumping at the pass; we need to get up there before they close it.” Reese glanced at Luna. “Why aren’t you coming?”
“My roof has holes in it. Next time.”
Luna didn’t dwell on what couldn’t be helped.
Miley shoved everything that needed to stay dry in the back of the cab while Luna and Reese secured the snowboard in the bed of the truck.
“Text when you get up there,” Luna said as Miley jumped into the passenger seat.
“I will.”
Luna ducked out of the rain as soon as Reese put the truck in drive.
Midnight met Luna at the back door with a loud cry.
“What’s the matter?” Luna asked her cat.
Midnight meowed again.
The sound of the wind pushing against the house made the tarp on the roof slap around.
Luna shrugged out of her raincoat and rain boots before scooping up the cat and walking through the house, up the stairs, and into the attic.
The house was chilly, but the attic was freezing.
Midnight struggled to get free and bounced away as soon as her paws hit the floor.
The sound of the tarp was louder, but so far it seemed to be doing its job.
Luna checked out the areas that were problematic and didn’t see anything dripping through.
A gust of wind outside howled through the vents in the attic, and at the same time the lights flickered.
“No, nope, no.” The last place Luna wanted to be in the house if the power went out was in the attic. She headed to the door, calling for her cat. “Midnight. C’mon.”
The cat ducked behind a stack of boxes.
“I’m going to leave you up here,” she warned.
Still nothing.
Luna flicked the light off, then back on. “C’mon.”
It wouldn’t be the first time Midnight wanted to hang out up there.
“Last warning. I’m closing the door. It’s too cold to leave it open.”
Midnight didn’t so much as meow in response.
The power flickered again.
She gave up, turned off the light, and closed the door.
Eventually Midnight would cry when she wanted to be let out.
Luna headed straight to her office and logged off her computer and closed it down. Even with a battery backup, the last thing she needed was for a power surge to screw up her desktop.
Her phone on her desk buzzed.
The back and side yard cameras were constantly suggesting someone was walking around the house. Even though Ash and Nate had taken into consideration the occasional blowing trees, they didn’t have them set for storms.
Luna snoozed the alarms on the cameras for the next hour. If they didn’t stop going off after that, she’d disarm them until after the storm passed.
No sooner than she set the phone down, it rang.
It was the Lexus dealership.
The one accomplishment the week had finalized was her new car. She’d test driven a Toyota, a Volvo, and the Lexus NX 350 hybrid, and the Lexus won.
“Hello,” she answered.
“Can I speak with Luna Canning?”
“This is her.”
“Hi, Luna, it’s Misha from Lexus. I have some bad news.”
Luna lost her smile. “Oh?”
“We’re not going to be able to get your car here until after this storm. It’s too risky for semis on the pass.”
Her car was coming from a dealership in Spokane, and Luna was supposed to take possession the following day.
As much as she was bummed, she understood. “That makes sense.”
“We’re looking at Tuesday, possibly Wednesday.”
Luna had turned in the rental the day before, knowing she could use Miley’s car over the weekend.
“I have a work trip planned. Why don’t we aim for next Saturday,” she told him.
“Thank you so much for your understanding,” Misha said.
“You can thank me by giving me a full tank of gas upon delivery.”
The salesman laughed. “I’ll see what I can do.”
“I have faith in you,” she teased.
Considering Luna dwindled the car from forty-nine thousand to forty-four, with zero percent financing for the first twelve months and five percent APR after that for four more years, Luna knew she was asking a lot.
“Have a good weekend, Ms. Canning. And safe trip.”
“Thank you, Misha.”
Luna set her phone down and heard Midnight crying from the attic door.
“That didn’t last long.”