“Are you dating him?” he asks in an accusatory tone.
“I’m not sure that is any of your business.”
“You work for me. That makes it my business.”
“I work for you like five more days.”
“He’s a dick. I think he’s trying to ruin my career.”
“Is that why you tried to take his eye out with a football?”
“It was a mistake.”
“You stink at lying.”
“You two seem pretty close all of a sudden.”
“Is this really what we should be discussing right now?”
“It’s all I want to talk about.”
“Well, I don’t.”
I turn to walk away, and he gently grabs my wrist.
“Where are you going? We’re not done talking.”
“I’m doing something that you’ve taught me recently. I’m ending a discussion without giving a rats ass if the other person was finished talking or not.”
Chapter Twenty-Five
COOP
“What are you doing?”
A pregnant woman holding two shopping bags approaches me. She looks very much like the woman I’ve seen in photos on Owens’s bedroom wall. This must be her sister Carla.
“Just fixing a broken light,” I assure her.
“You look more like you’re breaking in the place.”
“It does look a little suspicious doesn’t it.” I chuckle nervously.
“You’re Cooper Barnes, I take it?”
“How did you know?” I grin. Hoping that my boyish charm will help melt the layer of ice coated around every word she says to me. I’m not sure this woman’s heard anything good about me.
“Everyone in the city knows who you are. What they don’t know is that you’re also a handyman or maybe a cat burglar.”
“Fixing things is one of my many hidden talents.”
She gives me no more than a cursory once over.
“You’re a lot hotter in person than you are on TV.”
“Thanks … I think.”
“Does Ursula know that you’re out here?”
