What the hell? Was the blonde bimbo Selene flirting with my man? I froze in annoyance and then remembered that he wasn’t my man, and I had no idea if she was a bimbo. My word. One hot guy touches me, and I go all killer kitten. Get a grip, Elenore.
It wasn’t like me at all. It had to be the sticky southern air.
“We sure appreciate it. I’ve never had such a fancy fridge, so I didn’t know how to fix it for her. I want my little lady to have safe water to keep her hydrated.” The fingers against my side tightened.
I stared at Reed, holding my breath in the ongoing attempt to seem skinny, not squishy. What in the hell was he doing? Was this his attempt at being Southern? Were we Southern newlyweds? Did I have to use an accent? How the hell could I ask the important questions while maintaining a Southern drawl? I opened my mouth.
Hesitated. My heart pounded against my chest as I panicked.
No, I couldn’t do it.
Fuck it.
I just had to ask my questions while giving nothing away. She might not have been Casey, but I’d still learn something hopefully.
“You have such a pretty home. I’ve loved everything and all the details,” I said as Selene approached the fridge. That didn’t sound Southern at all. How did you sound Southern?
“Thank you. It’s been in the family.” She opened the door to the fridge. “I’ll just pop out the old and stick a new filter in and be out of your way. Oh… That’s weird.”
“Everything okay?” Reed asked as Selene stuck half her body in the fridge. How deep was this thing?
I kicked Reed in the foot and gave him a “help me” look. He brought her here before I had time to come up with a plan. Now he needed to help me with the impromptu interrogation.
He shrugged and shook his head at the fridge as if telling me to “get a move on it, Ms. Reporter.”
Ugh. Men.
Plastic clicked together and Selene gave a short swear under her breath before rejoining us and closing the door. “There you go. Someone removed the old filter but didn’t replace it.”
“That is weird,” I said, glancing at the fridge and kicking Reed in the foot again.
He jerked forward and grinned, squeezing me into his side. “Have you been renting the place for long?”
That’s it? That’s his interrogation-saving question? Things were getting hot and not just from being squeezed in next to a man who could probably bench press me, but also literally hot. We’d been shirt to shirt for a while now and I didn’t want to sweat on him. I tried to slip away, but he held on tightly, his smile growing when I stared at him with my worst outraged expression.
Selene dropped the filter wrapper in the trash at the end of the counter as I desperately thought of a better question to keep her here.
“Casey’s mother used to live here, but she tragically passed.”
“That’s horrible.” I put my hand against my throat, going for Southern sadness.
“Oh, no.” Selene waved her hand between us. “Not in the home or anything. No worries about your stay.”
I liked the topic of discussion but wanted to move to something that might help me. How did a real reporter do that?
“It must have been hard for Casey to lose his mother. Were they close?” Reed asked.
Damn it. How did he come up with that so quickly?
Selene gave a little laugh. Was that flirting? “Yes, but it’s harder to share a wall with your future mother-in-law. You know what I mean? Now we just have Bud here who rents another unit, but he is of no relation. Short-term stays like you two are great. Once Bud moves out, we’ll open his place as well.”
Reed moved his head from my side to around my neck. Maybe he was getting hot, too. “Breathe,” he whispered in my ear.
How did he notice I’d only taken shallow breaths since he’d latched on to me? My phone vibrated right before I hit the midpoint of my freak out.
“Excuse me,” I said, using this as my chance to break away from my captor. Reed removed his arm, but watched me as I walked into the living room to answer Delaney’s call.
“Did you write up a day one rundown yet?” Delaney asked.
