“Okay.” I eyed my rearview mirror, making sure we were not being followed. “Why are we running from your house?”
“I...need a break. I don’t feel like being surrounded by men today.”
“Ooh. The honeymoon is over. Let the games begin!”
“It’s not a game, Keely. It’s marriage.” She waved a hand. “We just had a fight.”
I tried to throw something out there, a random problem, but she wasn’t taking the bait. I knew there was more going on than just a regular fight between her and Mac, but I didn’t dig. She could sense something going on with me, too, and I wasn’t ready to share. So being neutral for each other felt good.
“Answer one question,” I said, taking the conversation in a different direction. “Do we hate him or not?”
“Not.” She turned to face me. “Who’s Cashel Kelly?”
Shit! Just his name made me anxious. I lost the grip I had on the wheel for a second and it swerved. Mari glanced at the mirror, like she thought maybe someone had been following us.
“Cash,” I said underneath my breath. “Almost everyone calls him Cash. And Stone told you about him.”
“Not exactly. He was fishing for information the night we had dinner.”
We had dinner at her husband’s restaurant after she got back from Italy. It was a little strained between us, just because of the situation between her and Harrison, but it felt good being together again. Scott had been following me that day, though. He’d watched me walk into the restaurant. So when the waiter told Mari that Scott wanted to see her, I left. She didn’t need to be involved in my mess.
I nodded. “What did you tell him?”
“What could I tell him, Kee? I have no idea what’s going on!”
“Cash Kelly is Harrison’s new boss.” Simple. Easy. In a perfect world.
She waited a few minutes. “And…?”
“He’s not all he seems to be.”
“That seems to be a trend lately. Go on.”
I turned to her and narrowed my eyes, but since we were being neutral, I wanted to switch gears again. “Wait. Where are we going?”
She told me about these little figurines she wanted, but she asked if we could just pass by so she could get the name of the shop. I took a detour, heading in the right direction.
“Are you in love with Cash, Kee?”
It was hell when people truly knew you.
But love?
What I felt for Cash Kelly went past love. It was a gray area.
Maybe because my feelings had finally caught up to me, I threw back my head and exploded with laughter. “If New York was a wild cement forest, I’d be the archer and he’d be my target.”
“I don’t like the picture you painted in my mind. I keep seeing him running away from you, a bullseye on his back.”
I grinned and then changed the subject, choosing to harp on the positive for a while. A few minutes later, I found a spot in front of the store. We had some time. I could run in and get them for her. The shop wasn’t far from Dolce, one of the most popular restaurants in the area. Maybe we could even have lunch.
Mari shook her head. “I only need the name, Kee! Let’s go. We’ll go shopping somewhere else.”
I studied her face. “Why is your face pale? You have bubble sweat over your lip, and it’s colder than a polar bear’s oonie outside. Did something happen to you here?”
She bit her lip, fiddling with her purse. “Yeah. I had some bad vealparmigiana. Just awful.”
My bullshit meter exploded. “Liar.” I squeezed her hand but decided we could do lunch another time. “You stay put. Keep the doors locked. I’ll just run in and see if they’re still there. They obviously mean a lot to you.”
