“Like he said, I have a good lawyer.”
Donovan sobers, as if it’s just dawned on him that I heard everything he and Cooper said when I was out of it. Leave it to him to be pissed off about being caught acting decent. “You invite chaos wherever you go,” he says, realigning the salt and pepper shakers like he’s trying to cleanse himself of my bad influence. “And I don’t do chaos, Rune.”
After the day I’ve had, this final indignity is too much. “I’m not suggesting that youdome!” I snap. “We just need to work together, to make Ethan happy. That’s it. Get over yourself!”
Too late, I wish I could take the words back. Donovan blushes fire-engine red, the color of the booth we’re sitting in. If Mrs. Grant were a dog, her ears would be pricked—no pun intended. She’s definitely putsomethingon the Facebook page, because through the plate-glass window behind Donovan, I see the members of her seniors’ book club, the Sinning Spinsters (otherwise known as the Sinsters), traipsing down the street,straight for the Grille. And every single one of them is holding their phone.
Damn, damn, damn.
“I—” Donovan stutters, staring at the table. “I didn’t mean—I wasn’t implying?—”
I need to smooth this over, and fast. The very last thing I need is for it to get back to Ethan that his senior data engineer and the graphic designer who’s supposed to be collaborating with him on Smashbox’s prize project are in the midst of a sexual harassment debacle in the middle of the Peach Tree Grille. “Forget it.” I drain my milkshake, preparing to make a quick getaway. “Let’s just go.”
He shakes his head, gaze still fixed on the Formica. “I’m terrible at…people. Obviously. I shouldn’t have said what I did. I mean, yeah, you did knock a cop into the street, get arrested, have your car break down, fall in a puddle in front of the biggest gossips in town, and then get in a car wreck all in one day, but?—”
“Not. Helping.” The Sinsters are getting closer by the moment. I consider faking my death, but that would probably just get plastered all over the Facebook page too.
“Sorry! It’s no excuse, but Cooper gets under my skin. Brings out the worst in me.”
“I see that.” All hope of escape is gone; the Sinsters are assembling outside the door. Might as well ask what I want to know. “Why do you have such a problem with him, anyhow?”
“Because,” he says, dragging his gaze away from the table and meeting my eyes at last. “Officer Asshat is my brother.”
Chapter
Nine
“I’m sorry. Come again?”
Donovan’s jaw sets. “Same mom, different dads. I’m not a fan.”
“Of Cooper? Or his dad?”
“Both.” He scrubs a hand through his hair again. “Either.”
Sapphire Springs issmall.While I was born and raised here, Donovan is a recent arrival, courtesy of the job at Smashbox. He probably would never have moved here otherwise. I’ve never run into him at the Halloween Howl or the Spring Fling or even the damn grocery store. And I can’t imagine he’s out there championing the town’s virtues to the brother he despises…who I’ve also never run into anywhere in town. This makes no sense.
The questions come boiling out before I can stop them. “Did he just move here? Why is he here, anyway? And how come you can’t stand him?”
“Six weeks ago,” Donovan says, ticking off the answers on his fingers. “Damned if I know. And let’s just say Cooper and I are…incompatible.”
I blink at him, realization breaking over me. “You call your brother by his last name?”
“He’s lucky,” Donovan forces out between clenched teeth, “that I call him anything at all.”
There has to be more to this story. I’m dying to know what it is, especially because Cooper was the subject of my premonition this morning and then fate stuck me in a car with Donovan, whereupon I promptly hadanotherpremonition that brought his brother back into my life a second time. Hearing the monster’s voice in my head when Cooper was touching me, then thinking about Julia…what if it’s all connected?
I have nothing but questions. But by the way Donovan’s jaw is locked down tighter than Fort Knox, I doubt I’m going to get answers anytime soon.
I try anyway, leaning forward to ask what happened between them that was so horrible, when the door opens and the Sinsters come barreling in, Hot Yoga Grandma among them. Their eyes lock on me and Donovan like rifle sights. And then, in unison, they chorus, “Hi, Rune.”
I shrink down in my seat, wishing I could disappear. “Hi.”
“We’re just here to discuss our book of the month. Right, Betty?” Louise Fontaine, who’s been Sapphire Springs’ head librarian since I was little, winks at Mrs. Grant over her bifocals.
“Right,” Mrs. Grant says, looking utterly unconvincing as she scoops a copy of Lucy Score’sBy a Threadup from behind the counter. “Down-on-her-luck heroine meets rich but grumpy hero for some spicy workplace sex. Have you read it, Rune?”
Real subtle. I have, in point of fact, readBy a Thread, but I’m not about to discuss it with a bunch of septuagenarians...especially when they seem to intend for me to use it as a how-to manual. How does thishappento me? “Nope. Sorry,” I say, hoping my brusqueness will put an end to this nightmare. But no.
