“You’re a terrible liar then.”
“Maybe because I don’t lie regularly.”
“We’re all human. We’re all fallible. We all lie.” I think about the last two years and try not to get upset. “Most people lie through their teeth.”
“Well, aren’t you just sanguine?” she says, chuckling.
“Ooh, what is that, your word of the day?”
“I have a very prolific vocabulary, thank you very much.”
“I would hope so, seeing as you’re a ghostwriter.”
“Yeah. Well…” She looks at her watch and seems to back away. “I should get going because the writing group ishappening, and I know your grandma really likes me to partake in those.”
“I think I’ll join you,” I say, standing up.
She blinks. “What do you mean?”
“I mean, I think I’d like to join you. I’m done with gardening for the day.”
“Why do you garden so much?” she asks, an inquisitive expression on her face. “That’s really something that would be nice to get an answer to, because that’s kind of the reason I thought you were the gardener.”
“Maybe the answer is a simple one,” I say softly as I watch her gather her stuff together.
“And what’s that simple answer, then?”
“Maybe I just like gardening, huh?”
“Yeah. I suppose you run a multi-billion-dollar company, and you just decided to come to Whisper Cove to garden your days away.”
“Maybe I did.”
“I mean, what was the celebration about anyway?” she says so casually that I would think she didn’t really care about the answer, except for the way she’s looking at me slyly under her lashes. There’s something going on here, and I can’t put my finger on it.
“Let me askyousomething, Gina.”
“Yeah?”
“If the guy you were dating had asked you to marry him—if he hadn’t turned out to be a dog—what would you have said?”
“I—huh?” She blinks at the change of subject. “What do you mean, what would I have said?”
“Would you have gone through with it?”
“No. Of course not.”
“Interesting.”
“Why are you even asking me that?”
“I mean, you seem like a relatively normal, very attractive, sexy lady. You seem fun and like you’ve got a good sense of humor. And for the life of me, I can’t understand why you were with someone like that. He very obviously didn’t respect you or care about you.”
“What is this, a psychotherapy session that I never signed up for?” She rolls her eyes.
“No. I’m just curious.”
“Why do you care?”
