“At least I don’t have to do anything, right?”Vanessa’s smiling, and she looks relieved.
“You’re off the hook, it seems,” Ronan says.“The paperwork just needs these two.”
“And you don’t think it’ll cost us more?”Vanessa asks.
Ronan shrugs.“Let’s hope not.”
“This is Trish calling.”Vanessa points at her phone.“She’s picking Trina up for me later.I better go check with her and make sure she doesn’t need anything else.”She ducks out.
“So that went well, I thought,” Murray says.“She seemed to buy it.”
Natalie slugs him on his meaty shoulder.“You were amazing.Who would’ve guessed?”
“You told me exactly what to say,” Ronan says.“You made me practice.”He’s half-glaring at Natalie.She may be annoyingly controlling, but at least she’s always thorough.
“The problem with lying, the way you get caught, is you don’t work out the details.”She bobs her head.“And now we have an excuse for you to be here, mucking around, and you can slap some wood up over our pristine tack room so she thinks you’re doing stuff there.”
“As if she ever just traipses out here,” I say.“It was a near thing, getting her to even get on Teagan.She’ll be even less likely to pop out here after that.”
“Who knows?Maybe she liked it so much she’ll come back often.It’s baby steps with this,” Natalie says.“Now, let’s run over to the cottage so we can make sure we’re all on the same page.The guys will be here in an hour, right?”
Murray nods.“You said Vanessa was leaving to do some kind of certification or something?Because the demolition’s going to be loud and obvious.”
“She’ll be gone,” Natalie says.“It’s fine.”She’s smiling.“And all the hours Samantha and I have spent sorting through all the trash in that place in the middle of the night will finally be worth it.”She shudders.“That rat that ran across my shoe.”
“It was a mother,” I say.“And you made me dispose of its babies.”I shake my head.“You’re the real villain.”
“They can’t live in Trish’s new place.”
I can’t help smiling.“Vanessa won’t complain about living with her, but I’m sure that fixing up the old cottage for her to have her own place will be an amazing surprise.No one wants their ex-mother-in-law living with them, no matter how great she is.They both need their own space, and we’re finally going to give it to them.”
Some lies, like this one, are the good kind.
“Umm, hello?”It’s Richard, poking his head through the front door of the shabby little cottage we’re in the process of gutting.
“Hey,” Natalie says.“What on earth is the future Duke of Devonshire doing here?”She winks.
He acts like no jokes were made.I suppose for him, that’s just a reference to a fact.“Uh, well, I came by to drop off a big bag of feed that was shipped to my barn.Aodhán says it’s for Drew—that he just got home, but he said you’d want this.”
“You two are super cute.”Natalie glances from Richard to me and then back to Richard.“And...I’m going to go.”She jabs her thumb over her shoulder.“And let you flirt without the big, bad ex staring over your shoulders.”She’s biting her lip as she jogs down the path.
Richard scratches the side of his face.“I left the feed bag in what I hope was the feed room back at the barn.”He blinks.“I hope that’s okay.”
I smile.“Of course it is.”
Right then, a jackhammer kicks on in the back room where they’re destroying some really hideous olive green tile.
“You know, we could go,” I say.“They don’t really need us for this part.”
Richard sighs, relieved.“Then can you go get lunch?”
I laugh.“As long as we’re close.Ronan may have questions for me.”
“The big muscled guy?”Richard’s eyes narrow.“Tell him to call Natalie.”
I laugh again.“Will do.”
We haven’t gone to lunch in Lismore very often.There aren’t a lot of places, and Richard isn’t typically a fan of the type of establishment that can survive in a town this small.I convince him that the curry at Thairish is good, or at least, passable, and he spends most of the meal mocking me for my claim.
