“Can we stop going around in circles? We need a new approach. We need help. We need?—”
“What are you two doing out here?” Kitty asks from behind us.
That’s what we need—we need Kitty.
Turning around, I mask my irritation with a smile and say, “Enjoying the fresh air. Come join us.”
“Don’t mind if I do,” Kitty says as she walks up to us, now in swishy tracksuit pants and a homemade shirt with an ironed-on picture of a hobby horse on the front. She lets out a low exhale as she sits down next to me and then stretches her legs out toward the street. “So, is this your first time across the pond?”
“No, but it’s our first time in Massachusetts. Don’t know why it took me so long—it’s beautiful here. The air is so…easy to breathe.”
“More beautiful than the English countryside?”
“A close second,” I answer diplomatically.
“I don’t know, the view seems better from where I’m sitting,” Rupert says, his eyes laser-focused on Kitty.
“Well, aren’t we a charmer?” Kitty says. “Too bad your friend Theo doesn’t have the same wit; he might be able to win my niece over.”
“You think?” I ask, feeling some hope. “She doesn’t seem interested.”
“Possibly.” She looks me up and down. “If you play your cards right.” She leans back on one hand and puffs her chest out. “You see, she’s so set on her candy shop right now, she’s notreally thinking of anything else. She doesn’t see the opportunity standing right in front of her.” Sizing me up, she asks, “Are you a murderer?”
“No.”
“Do you plan on murdering at any point in time?”
“Not really my thing,” I answer.
“Are you a swindler?”
“No, I don’t have a need to swindle.”
“Good answer. Are you a cheater?”
“Never cheated a day in my life.”
“Do you plan on cheating at any point in time?”
I shake my head. “No, trying not to follow in my father’s footsteps.”
That piques her interest as she tilts her head to study me once again. “A man with morals. That makes Kitty purr.” She paws at my shoulder.
Eh, could have done without that.
“I like a woman that can purr,” Rupert says, looking oddly eager.
“I bet you do.” She winks at him, and I swear to you, I hear him softly groan.
What the fuck is going on here?
“So, Theodore, what in her profile made you want to marry my niece? Was it the fishing?”
“Uh, no. I don’t fish. Don’t even know how to actually. Not much of an outdoorsman.”
“Really?” she asks. “I thought all Englishmen enjoy a good romp in the countryside.”
“Never said I didn’t enjoy a romp,” I say with a wink.
