Reluctantly, Reilly shook it, casting a death glare at her brother.
“It’s wonderful to finally meet you,” Leah said with a smile. “Stone’s told me so much about you.”
“Is that right?” Reilly pounced on that opening immediately, using her most eager tone. “What did he say?”
As expected, Leah looked at Stone for help.
She wasn’t getting it. Stone stood back, watching the two of them as one might watch a lion approaching a gazelle.
Reilly liked to think of herself as the lion in this scenario.
“You got any beer?” Reilly asked her brother.
“What?”
“Beer? You know. To drink while I get acquainted with your …friend.”
Stone frowned. “No. I don’t.”
“Hmm.” Reilly looked at Leah. “He’s not big on house guests.” She looked back at Stone. “Mom’s got some up at the house. Why don’t you go on up there and grab a couple? I’ll entertain your … friend … while you do.”
She could tell her brother wanted to argue, but she cocked an eyebrow and gave him a look that told him she expected full obedience. It rarely worked on anyone she knew, but she’d been perfecting it over the years, so…
Whaddya know. It worked this time.
“I’ll be back in a minute.”
“Take your time,” Reilly told him. “We’ve got a lot to talk about. Don’t we, Leah?”
She got tremendous glee from the confused and possibly terrified expression that flashed on Leah’s face.
Thirty-Nine
Stone wanted to take the opportunity torun far and fast.
It was bad enough he’d spent the past half hour listening to Leah while she attempted—unsuccessfully, he should note—to lure him back to the Double J. She’d gone so far as to offer him his old job back, with a few perks thrown in. Unfortunately, one of those perks was her because her offer included a wedding in the future. According to Leah, she knew it was only a matter of time before he came around, and she’d taken the inquiry from Zane as his cry for help.
The really sad thing was that she’d laid it all out like a business plan—a map of the future designed for profitability.
“She’s fuckin’ nuts,” he muttered as he stomped his way up to his parents’ house.
And now the nut job was locked in the barn with Reilly. He wasn’t sure who he felt sorry for the most. Reilly was a handful, and if he knew his sister, she was going to tell Leah exactly what she thought. The only problem was Stone didn’t know what was rattling around in that brain of hers. Reilly’d been pleasant enough, but underneath that polite facade, he’d seen the heart of a T-rex gearing up to chomp down on its prey.
If lucky, he’d return to find Reilly cleaning her teeth, using Leah’s bones as toothpicks.
Okay, maybe that was a morbid visual, but Leah Johnson was the last person Stone wanted to see. Ever. She could take her proposition on back to Houston and shove it where the sun doesn’t shine.
He was again thinking about his sister cleaning her T-rex teeth when he opened the door and stepped into his mother’s kitchen. He abruptly stopped when he heard Nico’s voice coming from deeper inside the house.
ThatwasNico’s voice, right? Or maybe Stone was so sleep-deprived that he was hearing things.
The front door opened and closed. Footsteps sounded, and his mother appeared a moment later. Her expression was not what he expected.
“Hey,” he greeted. “Everything okay?”
“You tell me.” Her eyes shifted to the window over the sink. “Looks like you’ve got company.”
“It’s not what you think,” he assured her.
