Page 75 of While You Were Trending

I grimace. “My inbox is overflowing with unappealing job offers from people who want me for my notoriety.”

He grins. “Do it. Charge them millions, then beyouinstead of what they’re expecting.”

“What do you mean?”

“You’re boring.”

“Excuse me?”

“The world thinks you’re a conniving brat. Being nice is boring comparatively.”

“I’mnotnice.”

“Have you met yourself?” Cricket calls from inside the house. “You’re so nice that you make Santa Claus look like a dick.”

I turn and look through the window into the sitting room, where Cricket’s replacing Dean’s ashes on the mantle above the marble fireplace. “How long have you been there?”

“I just rescued Dean from Pip’s plans to scatter him on Walter’s farm.”

Declan’s still grinning. “You should convince Mabel to let us use Pip on camera. She’s a star,” he calls in to Cricket.

“Absolutely not,” Cricket and I say together.

“We won’t make her look bad.”

I rub my forehead. “Do you know the history of Makepeace?”

“Dean’s grandfather bought it in his early twenties, passed it to his son, who passed it tohisson, who was Dean.”

“And Pip and Dean didn’t have any kids, but Dean’s brother did, and his kids want this land back from Pip.”

“It’s not in a family trust?”

“It is not. Dean’s father bought his brother out of his share after—let’s just call it family drama—and then Dean’s brother had no interest in doing the work, so he didn’t fight for any of it. When Dean died, Pip inherited it all free and clear as his wife, and she’s named Mabel as her sole heir. The only way the Makepeace family gets any of this property back is if they can make a case that Pip’s out of her mind and Mabel’s a bad caretaker. So no. We’re not putting Pip on camera.”

He lowers himself to the bottom step and looks out at the fields while Flow takes a seat so close to him that she’s almost on top of him. “Walk me through how this is the first year you’re harvesting grapes but the fields are in good shape?”

“He’s very dense,” Cricket calls from inside. “I tried explaining it to him and he didn’t get it.”

Declan’s smiling as he shakes his head. “She told me grape fairies kept the fields alive since Dean died.”

“They did,” I confirm.

“Seriously? That’s what you’re giving me? Not filming. Here. Want my phone so you can see for yourself that I’m not recording this either?”

He holds out his phone, and I smile as I notice the case.

The back features a picture of Flow, dolled up and posing with a bow on her head.

He’s a good dog dad.

“No, I don’t want your phone,” I tell him.

Mostly because I don’t want to risk touching him if I take it.

Sometime since I tripped over him last night, I’ve let my brain filter through old memories, colored by the lens of his explanation for why he was a dick.

It was immature and thoughtless, but who am I to judge someone for that?