Page 169 of No Headlines Please

I turned to look at her. "He wasn't paying me at all."

She gave me a dubious look. "Are you sure?"

I laughed. "What? Like I wouldn't know?"

But Tessa wasn't laughing. "Maybe you do know, and you don't want to say."

All of this felt just a little insulting – and not only to Maddox. "That's what you think? That I'm not capable of earning money on my own?"

"I know you're capable. But from what I can tell, you haven't held a job for over a year."

I shifted in my seat. "Sure, not a regular job, but I have been doing stuff."

In reality, I'd been working my tail off. Between the writing and the ads, and keeping everything humming, I'd spent the last few months working probably twelve hours a day.

But I so didn't want to elaborate.

Except Tessa refused to let it go. "I'm just saying, there you are, not working, but you have all kinds of money in your bank account?"

Actually, I didn't. The cabin had been perfect for what I'd needed, but it hadn't been cheap. Plus, after Mom "borrowed" that money, I'd had some serious making up to do. After paying off my credit card along with this month's advertising, I had only a few hundred dollars left.

Still, that wasn't the point. I studied Tessa's face. "And how would you know my balance?"

Now she looked uncomfortable. "Well…if you want the truth…Mom told me."

I almost groaned out loud. "Terrific."

Tessa sighed. "And I know what she did – taking a bunch of your money for that trip to Paris. She and I argued about it, you know."

Actually, I didn't know.

I wasn't surprised that Tessa knew about Mom's little Parisian adventure. Hell, everyone knew, thanks to all of those updates on Mom's page. I wasn't even surprised that Tessa knew where the money had come from. I'd gathered that from that one awkward phone call, when Tessa had warned me to secure my account.

But the fact that she and Mom had argued?

Yeah, that was new.

They almost never argued, much less about me.

I was still processing it when Tessa added, "But Mom said you had a lot of money." Once again, her gaze shifted to Maddox. "It just seems a little suspicious, that's all."

Talk about insulting. "How so?"

"Even when I was working for Thatcher-Hale, I never had thousands just sitting there in my bank account." Her voice picked up steam. "And the way Mom talked, you might even have tens of thousands."

I stared. Just who did she think I was?

Next to her, Ryder said, "Hell, let's just make it a million."

Tessa didn't even look. With her eyes trained on me, she said, "I'm serious."

"Me, too," Ryder said. "A million's always better." He looked to Griff. "Am I right?"

Tessa made a sound of exasperation. "Why is nobody taking this seriously?"

But it was Maddox who finally replied, telling her in a stiff, quiet voice, "Maybe it's private."

"Well, that's rich," Tessa said. "What? You think money buys everything, including my sister?"