Page 73 of Moonlit Temptation
I watch her walk away, her red-soled heels clicking on the pavement. My heart pounds inside my chest, the anger and exasperation swelling into a wave that I can barely contain.
I'm not in a celebratory mood any longer, my sister successfully squashing that with her little temper tantrum. I never even got a chance to ask her what Nana Jo left her.
It's just as well. I bet Cora can find out without either of us having to talk to Lizzie though.
Tomorrow, I'll ask her. Tonight, all I want to do is go back home and dive back into my binge-watch of my new favorite MC show.
As I turn to walk away, I notice a man standing on the corner, staring at me intently. He's tall and broad-shouldered, with sandy blond hair and piercing blue eyes. Something about him sends a shiver down my spine.
I can feel his gaze on me, like a predator sizing up its prey. My instinct is to turn and walk away, but a part of me is just angry enough that I do something rash.
I turn around, and walk toward him. I don't make it more than three steps, before he pushes off the light post and briskly walks down the street, away from me.
33
SILAS
My mind isheavy as I trudge up the steps to Ma's house. The smell of her making dinner smacks me in the face, and my mouth literally waters.
Damn near every window in her house is thrown open wide, the faux wooden blinds inside rattling as the wind whips through from the meadow behind it.
Two minutes ago, I was dreaming of an easy but delicious dinner. But one whiff of sage and rosemary grilled chicken, and I've forgotten all about pizza.
Now, all I'm thinking about is how I can convince my mother to let us join her for dinner without asking outright. It's this game we play sometimes, where she acts like we're doing her a favor by eating dinner together.
I reach for the screen door handle when her voice whips through the air and freezes my hand. “I'm out here.”
I jerk my gaze to the left, where Ma sits in her favorite chair, reading a book.
“Oh, hey, Ma. Where's Hunter?” I take a few steps toward her, scanning the yard for the familiar dark mop of hair.
“He's inside with the nanny. They're making dinner,” she says without lifting her eyes from her book.
I stop in my tracks and stare at her. “What do you mean the nanny is with Hunter? What nanny?”
She flips a page and rocks her chair slightly. “The one I hired.”
I blow out a breath and drag a hand down my face, tipping my ball cap up a bit. “Ma. We talked about this, yeah? You can't just hire someone. I have to meet them first.”
“You did.” She still isn't looking at me, like my imminent freak-out isn't noteworthy enough to stop reading her romance book.
I feel my face scrunch up in confusion. “What? When?”
She looks at me finally. “You gave her a ride from the garage the other day.”
I shake my head, my mouth pinching into a frown. “What? I didn't—” I stop myself mid-sentence, remembering exactly who was on the back of my bike that day. My muscles lock down, tension rolling down my back. “You hired her to nanny Hunter?”
Ma only nods, her eyes narrowing like she's unimpressed with my tone of voice. But I'm almost too far down the rabbit hole of shit to notice. Almost.
I narrow my gaze right back at her, scanning her face for any cracks in her armor. Does she know what happened between us?
Not that anything did happen. Not really. I took her out on my bike, then I took her home. That's it.
But I suddenly have an irrational fear that she does know how fucked up inside I was about the whole thing.
“Why?” I drag the word out, my jaw clenching tight enough to hurt.
“She's Josephine Carter's granddaughter.” She says it so simply, like that explains everything.
