Caught Between a Lie and True Love (Caught Between series Book 1) (14 page)

Her expression had lightened at his words. “Still not seeing it.” She glanced back at the list. “So what will you be doing while I’m slaving away doing all your work?”

“I’ll be out on the campaign trail.”

She made a face and tucked the list into the pocket of her hoodie. “Grandma must hate that.”

“Too bad for her.” The fact that he even knew it was called a hoodie must mean he was learning something about being a parent. Didn’t it? Or was he just grasping at straws? “So do you want to help me campaign?”

“Only if you protect me from Grandma’s hugs.” With a fake shudder, she stepped away from the answering machine and grinned up at him, one of those times that she was totally on board with him whereas usually they were on opposite sides. It was the one thing he could thank Matilda for. “Can I go hang out with Starr?”

He narrowed his eyes. With Hope, there was always a hidden agenda behind her friendliness. “Have you forgotten already that you’re grounded?”

“I had hoped the grounding could start tomorrow and I could have one last day of freedom from parental oppression.”

“You know some pretty big words.”

“Does that mean you’ll give me two days of freedom?”

“No, but tell you what. I’m headed over to Olivia’s to check her eaves troughs and you can come. If we run into Starr, you can keep her company.”

She grunted and turned back to the machine.
Punch, beep, delete. Punch beep, delete
. Matilda had been extra persistent today.

“Do you know what, Brody.”

After four months in his care, she still refused to call him dad. “What?”

“You’re at the top of my list.”

“Of favorite people?”

She didn’t look his way, just gave him a thumbs down.

“I’m your dad, Hope. You’re not supposed to like me. Not at this age, anyway.”

“But wouldn’t it be easier if I liked you just a little? And I might like you if you let me go to back to the Mainland on the next ferry to see my friends.”

Bingo, there it was. He’d thought it odd that she was being nice. “You should have thought of that before you decided to become Picasso.”

She sighed, all drama queen like her mother.

Brody relented. “Come on, Pumpkin. You can help me carry the ladder next door.”

Hope pushed to her feet and followed him through the back porch toward the garage. “I wish you’d stop calling me that.”

“What?”

“Pumpkin.” She paused and kicked at a pebble on the driveway. “I mean, it would be okay if I was five, but now it’s just embarrassing.”

“What do you want me to call you, then?”

She hopped across the driveway using the hopscotch game she’d drawn on the cement last week. Sheer boredom had driven it to her.

No big fancy mall to hang out in.

No friends.

“Actually, I’d prefer it if you didn’t acknowledge me in public. It’s not that I’m embarrassed by you. It’s just so not cool to be seen with one’s parent.”

Maybe she had a point. How much trouble could she get into if he let her hang out with Starr, especially on an island this small?

Brody knew better. Hope attracted trouble like he attracted troubled women.

She turned backwards, still hopping about as though she was playing the game. Brody appreciated these rare moments when Hope reminded him of the little girl she might have been if he’d known her way back when.

Innocent, dependent, sweet. He was all that stood between her and a lifetime in purgatory living with her grandma. He had the most important reason in the world to stay out of trouble. Paige and the temptation of pursuing her were definitely off limits.

Unless they could somehow keep it a secret.

He mentally gave a head shake and refocused on his daughter.

“It’s not like I walk around wearing gumboots and chewing tobacco,” he pointed out, just to continue their conversation, since they so rarely had real conversations where they really communicated. As of late, their conversations consisted of Hope bitching and him grunting. Although sometimes it went the other way, with him bitching and her grunting.

She crooked her head and studied him. “You could use a cooler pair of sunglasses.”

He blinked. “What’s wrong with these?”

“Those mirrored things went out with the stone age.”

“I was born in the stone age, remember?”

She turned to face forward again. Hop, skip, hop, skip. “Exactly. You come around us and my friends get all stiff and leave.”

“I thought you didn’t have any friends.”

“I don’t.”

“Maybe it’s because of your sparkling personality.”

She stopped at the end of the chalk markings and faced him. “So are you serious about kissing babies, giving out handshakes, and running for Mayor?”

He nodded. “More serious than you know.”

Obviously puzzled, she cocked her head. “Why?”

Brody didn’t want to send her fleeing in the opposite direction, but she had to know he was serious. “Hope, I’ll do whatever it takes to make a home for you.”

Without a word, she turned her back on him and sauntered into Olivia’s yard, leaving him behind to carry in the ladder by himself.

If it meant even half as much to her as it did to him, he wondered if she would help him campaign.

He was barely in the yard before Starr noticed them. She loped out of the garden and ran up to greet them.

“Can Hope show me the library?”

Hope shrugged. “I’m grounded, so I can’t leave the yard until my chores are done.”

Starr looked around Olivia’s yard, then over at Hope. “I could come over to the dark side with you. It can’t be any worse over there than it is here with Olivia the slave driver.”

Hope handed the list to Starr who studied it before turning her attention on Brody. “If I promise to help her, afterward will you let her go to the library?”

Brody hesitated. Hope needed a friend and Starr seemed like a pretty good kid. Finally, he nodded. “Sure. Chores first, though. Library second.”

The girls raced past him and disappeared through the gate. When he turned back, Paige was headed his way.

She waved him toward the garage. As she passed him, he could smell the slight scent of the perfume she wore. Setting aside the ladder he followed her into the garage where she turned to face him, hands on hips.

“We can’t allow my dad to win, Brody.”

“We?” At her nod, he suddenly felt better just having her on his side, but then he got suspicious. “Why?”

She sighed and looked away. “Let’s just say he doesn’t have the island’s best interest at heart.”

He filed that information away to mull over later, and closed the distance between them. “There’s something I need to tell you. It will probably piss you off, but I want you to hear it from me before you hear it from anyone else.”

“What?”

He took a deep breath. “The old men in town have a bet going.”

One eyebrow winged up. “A bet?”

He felt his face flush. “Between you and Delores. You know, who’s going to win me.”

Paige stepped closer and walked her fingers up his shirtfront. “Tell those old men I’m not interested. Delores can have you. All I want is your body.”

And then, she stood on her tiptoes and leaned into him, sealing any comment he might have made by pressing her mouth against his.

Brody forgot about the Mayor’s race, Hope, and the bet, and got lost in her kisses.

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

Delores peeked out the dining room window and saw Brody step into the garage with Paige.

With a snort of disgust, she let the curtain fall back into place and she crossed the neat-as-a-pin room to the couch. Throwing herself down on the plastic covered surface, she opened the bride magazine and flipped through the pages until she found the perfect wedding dress.

The one she had on order.

The one that should be on her doorstep right now.

And wasn’t.

She closed her eyes and pictured the crowd in the church, oohing and ahhhing as she made her way up the aisle toward the groom.

But somewhere in her musings, the image of Paige wearing the gown filtered into her thoughts and she realized the other woman would fill out the bust to overflowing, while Delores’s own chest would barely make an imprint.

She hated being in the background, forgotten and invisible.

She forced her eyes open, slammed the magazine shut and threw it behind the couch.

Good riddance, she thought as she pushed to her feet and took a peek out the front window.

Further down the street, she spotted a Vote For Jeb sign, then another and another. And beyond that she saw Matilda with Jeb. The smooth operator was shaking hands and kissing babies, and all the old ladies like Matilda seemed to really like him.

Fools. There was something stinky about Jeb Calhoun. Something stinky about his daughter, too.

She needed to get Brody away from that little slut and out onto the campaign trail, but she couldn’t very well do it without his cooperation. He was one reluctant candidate, but if she had to sacrifice herself and her pride, she’d do it.

She had a plan and she’d allow nothing—nobody—to get in the way.

As she grabbed a frozen casserole dish out of the freezer and headed toward the back door, she paused to check her reflection in the mirror. The brand new jeans and brand new t-shirt made her look young and sexy, as if no time had passed since high school.

With a final tuck of the t-shirt and a final check to ensure the crease in her jeans was perfect, she headed outside.

As she crossed the alley to Olivia’s yard, she got another bad feeling in her gut.

What if she caught Brody doing the dirty with that woman?

She tiptoed into the yard, careful to stay out of Olivia’s line of vision, and sidled up to the side door of the garage, where she paused and listened.

Silence. Only the rustle of dry leaves as her neighbor picked and pruned.

Before the old woman noticed her and gave her away, Delores slipped inside.

Paige poked her head around the hood of the truck. She had a grease mark across her cheek, down the front of her t-shirt, and down one pant leg. When she spotted Delores, a friendly smile blossomed across her face. “Delores, what an unexpected surprise.”

Delores stepped closer and eyed the hood above the other woman’s head. “I thought I heard Brody's voice.”

“You did.” Paige stuck her head back under the hood. “He ran home to get a tool. He should be back any moment.”

“Oh.” She held up the casserole. “I brought this for you as a sort of welcome to the neighborhood meal.”

Paige raised her head, her gaze going from the casserole to Delores. Another warm smile caught her mouth. “Thank you. Just put it on the workbench and I’ll take it in with me later.” She stuck her head back under the hood. “Would you mind handing me that rubber headed sledgehammer on the workbench?”

Delores felt her feet move automatically toward the item the other woman wanted. She set the casserole on the counter, picked up the handle, too late realized there was grease on it, and looked for something to wipe her hands on. But all she saw was a dirty old rag that appeared even dirtier than the handle.

Weighing the sledgehammer in her hand, she eyed the woman under the hood. One bang on the head and her problems would be over.

Paige glanced up just then, curiosity in her gaze. “Did you find it?”

She closed the distance between them and passed over the tool. “Here you go.”

“Thanks.” Taking it from her, Paige turned her attention back inside the hood and banged on something.

Delores realized she was sweating and wiped a hand across her forehead. Too late, she remembered the grease on her hand.

She wiped her hand down her pant leg and decided to deal with the stain later. “So what are you doing?”

“Changing the oil in this old truck.” She stopped briefly to smile up at Delores. “I’m so glad you showed up. Another hand is always appreciated. And it seems like Brody has vanished and isn’t coming back any time soon.”

“Definitely,” Delores murmured while the girls inside her head went rah, rah, rah and the boys—those pesky little annoying creatures—went boo, hiss, boo. She glanced toward the door, didn’t see any sign of Brody, debated whether to go over to his place, then decided to stay put in case she missed him because he’d gone a different route. “Olivia must be so happy to have her family all home.”

“Can hardly tell, what with her sassing us all off.” She raised her head and met Delores’s gaze. “Thank you for being so kind to her over the years and keeping a watch on her. She told me what a wonderful neighbor you’ve been.”

Delores shrugged and experienced a giddy pleasure in her stomach. “I love her like she’s my own grandmother.”

The other woman bent back under the hood. “She’s lucky to have you for a neighbor.”

Moving closer, she eyed the hood, wondering if it would be enough force to—

Paige pointed to the workbench. “There’s a wrench right there. Could you hand it to me, please?”

Delores glanced down at her lily white hands that were now covered in grease, and realized they wouldn’t be lily white for long. She retrieved the item from the bench and slapped it into Paige’s hand.

“Thank you.”

Silence fell between them, the only sound in the garage the clatter of the wrench against steel, and Delores set one hand on the edge of the hood. It shifted beneath the pressure of her hand.

Interesting
.

“Here, can you hold this?”

Delores let the other woman set the dirty tool in her hand, and she tried to see if she could reach the hood prop with her elbow. Could she knock the hood stand out of the way and slam down the hood without giving her arch enemy time to escape?

Maybe Paige was wrong and Brody wasn’t coming back. Maybe he’d grown sick and tired of the pesky younger woman already. Maybe Delores didn’t need to perform the dirty deed.

Still, it might be better to get rid of the competition and be done with the worry.

She gauged the distance to the door, and wondered if she could make it back to her place, sight unseen.

But the hood prop was out of reach, and if she went for it, it would probably catch Paige’s attention, which would put a halt on Delores’s plans.