It Had to Be Him (4 page)

“Not so fast, Mitchell.” Grandma raised a hand to silence any protest her son might make. “Megan, you think you can run a hotel as well as Casey? Then it’s time you prove it.”

“What do you mean?”

“You’ve owned your other grandparents’ house since you were eight years old. They left it to you when they died.”

Dad growled through gritted teeth. “Mother, that’s enough!”

Grandma ignored him. “Your father never told you because he thought it wasn’t fair they left it to you alone and not to all of you kids. The last renters just moved out, so it’s sitting there on the other side of the lake falling to pieces. Fix it up into a nice private getaway and show your father you’re better than he gives you credit for. Hurt him where it pains him most—in his damn wallet. Steal a few of those richer-than-sin clients away, then you’ll be able to keep Haley here where she belongs.

“And you!” Grandma stood and pointed her cane at Dad. “That’s your innocent-in-all-of-this granddaughter you just put on the line. I’m ashamed of you, son!” She opened the door, ignoring
Mrs. Duncan, who had obviously had her ear plastered to the other side, and yelled, “Now this meeting is adjourned!”

By the stunned looks of confusion on her older siblings’ faces, no one else knew about the house either. Dad’s menacing stare silenced the questions they clearly wanted to ask.

She’d always presumed the house had been inherited by her mother, an only child. But because her mom had died when Megan was a baby, it had gone to her father. “I’d gladly share with you guys—”

“Nope.” Ryan finally spoke. “If those were their wishes, then we need to honor them. None of us are going to complain, are we?” He slid a stern look Casey’s way and then to Ben. When they both shook their heads, Ryan nodded sharply. “Then we’re all in agreement. Go for it, Meg.”

“Oh, that’s rich. How?” Her father leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms over his big barrel chest.

When no one spoke, Dad said, “Megan obviously doesn’t have the resources, and I expect you all to keep our bargain. Don’t let me catch you loaning her money. She’ll never learn if we keep bailing her out. We all agreed on that.”

Yeah, and at the end of the day, that’s what hurt the worst. None of them had any faith left in her. Well, dammit, she’d show all of them, and herself too, that she could run her new little lodge better than any of them, even if she didn’t have any money.

But how?

M
eg fumed as she replayed the family meeting in her mind. She was used to her dad stomping on her heart, but hadn’t seen that one coming from her sister and brothers.

She dragged the compressor closer to Grandma’s fence, intending to finish the paint job while she decided what she was going to do with her life. It was tempting to just pack up and go, but if she left the fence half-painted, they’d all accuse her of reneging on top of being a screwup.

Too bad she had nowhere else to go. Given a choice it sure wouldn’t be Anderson freakin’ Butte.

As she leaned down to flip the switch, a familiar voice rang out in greeting.

Meg smiled as Pam, her hairstylist best friend who dressed like a hooker, made her way down the drive. Maybe Meg should point the nozzle at Pam and paint some clothes on her. But then, if Meg had a body like that, she’d probably want to show it off too. “Hey, Pam.”

Her friend sashayed closer. Pam put so much bump and grind into her walk she should’ve carried her own pole. And she looked the part for the job: bleached-blonde hair, curvy body, and a man-eating smile. “Hey, Megs, glad you’re back. Heard you were going to open a lodge on the other side of the lake.”

It hadn’t been five minutes since she’d left her father’s office.
The Internet had nothing on the grapevine in Anderson Butte. “Well, uh, I haven’t really decided—”

“Because I have a business proposition for you.” Pam batted her eyes.

Someone should tell her that only works on men.
Meg loved Pam like a sister but she had bigger problems at the moment. “I’m not really sure what I’ll do with the place yet. But I’ll keep that stellar idea of yours in mind. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to paint this fence.”

Pam blinked. “I haven’t even told you what it is. Come on, Meg. We’ve known each other since the first grade.”

True. She was mad at her family, not Pam. “Sorry. Bad day. What did you have in mind?”

A sly grin lit Pam’s face. “I offered this deal to your father, but we all know how shortsighted he is, right? This could be a way to stick it to him, you know? See, I’ve been taking an online massage class, and I—” Pam suddenly stopped and her eyes got all gooey. “Oh, hey, Ryan.”

As mad at her family as Meg was, she could have kissed Ryan for saving her from Pam’s off-kilter idea. Pam giving massages in hotel rooms would surely get someone arrested.

“Pam.” Ryan lifted his chin in greeting. “Need to talk to Meg. Excuse us?”

“Sure. Stop by later if you’d like to help me with my massage homework. A body full of muscles like yours is hard to come by in these parts.” How Pam raised her chest and made her boobs suddenly swell larger was a mystery Meg didn’t want to solve. “We’ll talk later, Meg. Bye.”

“See you.”

Meg and Ryan stood in silence until Pam’s swaying hips were at the top of the hill. Meg turned and eyed her brother. “You and Pam?”

“Nope.”

Ryan, the man of many words.

“Good. Now, thanks for saving me, but the only thing I have to say to you is—you all suck!”

“Prove us wrong then.” He reached into his khaki uniform pants pocket and pulled out a set of keys. “For your new house. Utilities will be on in the morning.”

Ryan pressed the keys to their grandparents’ house into her hand, then turned to walk back to his place. That he had been the first to say he had no problem with not getting his fair share of the house poked at her heart. “Thanks, Ry.”

He didn’t bother to turn around, just lifted a hand to say goodbye.

Meg stuffed the keys into her back pocket, flipped the switch on the compressor, and went back to painting the fence. Zeke was right—the paint shot out so fast she’d have the job finished in no time. Then she’d collect Haley from Zeke and go to the diner. She needed Aunt Gloria’s comfort food. And some awesome pie. Nothing helped a desperate girl think more clearly than Aunt Gloria’s chocolate mousse pie.

When the compressor suddenly stopped working mid-squirt, Meg turned to see what the problem was.

Casey stood with the plug dangling from her long, elegant hand. “We need to talk, Meg.”

She dropped the nozzle onto the grass and turned the opposite way. Casey’s betrayal had stung the worst. “I have nothing to say to you, Benedict Arnold.”

“Good, then you can just listen.” In a classic Casey move, she tugged on Meg’s ponytail, thwarting her escape. Meg whirled around to give her sister the tongue-lashing she deserved, but before she could start, Casey pulled Meg close, wrapping those mile-long arms around her, trapping her against that tall body. “I’m furious with you for not telling me about Haley’s father, but I realized
something today.” Meg tried to pull away, but Casey’s grip only grew tighter. “Apparently you haven’t figured out I quit being your mother a long time ago. I’ve always wished we could just be sisters.”

Meg stopped struggling. “Really? Because a sister, as opposed to a
mother
siding with Dad, would have called and warned me about this plan. Not one of you cared enough to make a simple phone call?”

“You expected Ryan to call and tell you? The man hasn’t strung ten sentences in a row since he was born.”

“Funny. But that doesn’t let you and Ben off the hook.”

“It’s not some big conspiracy. The truth is—Dad’s right about this one thing. We do always bail you out. If you’d stop being mad long enough to let your brain kick in, you’ll realize it’s true. Should I give you examples?”

That was the last thing she needed, to have all her past mistakes thrown in her face. “No! But it’s different now that I have Haley. I’ve changed.” She had her work cut out for her to show them all how much she’d changed, but she’d do it.

“The jury’s still out on that. But if it’s true, then you need a sister more than a mother right now.” Casey leaned back and tilted Meg’s face up with her soft hands. “A sister is someone you can trust, no matter how big the problem. Sisters can share a glass of wine, bitch about men, and talk about sex.”

“I can’t talk about sex with . . . you.” Meg shuddered. “That’d be like talking to Grandma about it.”

“That’s my point, Meg. Get over it!” Casey huffed out a breath. “Anyway, the real reason for this chat is that I got a new computer a few weeks ago and my old one is still sitting in the corner of my office. I haven’t had time to wipe the hard drive. It has all of our client contact information and the latest version of our management software. Dad said we couldn’t help you, but if the computer went missing I wouldn’t report it to Ryan.” Casey
pulled her closer. “As your
sister
, I want nothing more than for you to show Dad what you’re capable of. So don’t screw this up. Are we good here?”

Megan wrapped her arms around Casey’s waist and snuggled close.

A hug felt good after the day she’d had.

But it was still a mom hug. Casey was the closest to a mother she’d ever known. It wouldn’t be easy to stop thinking of her in that way, but it might be nice to start over with Casey. Just be sisters for a change. Maybe she’d be able to start over with her dad too. If she could pull off renovating the lodge and make him proud of her for once.

“Yeah, we’re good. Thanks for the computer. But could we ease into that whole talking about sex thing? I’m still trying to get over the birds-and-the-bees speech you gave me in the fifth grade.”

“Me too. I was only seventeen. I made it up as I went.”

No. Knowing Casey, she’d probably read eight books on the subject to be sure she got it just right. “That might explain how I accidently got pregnant.”

Casey laughed and gave a quick tug on Meg’s ponytail. “See you later, brat. I have work to do.”

Her sister had never judged Meg for Haley like their father had. Seems Casey
had
stopped mothering her; she just hadn’t noticed.

Meg called out as her sister started up the hill. “Actually, it was equipment failure.”

Casey turned around but continued walking backward up the hill. “Careful, Meg. That’s dangerously close to having a conversation about sex.”

Meg smiled as she leaned down and picked up the paint nozzle. Maybe now everyone in this damn town would leave her alone for a half hour so she could paint the fence—and figure out how to raise enough money to fix up her new lodge.

Drawing in a deep breath of clean, pine-tinted fresh air, Josh Granger walked toward the massive Anderson Butte Hotel, smiling for the first time in years. After being sequestered for three years, breathing fresh air, being able to do whatever he wanted, go wherever he wanted, was fantastic. Just driving his truck on the open road felt like he’d won the lottery. But now he needed to focus.

Interrogating and mining out the truth from life’s worst excuses for human beings had left him hollow and empty. The FBI’s definition of giving him a break a little over three years ago had been to send him undercover as an employee of a software company the mob ran as a front.

The only good thing to come of the case was that he’d met Meg. A woman as fragile as she was strong. Her external badass attitude couldn’t hide from him the sweet woman inside she protected so fiercely. The light in Meg’s infectious smile had shown him how far he’d sunk into the darkness and despair of the criminal underworld.

Thoughts of being with Meg again had gotten him through all the lonely days and nights he’d been hidden away. He couldn’t wait to see her and finally meet Haley. But Meg wasn’t going to feel the same about him.

He closed his eyes and dug deep, conjuring the man Megan thought he was. His training had taught him to act, steal, and mine out the truth, but getting Megan and Haley back wouldn’t be easy. He needed to let Meg see enough of the Josh she thought she knew, then he’d feed her the real Josh a little at a time. She thought he was a wealthy software designer who didn’t want anything to do with them.