Lydia's Twin Temptation(Divine Creek Ranch 8)(82)

Maya said, “Open the basket before we leave. I hope you like it. I spend a lot of time at Discretion these days, so I knew about some of the things Chance bought for you. You can exchange anything you don’t need and the girls put in a gift card, too, so you can pick something out while we’re there.”

Lydia laid her hands on the basket and said, “Thank you, Maya. I really appreciate it.” She pulled on the ends of the bow to untie it and gasped with happiness when she saw the contents. “I was almost out,” she said as she removed the bottle of lavender body wash from the basket.

“Good. I knew you had to have liked it, because he bought quite a bit of product in that scent. I always run out of body wash faster than the other things.”

Lydia lifted the gift card from the basket and read the slogan on the front. “‘Discretion. We put the risk in risqué.’ I love it!”

Next was a book. “Jane O’Malley! I love her shifter stories!”

Maya tapped the cover and said, “Look inside.”

Lydia opened the cover on the erotic romance and flipped through the first few pages. She gasped when she saw that the title page had been autographed. She read the inscription out loud. “To Lydia, congrats and welcome to Divine. My warmest regards, Jane O’Malley. Wow. Do you know Jane?”

Maya got a conspiratorial twinkle in her eye. “Uh-huh. Maybe you’ll meet her someday.”



* * * *



Duke Rivers laid the surveillance camera down and sat back from the magnifying light to roll his shoulders, thinking he should bill Ace a pain-in-the-ass surcharge for doing repairs. The tools he’d needed were in the van, so in the surveillance van he sat, fixing the damned camera. He pressed the heels of his hands to his tired, strained eyes and then sat there blinking. This would be easier on his eyes if he hadn’t stayed up late, gaming online with some Canadian friends.

You’re too old to be up until three in the morning playing Call of Duty, then expect to function when you get up at six.

But he was bad about listening to his inner voice. Doing that might make him explore the possibility that he was dead in the water because that’s how he felt some times. The truth was, both he and Gage were dead in the water, enabling each other.

He raised his arm above his head to stretch and looked at the screen on the security monitor in front of him. Something about the image attracted his attention, and he squinted at the screen, wondering if maybe it was time to get his eyes examined. He rubbed them again and then focused his attention. The monitor was displaying the live feed from Discretion. He turned to one of the other screens to see a better view and remembered that he was working on the camera for that angle at that moment.

The back door on the van popped open. Ace Webster poked his head inside and said, “If you get finished, will you leave the camera on the kitchen counter in the house? I’m taking Summer to lunch. We’re going to Rudy’s. You want something?”

“Sure. Bring me a couple of tacos. Hey, didn’t you say that Lydia was in Fort Stockton?”

“Yeah. She’s working for a big steak house out there. Crispy or soft tacos?”

Duke squinted again at the monitor. The angle wasn’t good, but the resemblance was almost uncanny. “Huh? Oh, soft. I was looking at the feed from Discretion and I saw someone who looks a lot like her in the store.”

“Really? I haven’t talked to her in a month or so but far as I know she’s doing fine out in the middle of West Texas.” Ace grunted and added, “I doubt she could get more remote and out of the way if she tried.”

Duke raised an eyebrow and smirked at Ace. “You haven’t told her your news yet, have you?” It was well known that Ace and Kemp adored their baby sister and were very protective of her. Duke and Gage had known her since meeting Ace twenty years before when he and his cousin were in middle school together. The two men had given them lessons in self-defense when Gage was being bullied at school. Duke and Gage had looked up to Ace and Kemp like older brothers, and camaraderie had developed that lasted through the years. Lydia had been her big brothers’ shadow, and so Duke and Gage had known her since she was a kid.

Looking irritated at the reminder, Ace replied, “No. I’m still trying to figure out a way to do that. You know how nosey we are with her. She’d have a heyday on my ass, giving me a hard time.”

Duke chuckled at Ace’s discomfort. “Naw. She’s a little sweetie. I’ll bet she’d love Summer. You’re just a little ‘skeered’ of what baby sis would say.”

Ace chuckled and said, “Smart-ass. Yeah, as soon as I figure out how to tell her that me and her brother are engaged to the same woman, I’ll make that call.”