“Nobody is here against their will. Go report that back to your daddy and move on, investigate someone else. There is nothing to investigate here.”
“What? No, you’ve got it all wrong, Beck. I wasn’t investigating you. Marti was.”
“What?” Becker gave me that look Matt and my dad did when I didn’t make sense. It happened a lot.
“Please just listen to me. Not that any of it matters because we can’t see each other after tonight anyway, but I still need to explain it.”
“Who’s Marti?”
“Marti is the one that was supposed to be investigating you. She didn’t really. One of your, um—”
“Wives, Cassie. They are called my wives. But guess what? There is not one legal document stating that fact, so you can take your meddling ass back to Philly and tell your daddy to back off. I don’t bother anyone out here and I don’t want this.”
“Nobody is after you for anything, Becker. That’s what I am trying to tell you. I was never given your case. Marti was. I don’t get cases like this.”
“I’m not a case.”
“Will you shut up for five minutes and let me explain?”
“Explain what? How you hacked into my game so that I would pay attention to you? How you ruined the one room that I worked months on creating—you’re still stuck in there, you know? How you’ve been using every second of it to report back to your daddy?”
“You’re being ridiculous. How do you even know about this?”
“I have a PI, too. Had I known you were one, I would have just asked you. You lied. You told me you were some sort of secretary, filing folders and answering phones. I would have known sooner, but the day I called him to find out about you he was headed to Maui with his new wife for a two-week honeymoon. I would have never guessed you were a fox in sheep’s clothing. I told him not to worry about it, he could get to it when he got back. He got back today.”
“Oh my god, Becker. Shut up and listen to me. I wasn’t investigating you. My dad would kill me and you both if he knew I was here. Marti works for my dad, too. She got your case. I just stole it after she and my dad closed it. Nobody is investigating you. You’re not on anyone’s radar. I broke into Marti’s filing cabinet to get your file. In my defense, I did not hack your game. That was totally on accident.”
“Why did you steal the file on me?”
“Marti said one of your… your girls’ sister called our office. Josie Thomas, her sister Britney is here. She thought she was being held here and you wouldn’t let her leave. Marti never made the first move on your case. The girl called and said she wanted to revoke the investigation, she’d talked to her sister and visited here.”
“That doesn’t answer my question.”
“That’s because you won’t shut up and let me finish.” Thank god, I saw the sparkle in his eye and the hint of a smile trying not to curl his lip.
“I was intrigued if you will. I was captivated by a man, loving more than one woman. I was never investigating you. Nobody knows I am even here.”
“You expect me to believe that?”
“It’s true, Becker. I swear, but it doesn’t really matter anyway. We shouldn’t see each other again. I wish you didn’t spend seventy thousand dollars on me. The house isn’t even worth that much.”
“It was only thirty, but the house isn’t worth that, either. You need a new roof, they’re coming to do it Friday. I took care of your electric bill, too. We were held up, trying to work with no power or light for two hours.”
“Shoot. I meant to pay that.”
“It’s been shut off four times since you moved in. That means you pay it about half the time.”
“I forget,” I quietly said, walking to him. “How am I supposed to pay you back?”
“Tell me the truth.”
“I am, Becker. That’s the truth, I swear on my mother’s grave. Nobody is investigating you, except me. I was the only one interested in your way of living. But—”
“But?” he asked, running his hand down my arm.
I didn’t know if I liked that any better than him yelling and being mad at me. This was hard. This was so fucking hard.
“You weren’t honest with me, either. Why didn’t you tell me you were living here with three other women? Don’t you think I had a right to know that before you wined and dined me?”
“Or spent a substantial amount of money on you,” he teased. “I’m sorry, too. I wasn’t looking for you. You just happened. You sort of picked me. I didn’t really pick you.”