"It looks nice. I was a bit surprised to see the reception area painted in such cheery colors. I thought the collection of antique urns was a nice touch, though."
"Ten days ago, that lobby was deep green and brown, with gold leaf accents. And there was a beautiful bronze statue of a breaching whale. Now that's sitting in my office suite, under a newly installed spotlight."
Sam stared at her. "Who has the authority to sign checks on your business accounts?"
"Only me, but it doesn't matter. If I don't okay an expense, they simply use their own money. Or sometimes they pool their paychecks to buy whatever they think my business needs. My older workers are very well off, and a lot of them don't have any close family to leave their estates to. So they indulge themselves by running Kent Caskets the way they want to run it."
"That's actually very dangerous, Willa. If one of them dies and a relative comes out of the woodwork, you could be sued for whatever your deceased worker had contributed to your business."
"I have two retired lawyers working in sales, and they've made sure that can't happen." She shrugged.
"Kent Caskets is more about people than it is about money. And if anything, they've taught me that gobs of money sitting in the bank is stagnant energy. They spent their entire lives working hard to accumulate it but found it has little value in and of itself. They claim they enjoy spending their money much more than they enjoyed earning it." She sighed. "But I think their greatest joy is doing stuff behind my back."
"You have got to be the weirdest woman I know," he said, more to himself than to her.
"Thank you," she snapped, turning to face the windshield. "Let's go.Shelby 's waiting for me."
"I meant that as a compliment, Willa," he said, starting the truck. "What the-where's the gas pedal?"
"On the left side."
He looked down, touched the pedal, and revved the engine, then looked at her. "Why is it on the left?"
"This is the truck Abram bequeathed to Jennifer. She only has her learner's permit, so I let her drive to school this morning, then I drove here." She grinned smugly. "You can take her driving this afternoon. She wants to meet you anyway, to thank you in person for the truck."
"I didn't have anything to do with this truck."
Willa shrugged. "She thinks it's very nice how you Sinclair men don't mind that your grandfather gave part of your inheritance to her. Oh, and she thinks you're really sweet to let me keep the RoseWind without making a stink." She fastened her seat belt, almost giddy with anticipation. "Drive. I want to be home when Richard shows up."
"Will he cause trouble forShelby ? Maybe I should hang around your house today."
"We don't need you to protect us from Richard. He won't do anything stupid. He was angry when he brought Abram down toNew York because Shel had just told him about the divorce, and he blamed me. Let's go."
Sam put his foot on the brake, pulled the shifting lever into drive, and pushed down on the accelerator with his left foot. Jennifer's brand-new truck shot out of its parking space as if it had been kicked in the ass. Willa had to brace her hand on the dash when Sam slammed on the brakes and they came to an equally abrupt halt.
"Hell," he muttered, darting a glance at the building to see if anyone was watching. He shifted in his seat and tried to reach the gas pedal with his right foot.
"I already tried that," Willa said from behind her hand, which she was using to hold in her laughter. "It doesn't work, because the brake pedal gets in the way. You have to use your left foot."
He turned and glared at her.
"Switching the pedal to the left was Emmett's idea, since Jennifer's right foot is a prosthesis."
"Using my right foot is so ingrained it's automatic. How did you get to work this morning without killing anyone?"
"I actually got pretty good at it after several miles. Go ahead, give it another try."
"You set me up," he growled, slowly letting his right foot off the brake, easing down on the gas pedal with his left.
"Oh, like you set me up this morning? You're supposed to be on your way back toNew York -
without telling anyone we spent the last five days together."
"They wanted to know who beat me up, and I told them you did," he said, concentrating on idling out to the road.
He looked both ways for traffic, and Willa's head slammed into the headrest when they suddenly took off. She had to grab the door handle to stay upright because they were turning at the time. "Um … my house is the other way."
Sam muttered something appropriately nasty.
He found a place to turn around and got them headed in the right direction, accompanied by the squeals of spinning tires. The ride eventually got less jackrabbitty as he got used to using his left foot, and they only had twenty cars behind them when they finally turned into her driveway. Willa decided it must be a guy thing, not pulling over to let honking traffic pass. Sam stopped the truck beside Peg's car, shut off the engine with a deep sigh, and looked around. "Nice place. I can see why it appealed to Bram."
"He stayed in that cottage over there," she said, pointing past him toward the bluff. "You can go see it if you want. I don't know if there's anything of his left in there or not; I haven't had time to look around yet."
Peg and Shelby came out of the house and stood on the porch. Sam got out to greet Peg and introduce himself toShelby , and Willa took her time following. Did she still own that book that explained how to wipe out bad karma, or had she foolishly donated it to the library book sale?
Chapter Sixteen
As soon as Peggot a good look at Sam, she dragged him inside and scolded him for making such a mess of himself. Willa and Shelby had to run upstairs so Sam and Peg wouldn't catch them laughing hysterically. Neither of them could decide which was more outrageous, that Peg was making such a fuss over Sam or that he was letting her. "I thought she was going to start kissing his booboos,"Shelby said, flopping down onto Willa's bed in laughter. "Cody runs in the opposite direction if I even ask if he's hurt."
Willa walked over to her closet and started pulling out hangers of clothes. "You should have seen Sam in my break room this morning. He was pointing out every little bruise to my workers and blaming me for each one."
Shelbysat up when Willa set an armful of clothes on the bed beside her. "My God, he's handsome.
Wait-why would Sam blame you? And how did he get so beat up?" Then her eyes widened. "Oh, my God! He sailed down fromNew York with you on the RoseWind! That's what he meant when he told Peg you tried to drown him." She jumped up and followed Willa back to the closet. "How come you didn't tell me about Sam last night?"
"I forgot."
"You forgot?" She grabbed Willa's arm and swung her around. "You can't just forget to tell me you spent five days on a boat with a man. I'm your sister! You're supposed to tell me everything."Shelby dragged her back to the bed. "Okay, out with it. Did he make a pass at you?" She grinned. "Did you make a pass at him? "
Willa escaped back to the closet. "That's none of your business."
"Emmett doesn't call you Willy Wild Child for nothing,"Shelby said, following her. "You're a completely different person when you're at sea." She grabbed the clothes out of Willa's hands and tossed them in the general direction of the bed. "Or should that be wild woman ?" Her voice dropped. "Willa, be honest now. You're attracted to Sam, aren't you? I mean, you'd consider having an affair with him if the opportunity presented itself, wouldn't you?"
"He's ten times crazier than Abram, Shel. The man jumped out of a helicopter in the middle of Long Island Sound, for crying out loud."
Shelbypulled her into a huge hug. "Oh, this is wonderful! It's about damn time you had a fling."
Willa pulled free and crossed her arms under her breasts. "And you think he's just the man to end my drought? Well, let me tell you something about Samuel Sinclair. Five days after meeting me, he asked me to marry him, and three days ago, he actually told me he loved me."