“Come in!” a muffled voice yells.
I push the door open and am surprised by the man sitting behind the desk. In my head, I pictured the stereotypical sleazeball: short balding man, leering grin, cigarette burning in an ashtray nearby. But this man looks the exact opposite of that. He’s blond. And gorgeous. He stands when I enter, reaching across the desk to shake my hand, pumping it enthusiastically. His light-blue button-down matches his eyes perfectly, and the effect is so dazzling that I know his closet is full of shirts in the same color.
“Lucca! Good to see you. I’m Matt Rowen.”
There’s no way to know if this is the same person I spoke with last night, but I’m betting it’s not.
I nod. “Mr. Rowen.”
He throws me a brilliant smile and says, “Call me Matt. Please, have a seat.”
Perching on the edge of the chair, I spy my laptop sitting on the corner of the desk.
He notices me eyeing it. “Go ahead. It’s yours just for showing.”
I pull it off the desk and rest it on my lap, fighting the urge to clutch it to my chest.
Matt flips a pen and catches it, over and over, while he studies me. “I have to say, we’ve been impressed at the places you’ve gotten in and out of.”
“Who’s we? How many creepy guys are in your little gang?” I ask.
He gives me a smirk as if he thinks I’m cute. His phone chimes and he slides it off his desk. Matt’s thumbs move across the screen at an amazing speed, his attention firmly on his phone.
“Is that Mr. Smith?”
He ignores me completely.
That’s fine. I can wait him out.
Matt finally looks up from his phone and says, “We have a job for you. A chance to make some decent money.”
“Doing what?” I ask.
Matt rests his elbows on the arm of his chair and kicks his feet up on his desk, the phone forgotten for a moment. “You’d be doing what you’re good at. We’ll drop you in a situation and you’ll get us what we need. Without anyone being the wiser. You won’t believe the difference it will make with us behind you. I’ll give you the details as soon as you tell me you’re in.”
My mind splits, showing two different paths; this is definitely a crossroads moment. Taking the job Matt offers moves me deeper into this world but comes with the support that would make the feel of those cuffs biting into my wrists a distant memory. The other path requires me to go straight. To get out before I’m in any real trouble. Because as Saturday night proved, it will only be a matter of time before something else goes wrong.
Mama always said to be successful in life you need to do three things: learn everything you can, try your hardest, and be the best at what you do.
Saturday night taught me I have a lot to learn.
Just thinking about Mama makes my chest hurt. But I shove it down. She’s gone and there’s nothing for me in that old life. One day I will go back to being Lucca Marino, small-town girl from Eden, North Carolina, who lives in that fantasy house with that fantasy garden, but today is not that day. Today, I learn how to make the money I need to make that dream a reality.
“Okay, I’m in. What’s the job?”
Chapter 10
Present Day
It’s been three days since the Derby party and the mailbox is still empty. I’m also no closer to finding out that woman’s real name or where she’s from. And until I know her real name, she is nothing more than that woman to me.
But just because I haven’t run across her in town doesn’t mean she’s been in hiding. Everywhere I turn, the name “Lucca Marino” falls from someone’s lips as they recount their interaction with her.
I got added to the group text after the Derby party so I could see in real time that Sara bumped into her at that same tearoom that was suggested for our first lunch, and Beth ran into her while getting her nails done. And despite how badly Allison spoke about James at the Derby party, she and Cole went out to dinner with them last night. She gave everyone a full recap this morning.
There was even a picture of James and her at the Derby party in the “People and Places” section of the tiny local newspaper; her hat was looking even more dainty and refined in print than it did in real life.
While I’ve taken my time insinuating myself into this community, she has come in like a hurricane.
The level of sheer audacity on her part wasn’t apparent until I stumbled over James’s mom’s Facebook post gushing over that woman and the homemade soup she made for James’s dad. There were 128 （and counting） comments about how lucky the Bernards were to have her. Since James’s mom tagged her in the post, it took only one click to be on her page.