CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
“Want to tell me what’s going on between you and Draven?”
Indy eyed Lizz as her friend handed over money to the Starbucks cashier and waited for the change. She’d thought they’d been discreet. Obviously, they hadn’t been discreet enough. Either that or Lizz had totally upped her observation game in the weeks she’d been gone for work.
Nope.
No.
I really don’t.
She knew none of those would work with Lizz. “Nothing is going on between me and Draven.” Crap, did she know he’d slept in her room last night?
“Hah, liar.” Lizz put the car in gear and stopped at the next window. “You forget that I know you both.” She reached for the coffee mugs. “Thank you.” She handed Indy the to-go mugs and drove forward. “I know you both better than you know yourselves. So don’t treat me like an idiot.” She whipped her car into a parking spot and glared at her. “So spill.”
“There is nothing to spill.” She popped the lid off her to-go cup and added some sugar before shutting it again. There was little chance of Lizz dropping it. “When there is, I promise you will be the first to know.”
“Hah, you said when, not if.” Lizz thumped her hand off the steering wheel. “I knew it.”
This was the problem of having your best friend be someone who’d known you most of your life. They knew all your tells, and Indy was sure she had some. “That didn’t mean anything,” she argued.
“Lie to yourself, sister, but not to me.” Lizz sipped her coffee, then got them back on the road. “Don’t think I’m going to forget about this one,” she muttered. “We have to open the store as I have some customers coming in who want to do so before the mall gets busy.”
Grateful for the change of subject, she latched onto it. It also sounded like a weird thing for Lizz to do. They rarely opened for individual clients. “Do we have some celebrity customers that I don’t know about?”
“No.” The corners of Lizz’s lips curved into a smile, telling Indy that she liked whoever this person was. “Remember me telling you about the customer who had a flashback a while ago?”
Indy nodded. “Yes.” She’d felt terrible for the woman involved and her friends. Flashbacks were horrid at the best of times, but having one in public left you with a whole host of secondary feelings, and embarrassment was usually at the top of that list.
“She and her friends have been in a couple of times to try and help Fiona get more comfortable around people.” She hit the flicker at the entrance to the mall. “We both know how devastating flashbacks are, so I offered to open early so they can shop without others around rather than spend most of the time in the store watching to see if something will trigger her.”
“That’s really kind of you.”
“I like these ladies. They are good people.” Lizz parked and switched off the engine. “I’m guessing you will, too.”
“Awesome.” Lizz didn’t typically like most people; that she did these women was high praise indeed. Indy gathered her purse and coffee and followed Lizz to the store. While Lizz turned off the alarms and set up the cash register, Indy grabbed a duster and got to work on the shelves. “What time will they be here?”
“In about five minutes.”
“Okay.”
“Soooo….” Lizz called from the office. “What’s happening with you and Draven?”
Indy opened her mouth to deny it and snapped it shut again when a knock sounded at the door. “They’re here,” she called. Never mind saved by the bell, she’d been saved by the knock and decided these women could be gremlins but she’d like them anyway. “I’ll get the door!” she yelled to Lizz and went to let their guests in. “Good morning. Come on in, ladies. I’m India, nice to meet you.”
“Fee…”
Indy tensed at the sound of a man calling a woman’s name, but when the women turned toward the voice with smiles on their faces, she relaxed again.
Do I know that voice?
The thought barely had time to form in her head before a man she recognized appeared and stopped in front of one of the women. He gathered her into his arms and kissed her soundly on the lips.
“You forgot to kiss me goodbye.”
“We don’t say goodbye, Hunter, we say see you later,” the woman, Fee, scolded him, but stayed in the circle of his arms.
Indy’s eyes widened when the man raised his head to scan the room. He scanned past her, then stilled and turned toward her again, locking eyes with her. Indy dipped her chin; she wasn’t sure what protocol was in this instance. She’d follow his cues if he gave her any.
“Hunter?” The woman Fee called his attention back to her, as the other women turned toward her and narrowed their eyes in her direction.
Shit.
“She’s Draven Kilkenny’s woman,” Hunter, or Cookie as Indy knew him said, loud enough that Lizz gasped from where she stood a few steps away.
“I knew it,” Lizz crowed. “I freaking knew it.” She scowled at Indy. “You and me sister are going to talk about hiding important details from your bestie. Like you are said, bestie’s brother’s woman.”
Cookie gave her an apologetic look. “Nice to see you again, Indy.” He spoke softly to Fee again for a second before giving them all a wave and leaving the store.
For once in her life, she was totally lost for words. So much for keeping things to themselves for a while. Draven was going to laugh his butt off at her. She squeezed her eyes shut briefly. If California could just give her a whopping sinkhole under her feet right about now, she’d be grateful. Lizz was speaking to her customers, and as much as Indy wanted to run out the door and hide, she went back to cleaning, because her friend would be looking for answers in about five minutes flat.
“I knew it.”
She whirled around toward Lizz’s voice. “Don’t do that. Don’t sneak up on me.” She was being defensive and she knew it.
“Don’t tease the crap out of you for dating my brother?” Lizz didn’t bat an eyelid at her tone.
“Hah, I don’t know that it can be called dating when you haven’t been on any dates.”
“You haven…” Lizz trailed off and tapped her index finger off her chin.
Lord, please save me from whatever is going to come out of her mouth.
“You haven’t been on a date, but Fiona’s husband called you Draven’s woman?” Lizz screeched.
Indy glanced over her shoulder to where the women were gathered around a display stand. But instead of looking at the lingerie, they were watching her and Lizz. She didn’t blame them for their curiosity. She’d have been all over it like a scabby rash if she was in their shoes. There was something about watching other people’s drama play out which was too fascinating to resist.
Lizz went to the counter and grabbed her phone. “Not been on a date. Who the heck does he think he is? I’ll fix that right now.”
“What are you doing?”
“Indy, I’m not gonna lie. I love my brother, I really do. But sometimes I want to get in the car and run him over. Then reverse a couple of times, ya know, just to be sure he’s gotten the point.” Lizz typed furiously on her phone. “You are going on a date.”
“Maybe I don’t want to go on a date.” Oh, she wanted to go on a date. But she didn’t want that date to be because Lizz told her brother that a date was required. “Do not send that text, Lizz.”
“Too late, sister.” Lizz waved the phone under her nose. “It’s already sent.”
I’m gonna need that sink hole now, please. I don’t know who’s up there, but there has to be someone pulling levers who can open one up… pretty please.
“You know, sometimes I wonder why we are still friends.”
“Because you love me, and I love you, and being a pain in each other’s butts is a state of mind.” Lizz dropped her phone back over the counter and left her standing there to go talk to the ladies.
“Argh.” She was so temped to go in the office and move stuff around. Put the pen holders on the other side of the desk. Little things which would drive Lizz insane for days trying to figure out what was out of place.
“Excuse me?”
Indy slapped a smile on her face and turned around to smile at the woman, Cookie’s woman. “Yes?”
“I—uh—I’m Fiona. You know my husband, Hunter.” She chewed on the corner of her lip. “I just wanted to say hi.”
“Hi, Fiona. I’m Indy, it’s nice to meet you.” She wasn’t lying, it was nice to meet the woman behind the warrior. “Thank you for all you do to support your man’s service. He gets to do what he does because he knows you are here waiting for him when he comes home.” No matter how many times men like theirs went to war, there was a support system behind them keeping the lights on and the coffee warm until they came home. Wives, families, and friends rarely got the acknowledgement they deserved.
“It’s weird hearing someone thank me,” Fiona admitted. “But I do appreciate it.”
“You’re welcome.” Indy smiled at her. “Is there something you need help with?” she asked.
Fiona shook her head. “No, I just came over here because we’ve gotten to know Lizz a little over the last few weeks, and she’s kinda a hurricane when she wants something to go her way.”
“Right?”
“Yeah. Anyway, I just wanted to make sure that you know you don’t have to do anything you don’t want to… even go on a date with her brother.”
“Have you met him? Draven?”
Fiona nodded. “At Caroline’s house before Christmas.”
Oh, boy, she hadn’t known he’d been in California last Christmas. She wondered if Lizz knew. “I could hug you right now.” She backtracked when Fiona’s eyes widened. “I won’t, but I could,” she corrected. “You may have just given me a way to divert Lizz’s attention from the me and Draven thing.”
“I did?”
“Oh, yeah.” She winked at Fiona. “Draven didn’t tell her he was here for Christmas. The second she starts going on about the dating thing, I’m going to drop that little nugget of info.”
“Won’t that drop your man in it?”
“It will,” she admitted. “But he’s a big boy, he can handle a little bus dropping on his head.”
“That’s kinda mean… but a good diversion tactic.”
“Yeah. I’ll think about using it or not.” She probably wouldn’t, but she was tempted—so freaking tempted. “Did you find something you like?” A change of subject was needed before she drove herself insane trying to wrap her head around what to do.
“Not yet.”
“Then let’s find you something you love, and which tempts your husband to refuse to follow orders the next time Command tells him he needs to go out.” She linked arms with Fiona and led her back in between the aisles of clothing. “What’s your favorite color?”