Page 87 of Truly

Gavin waits until Kennedy’s gone before lifting a brow. His arms cross over his chest.

“What?” I ask innocently. “Why do you look so mad?”

“You’re playing dirty.”

“Excuse me?”

“You can’t try to get to the top of the favorites list by buying her shit.”

I shrug. “I don’t know. It seems to be working.”

He narrows his eyes. “When do you leave again?”

“Two weeks. I have a mini tour in Europe. Why?”

“Because I have to figure out how to sabotage you while you’re gone.”

“Gavin!” I say, laughing. “Don’t threaten me. I could always fly her to London.”

Chase walks in, shaking his head. “You aren’t flying my daughter to London just to get higher on the favorites list.”

“Chase, you are no fun,” I say.

Gavin walks by him and winks.

I gasp. “You can’t do that! You can’t work covertly with Chase to shut me down.”

Gavin shrugs. “I don’t know. It seems to be working.”

The door opens, and the noise level goes up a hundred points. Megan and Kate, both women whom I’ve grown to absolutely adore, come in laughing. Maggie and Kennedy, who must’ve gone out the back door and then around the house, follow. Lonnie trails them by a few steps, yelling at Gavin to get the rest of the groceries from the car. Luke brings up the end with his arms full of bags.

It’s beautiful chaos.

“What can I do, Maggie?” I ask, meeting everyone in the kitchen.

“Oh, sweetheart. You made it.” Her face lights up as she pulls me in for a hug. “Luke said your flight was delayed due to bad weather.”

“We were stuck on the tarmac for a while, but it was fine once we got in the air.”

Luke slides in for a quick kiss even though he picked me up from the airport and hasn’t really stopped kissing me since.

The past six months have been a little bumpy. Overhauling my management team while starting a relationship with a man who lives hours away from the office has resulted in many long nights, plane rides, and shifting schedules. But now that the team is set with Hollis Hudson at the helm—a professional relationship flourishing beautifully—everything has started to smooth out.

It’s taken restraining orders and cease and desist letters for Tom and my father to finally leave me alone, but the past month has been peaceful. Hollis discovered that my father was getting kickbacks on many of my deals and was investing a lot of that money into various business arrangements with Tom.

Sucks for them.

On the other hand, Luke has adapted well to fortifying his home with security cameras. He didn’t even object to the fence Landry Security insisted be placed around the property and a guard house at the base of the driveway. He rolls his eyes about it a lot, but I think he secretly thinks it’s amusing.

“Did you ever make that lasagna, Laina?” Maggie asks, busying herself with putting groceries away.

Kate gives me a look and tries not to laugh.

Maggie and this damn lasagna.

“Yeah,” I say, without telling her I made it so that I could say I did when she inevitably asked. “It was good. Luke loved it.”

“Luke will eat anything,” Lonnie says.