She giggled like she had the first day they met, and then she spun, showing off the dress. When her eyes met his she froze. Her smile faded.
He looked past her to his sister. “I thought you had a class.”
Bronte pointed to London. “She’s our class.”
He huffed.
“She paid for six spots.”
“She can’t work like that.”
“Sheis standing right here. And I don’t plan to work. I booked the spots because then you couldn’t slam the door in my face.”
He raised his brows to let her know that yes, he could slam the door in her face if he wanted.
But he didn’t want to.
“Refund her money.”
“Look,” London took a step closer with her hands up. “I just want to talk. Then, if you still want me to leave, I will, and I’ll never bother you again.”
She took a few more steps and her perfume wafted over to him, weakening his defenses.
“I know you’re mad. And I get why. But since you made that topper for me, I figure you don’t completely hate me.” She reached out and touched his arm, her fingers cool on his skin.
“I think that’s my cue to leave. I’m going out with friends, so if you need to use my apartment to freshen up, feel free,” Bronte said, then disappeared through the front.
“Before I say anything else, I’m sorry. I’m sure you can figure out why I didn’t tell you the truth, but more than wanting to keep my secret, I wanted to keep you safe. Until you figured it out because you saw the auction info, you had deniability.”
“Is that what you tell yourself? You don’t think the cops would show up here and take everything from me?”
“We wouldn’t let that happen. And I know you don’t have any reason to believe that, but it’s true. We might not be on the right side of the law, but we’re on the right side. Everything we do is to help people who have been taken advantage of and hurt—not cause more damage.”
“Why me?”
“I didn’t lie about that. I truly just found the online coupon promotion that Bronte ran. It wasn’t until after I booked that I found out my colleague had called you. She reached out because she knew your father had been a victim.”
He remembered the call and how he’d quickly shut her down. “So you targeted me.”
“No.” She shook her head. “My friend thought it was a two-for deal. We could pay you a lot of money to make amends to your family and get what we needed for our job. It wasn’t about exposing you to danger or making you an accomplice.”
Her fingers flexed on his arm. “And everything else between us was real. That was me. I never lied about who I am.”
God help him, he wanted to believe her.
“Okay.”
“Okay, what? You forgive me?”
“I suppose I do.”
Her cheek twitched and he knew she was holding back a smile. “Then, I would like to invite you to a holiday party.”
“What?”
“I know that we can’t go back to how things were. But I’d like to give us a chance.”
“Is this forgery thing your...” He couldn’t think of what to call it. “Career?”