Page 38 of Tattered (Lark Cove 1)

What was I going to do? I pulled out my phone from my jeans, doing the only thing I could think of at the moment.

I would buy this house.

Quickly, I snapped a couple of photos, being sure to get the numbers next to the door. Then I emailed them to my personal assistant with instructions to find out who the owners were and offer them whatever it would take to make it mine.

This could work.

I could set up this house with a remote office. That way I wouldn’t get too far behind at the firm or with the foundation when I was here. Maybe I could spend a few weeks here in the summer. I could come back for the holidays, though Mom and Dad would be pissed if I missed their annual Kendrick family holiday party. They’d have to adjust.

We were all going to adjust.

This could work. This house could work.

As far as I was concerned, Thea could have the place. If she wanted a bigger house, she and Charlie could both live here. Charlie would have all this room to run around and create her forts. Maybe I’d even have a special tree house built in the forest out back. And the detached garage would work far better than a shed for Thea’s art studio.

Excitement surged. This could be the start of a plan.

I smiled for the first time in hours, then turned around, going back to where I’d started. Thea’s. She might not want to see my face again tonight, but I was going back.

She’d asked me for answers.

Now I had some.

My phone rang and I grimaced as Alice’s name flashed. The last thing I needed was her calling all week, interrupting my time with Charlie, so reluctantly I answered. “Hello.”

“Hi, stud. Want to meet me tonight?” She was purring, something I’d always hated. It was far from sexy, more desperate than desirable.

“No. I’m out of town this week.”

“Bummer,” she whined. “Call me when you get home so we can see each other? Maybe go on a proper date?”

A proper date? “I don’t think so, Alice. If we run into each other at a fundraising event, please be sure to say hello. But I think it would be best for you to stop calling.”

“Excuse me?” Her nasal tone shred the last of my nerves.

“Take care, Alice.”

She snapped something but I hung up before I could hear it all.

I never should have started something up with her. Not only would she call again, but I’d also have to fend off my sister, Sofia.

Somehow, Alice had managed to worm her way into my youngest sister’s good graces. They were thick as thieves these days, no doubt plotting a way for Alice to get my last name. Tomorrow, I’d likely get an irate phone call from Sofia telling me how much of a fool I was for not marrying her friend.

I silenced my phone and shoved it back in my jeans pocket, then continued my walk back to Thea’s so we could try our conversation again. This time without a fight.

The sun was setting as I reached her street. Her house was the smallest on the road, sandwiched between houses that were definitely not the originals. But somehow, between two homes that were twice the size and much newer, their green cottage fit. It was the house that belonged while the others were out of place.

I went straight for the front door, ready to knock, but stopped short as a crash sounded from Thea’s shed.

Déjà vu. I’d been in exactly the same place last night when I’d heard a sound in Thea’s workshop. And like last night, I changed direction, forgoing the front door for her shed. When I was a few feet away, I heard her cuss.

“Goddamn it!”

I approached the doorway cautiously so as not to startle her, then peeked inside. Tonight, her back wasn’t to me. She was in profile with her head tilted to the ceiling and a bottle tipped to her lips. She took a long pull, then slammed the bottle on her paint-splattered table. She swallowed, grimacing at the burn of the vodka.

I knocked on the open door. “So what’s your rule for drinking vodka straight?”

“Shit,” Thea gasped, clutching her heart as she spun to the door. “You scared me.”