CHAPTER TEN
Two days later, Lila pushed through a grueling early morning workout at the gym, showered, picked up a coffee from Megan—no Burke, sadly—and had been at her desk for all of five minutes before Allison banged her office door open and snapped at Lila to get her ass in there, right now damn it.
Allison then informed Lila that her job had been filled.
“Already?” Lila said.
“You think I don’t have a hundred wannabe real estate agents lining up hoping to make it to the big leagues and get a job with me?”
“Yes. That is what I think.”
Allison ticked her chair from one side to the other as she contemplated Lila through retro cat-eye glasses.
Lila blew out a breath. “I guess I hadn’t expected you to move so quickly.”
“You got any interviews lined up?”
“Not yet.”
“Get on with it. My new girl is keen. Wants to start now. I’m putting her with you. Don’t pull that face at me. She’s young, she’s vicious. Reminds me of you. It’s why I hired her. I want her shadowing you until leave, then it will be almost as if you never betrayed me.”
“I don’t want to train anyone.”
Allison smiled. “I don’t care.” She ripped a piece of paper off the pad on her desk and held it out. “I made some calls.” She flapped the paper impatiently until Lila took it. “These are three top agencies in Seattle, and one in Tacoma. They’re all expecting to hear from you.”
Lila stared at the paper.
“Why are you still in my office?” Allison demanded.
“This is really…kind.”
“Leave.”
“Going.” Holding the paper between forefinger and thumb, Lila used it to wave goodbye.
“Teach my new girl everything you know!” Allison’s instruction followed Lila out of the office.
“Will do, boss. First up is, ‘ignore Allison when she calls you a girl. You are a strong, independent woman with youth and energy on your side. One day you will topple her empire and stand in your stiletto boots upon her twitching, defeated body’.”
“That’s the stuff.”
Lila’s replacement, Beatrice, was a quiet and determined young woman who didn’t seem all that vicious. Maybe the interview had been a rough one, what did Lila know?
Speaking of interviews, Lila was touched by Allison’s efforts. She recognized the agencies, and had shortlisted them herself. She hadn’t gotten around to investigating any open positions yet, that was all. And now Allison had done the groundwork for her.
Great.
Awesome.
Things were moving in an exiting-Emerson kind of direction.
Awesome.
At lunch, Lila got Beatrice occupied chasing up a contract and gave her the slip, ducking out the back entrance and slinking down the narrow passage between the office and the dry cleaner next door to the minuscule employee parking lot.
She stood and stared at her car. Blocked in.
Probably by Beatrice.
Lila was a good driver, but she didn’t think she’d get out without sacrificing some paintwork.
No problem.
She beeped the locks, grabbed the bag of Burke’s clean laundry from the back seat, and set off on foot for Rawlings’ Auto Repairs.
The cold rainy weather they’d been having seemed to have cleared, and Lila enjoyed the brisk walk downtown. She sauntered into the garage, her tote hitched on one shoulder and the laundry slung over the other.
“Hey, Lila.” Dani sent her a distracted greeting, then nearly blew the fillings out of Lila’s teeth when she fired up the impact wrench.
Blocking her ears, Lila yelled hi back, even though Dani had already forgotten she was there, and rushed for the relative quiet of the office. Derek had a phone in one hand and was jabbing at the keyboard of his computer with the other, a long-suffering expression on his face.
Lila swung the door open and leaned her upper body in.
Derek made go-away motions with his hand without looking up until Lila said, “I will not.”
He blinked over at her, then covered the mouthpiece and hissed, “He’s out back,” before returning to his call.
Lila blew Derek a kiss and closed the door. She stood with hands on hips and scanned the workshop until she located the rear door.
“Out back” was a depressing patch of ancient asphalt, baking under the hot spring sun and zero shade. It wasn’t a large space, and the majority of it was taken up by a monster of an RV.
Burke must be in the belly of the beast. Lila marched over and raised her hand to knock. The door opened before she made contact and she stumbled back, staring up into the dark interior. It took a moment for her eyes to adjust and she saw a stout middle-aged man with bright blue shorts, a yellow polo shirt, and a hell of a gold Rolex dragging his wrist to the ground.
Behind him loomed Burke.
“Oops. You’re busy. I’ll try again later.” Lila turned to leave.
The men came out, and Shorts Guy scanned her from head to toe.
Lila returned the favor, adding a raised brow and a cocked hip.
“You interested?” Shorts Guy said, nostrils flaring.
“Is this dude propositioning me?” Lila demanded of Burke, while Shorts Guy sputtered as if he’d never heard of anything so outrageous.
“He’s asking if you’re interested in the RV,” Burke said with a hint of reluctance.
“Am I interested in the RV?” Lila said slowly. “In…your RV?”
Burke gave her a tight smile.
Lila turned to Shorts Guy. “Yes. I am interested in Burke’s RV. Who wouldn’t be? It’s enormous. And very shiny. I can appreciate a magnificent machine when I see one.”
Shorts Guy slid his jaw from one side to the other. He spun to face Burke. “You said you didn’t have any other offers, Mr. Burke.”
Jeez. Burke told the guy that? Also, Burke was selling it. Right.
“This interest is new,” Burke said.
Lila assessed Shorts Guy. Yeah. He wanted the RV. “You don’t need any other offers, Mr. Burke,” Lila said. “I’m thinking I’ve found exactly what I’ve been looking for. I didn’t know until I saw it, but now that I’m here? I like what I see. Remind me of the asking price?”
Burke gave an amount. Lila managed not to show her surprise. It was enough for a down payment on a house and then some.
“Now hold on a minute there, young lady,” Shorts Guy said.
Lila made a show of rooting through her tote for her phone. “Hmm?” she asked as she tapped at the screen.
He blustered on, “I came to negotiate the deal—”
Lila aimed a questioning look at Burke, who sighed.
Uh-huh. The man came to string Burke along and try to squeeze him down on the price. Lila knew the type. Boy, did she.
“—and I’m not going to stand by and let you swoop in.”
“I’m sorry,” Lila said. “Did you have a deal already?”
“No,” Burke said.
Lila let out a loud puff of air. “Phew.” She held up her phone to Burke. “Mind if I jump in and take a photo or two of the interior, some video I can send to my honey? I want to get a head start on shooting footage for the vlog. We’re on a schedule. T-minus ten days until the road trip.”
“That right?” Burke said.
“Yep.” She turned to Shorts Guy, “We’re going on a road trip! I’m a lifestyle blogger! I’m pretty well-known for my yoga videos on YouTube. Hey, you can look me up. Search ‘Bendy Beeyotch’. Make sure to like me, leave a comment, subscribe! My honey’s a sci-fi writer. He blogs too sometimes, about beard care and craft beers, that sort of thing. I’m going to vlog our way across the country while he writes his next book and samples beers from each state. So exciting, right?”
Back to Burke. “I’m going to jump on in, okay? Okay.”
She breezed past Shorts Guy, aiming the phone at her face, giving a great big grin and a hair toss for the camera. “Hey, my lovely peeps. Lila here, and check this out, you guys. This is it, our home for the next year! I can’t wait! Are you ready? Let’s go take a look.”
Five minutes later, the RV dipped as Burke climbed in and stood staring at Lila.
“He bought it,” Lila told him.
Burke nodded.
Lila was sitting on the couch, arms spread wide. At his nod, she kicked one leg up and over the other, and swung it. “Gave you five thousand over the asking price?”
“Ten.”
Damn. “You’re welcome.”
“What if he didn’t bite, Bendy Beeyotch? Unlike you and your imaginary road trip, I actually am on a schedule.”
“He was going to bite. I have a sense for these things. If not?” She shrugged. “I could sell it for you in a week.”
“You sell RVs as well as houses?”
“So it would seem.” Lila flipped out a hand. “And without even breaking a sweat.”
Burke’s face remained impassive.
“Did I overstep? Sorry. Shouldn’t have risked it without asking permission. My bad. I really would have been able to sell it in a week, though. This thing is insane. You live here?”
“Not any more. Kurt’s, remember?”
It struck Lila that Burke seemed uncomfortable with her presence. Was he embarrassed about living in an RV? “I had no idea how much these things cost. What are you, a secret rock star?”
“Yeah. I can’t get enough of the spotlight.” Burke came over and sat beside her. “Nothing makes me feel more alive than standing on a stage in front of twenty thousand screaming fans.”
Lila drew up a leg and angled herself to face him. She rested an elbow on the back of the couch, chin in her hand. She poked his shoulder. “Tell me how come you live here.”
“It’s because of David.”
“More detail, please.”
“David lives with his mother. Always has.”
“And you haven’t?”
“No.”
“Not ever?”
“No. Mike and I were never together as a couple.”
She wrinkled her nose and Burke smiled. He ran a forefinger down the bridge of her nose and tapped the end.
“She has such a cool name,” Lila explained.
“Hah. Michaela hates it when I forget and call her Mike. It’s what she called herself when we met. During her rebellious phase. I was her blue-collar walk on the wild side. The bad boy fantasy.”
“You’re not so bad.”
“To a twenty-four-year-old trust-fund princess hell-bent on having herself some fun before life got serious, I looked the part, and that was all that mattered. We hooked up a few times. Mike ended up pregnant. Life got real serious after that.”
“But you two were never together together.”
He shook his head. “Why the hell would a class-act like Michaela want to tie herself to a guy like me?”
Burke meant it. Lila could see it in his face, hear it in his casual dismissal. It made her feel hollow. And angry.
“Michaela let me help out with David—not with money, only when she wanted to go out or had to work or he was sick. Then, when David was three, she got a better job offer and moved.”
“You moved with them?”
“He’s my son. What was I going to do, wave them off and send him a card once a year? It happened a couple of times. The last time they moved to Seattle.”
“And you came to Emerson and bought an RV?”
“After a few years outside Seattle, yeah. Nowhere I rented ever felt like home. I couldn’t invest in buying anywhere permanent when sooner or later Mike was going to move across the country again. So I bought an RV. Figured next time, I’d be able to move my home wherever they went next. Turns out, that’s England. Luckily, instead of me having to follow them again, this time across the planet, David’s coming to live with me.”
“Why Emerson?” Lila asked.
“Kurt’s here. I was tired of starting over some place I didn’t know anyone. I don’t like cities, and I only get to see David every other weekend. I don’t mind the drive to Seattle. Emerson made sense. And I love it. First place I’ve ever been that feels like home.”
“It’s going to feel even more like home when I find your dream house,” Lila said. “I promise.”
He gazed down at her, one corner of his mouth hitching. “Yeah?”
“Yep.”
“Good. I need to provide David with somewhere permanent, stable. As it is, he’s transferring schools right in the middle of junior year. His current school?” Burke rasped a hand over his jaw. “It’s kinda different from Emerson High.”
“How different? Are we talking school for gifted young mutants here? School for wizards? Military school?”
“School for parents who can spend twenty thousand a year on fees.”
“That is a lot of money.”
“Yeah. David’s cool, though. Like his mom. They’ve both got this way about them. He’s adaptable, he’ll fit in anywhere. And I’m gonna do all I can to help ease his way. Not making him live with his dad in an RV behind a garage is the first step.”
“You’re a good man, Griffin Burke,” Lila said.
“Mmm.”
They stared at each other for a long moment. The angle of the sun coming in through the window struck his face side-on, lighting his hazel eyes to a striking molten green-gold, clear and bottomless.
Burke started to smile, and his smile kept on growing until it changed his whole face from comfortably plain to so damn sweet, Lila wanted to crawl over there onto his lap and kiss him.
“Right!” She bounced to her feet, bumping into his knees. He steadied her with a gentle hand—seriously, did he bend gravity or something? She was always stumbling around him—and she snatched up the bag with his sweatshirt and socks in it. She thrust it at him. “Laundry.”
Burke stood and followed her to the door. “You came over to bring my clothes back?” He wasn’t smiling anymore. “I said there wasn’t any rush.”
She brushed this off. “I know. I’m efficient. This is an excellent characteristic in your realtor, trust me.”
“I do.”
“Great. Okay. You should come into the office and… No, you should not. I’m not sharing you with Beatrice. You have my number, right?”
“I do.”
“Call and let me know when you have some free time. We’ll get together and bang out a plan.” Lila’s foot was on the top step. “Ah, screw it,” she said and whirled around.
Burke was close behind her, and she very conveniently ended up mashed against him.
Grabbing a fistful of his shirt, Lila hauled him down as she rose up on tiptoe and pressed her lips to his.