Chapter 52

I was standing in the front doorway, squinting in the morning sun. In front of me, Derek looked fresh and professional in a dark business suit with a classic red tie.

I didn't care how professional he looked. I still wasn't happy to see him, especially considering that Joel was still upstairs, after reluctantly – very reluctantly – agreeing to let me handle this on my own.

I gave Derek a cold look. "What are you doing here?"

Derek looked toward Joel's car, parked just a few paces away. He turned back to give me a smirk. "I see you have company."

In spite of my best intentions, I felt color rise to my face. Obviously, Derek knew exactly what I'd been doing last night, and who I'd been doing it with.

But so what? I was an adult. This was my house, at least for now. And I had nothing to be ashamed of. I lifted my chin. "That's none of your business."

Derek made a scoffing sound. "Right."

"It's not," I insisted. "And while we're on the topic, I didn't appreciate your note."

"Yeah? Well I didn't appreciate the thing with your car."

Now, it was my turn to scoff. "You're one to talk."

"Meaning?"

"Meaning, why'd you lie to me?"

"About what?"

"About the car needing a new engine."

"I didn't lie," he said. "It was a mistake. Beatrice confused the message."

Beatrice was the law firm's receptionist. She also acted as the receptionist for interviews related to the endowment. I liked her. And I highly doubted that she had anything to do with this.

"Oh, sure," I said, "blame her." My tone grew sarcastic. "That's ever-so nice of you."

"You wanna hear what's nice?" Derek said. "Getting a call from Biff, telling me your car was stolen. Yeah. That was fun."

"Yes. It was." I smiled. "For Biff. Because he didn't consider it stolen."

"Yeah? Well, he should've."

"And besides," I continued, "the way, I hear it, he was actually pretty happy."

"Well, he wasn't when I got done with him."

My smile faded. "What do you mean?"

"It means that he surrendered the car without written authorization. You do realize he'll be billed for that."

"By who?"

"By the lawn firm. My time isn't free, you know."

"You can't charge him," I said. "It's not even your car."

"But I still had to deal with it. Long story short, we're billing him for an hour of my time."

"Fine," I snapped. "I'll pay it."

"Oh yeah?" His lips formed a sneer. "How?"

"What are you talking about?"

"I mean, you've got no money." His gaze dipped to my skimpy shorts and tank-top that I'd pulled on just before coming down. "So, unless you plan on paying the bill with something else…" His words trailed off as his gaze shifted to something just past my right shoulder.

Behind me, I heard Joel's voice. "You sure you wanna finish that sentence?"

In front of me, Derek's mouth tightened. "I was only going to suggest that she sell a painting or something."

What a crock. I couldn’t sell a painting. The paintings, like everything else, were part of the estate. But I didn't argue the point, mostly because I didn't want to throw gasoline on the proverbial fire.

Even now, I couldn't bring myself to look behind me. When I'd left my bedroom, Joel had been half-naked, after practically jumping into his jeans to confront Derek.

I'd stopped him then, but would I be able to stop him now if things got ugly? I didn't even want to speculate. With my eyes still on Derek, I said, "You need to go."

"Yeah, whatever," he said. "I've got better things to do, anyway." And then, true to his word, he turned and stalked back to his car, got in, and slammed the driver's side door behind him.

When he fired up the engine, I finally turned toward Joel. He didn't look happy, but at least he was dressed.

In addition to the jeans, he was wearing the same shirt as last night and even shoes. He looked perfectly respectable. Still, I had to ask, "Why'd you come down?"

He frowned. "You've gotta ask?"

"But you told me you'd stay upstairs."

"Yeah, I did."

"So why didn't you?"

He moved closer. "You think I'm gonna sit up there and let him talk to you like that?" He joined me in the open doorway and eyed Derek's car as it sped down the long driveway. "Sorry. Not gonna happen."

Was he really sorry? I highly doubted it. And maybe I wasn't sorry, too.

In spite of all the drama, I actually felt kind of lucky, and not only because last night had been so wonderful. It was because if it weren't for Joel, Derek would probably still be here, berating me on my own doorstep.

I looked to Joel and said, "Probably, I should thank you for sticking up for me."

"Forget the thanks." He smiled. "But you could stop giving me grief about it."

He definitely had a point, which is probably why an hour later, we were swapping more secrets than I'd anticipated.