rapt attention at the game. “Sally Kennison.” A small lie, but one Jill would believe. Everyone knew that Sally Kennison somehow funneled every scrap of gossip in town and dispersed it as freely as dandelion seeds.
“How could she possibly know?” Jill asked, narrowing her gaze at the woman in question, who was too busy gossiping to notice the deadly look spearing her.
“So, are you?” Luci asked, keeping an eye on Brendan’s forward rush and her peripheral vision on Jill. Luci might have lost proficiency with a weapon, but other skills remained.
Jill stuck out her bottom lip. “Well, there goes my surprise.”
“I thought your surprise was another blind date for me.”
Jill snorted in an unladylike manner. “The world doesn’t revolve around you, Luci.”
“Tell me about it.” Lately her world had seemed to spin totally out of control. And Dom’s arrival, with his warnings of doom and gloom, certainly did nothing to slow down the crazy tilting. “So, who is he?”
Jill’s face transformed into pure sunshine. “Oh, he’s the most wonderful guy.”
“Where’d you meet him?”
Jill giggled, making her look twelve. “It was such a coincidence. I met him at the club.” Meaning the Marston Country Club on Flint Bridge Road, where all the who’s who went to be seen. The only time anyone saw Luci there was when she delivered her organic vegetables, herbs and sauces—at the rear entrance, of course. “He was meeting a client for lunch and we literally ran into each other.”
A five-alarm warning jangled in Luci’s head. Oh, Jilly, how could you fall for the oldest trick in the book? “How long ago was that?”
Jill cheered Jeff on, even though he was just standing on the field, pushing up his glasses and watching the ball roll by. “A couple of weeks ago.”
“So, tell me more.” Luci kept her voice light, curious and panic free, even though the panic was digging needles in her chest.
“He’s a dream. A real gentleman. He’s a private investigator. Isn’t that just so fascinating? You should see his office. It’s right on Main Street in Nashua, and he has it fixed up like a movie set.”
The better to play you with, Jilly. What was she going to do? If she tried telling Jill she was being conned, Jill would simply turn on her and accuse Luci of jealousy. “So I get to meet him tomorrow?”
“Yes. Mom and Dad’ll be there, too.”
Great, just what Luci needed—more criticism.
“Warren’s going to grill some hamburgers for the kids, then he’ll make some salmon steaks for the adults.”
Oh, no, he was using downright dirty tactics to worm his way into Jill’s heart. A man who could cook. Jill’s soft spot. He was showing her he could take care of her every need. “Can I bring anything?”
Jill’s nose wrinkled up in a cute, sassy way, as if she’d expected Luci’s offer all along. “How about one of your apple tortes? Warren loves apples.”
Luci cleared her throat at the sickening display of gush. With any luck, Warren’s next apple pie would come courtesy of the corrections system. “Okay, sure.”
Brendan kicked the ball straight at his cousin, giving him a chance to get into the play.
Jeff aimed his foot at the ball, managed to clip it with the side of his cleat and fell down hard on his backside. The referee blew the whistle. The coach trotted onto the field and helped Jeff up. The crowd clapped. Once on the sideline, Jeff made a beeline for his mother.
“I fell down.” Jeff sniffled and held up his arms. Jill, who’d jumped up when Jeff fell, crouched down to his eye level and let her son wrap his grubby arms around her pale pink cashmere sweater.
“I saw that.”
“Brendan passed the ball to me, and—” Jeff hiccuped.
“And I saw you kick it right back to him. That was a good play. Way to be a team player!”
Jeff pulled away from Jill, smearing dirt on the collar of her sweater, and beamed. “Yeah. I made a play.”
Jill pulled a handkerchief from her purse and dabbed at Jeff’s grass-stained knee. “You’re having fun, right?”
He nodded. Jill kissed his cheek, leaving behind the red imprint of her lipstick. “Well, that’s all that matters.”
She patted his bottom and urged him back toward his team.
“So what else do you know about this guy?” Luci asked and tried very hard to sound as if the answer didn’t matter. “What’s his name again? I mean, it seems like he came out of nowhere.”
“It wasn’t nowhere.” Soiled handkerchief held between two fingers, Jill swiveled her head looking for a place to dispose of the offending square of material. “I told you. I met Warren at the club. I ran into him when I was late for a meeting, then Amber Fitzgerald introduced us. You know her. She runs the fitness center on Marketplace Road.”
“Amber isn’t exactly known for her stellar taste.” She reminded Luci of a little drab brown mouse.
Jill pinched her lips, as if she were holding back a comment, then said, “Warren moved here last month from Florida, if you must know. The last hurricane tore down his office and he decided to move up north instead of rebuilding.”
“He might regret that come January,” Luci muttered. More likely he wouldn’t even be here, if Dom was right. He’d be long gone with all of Jill’s assets. God, Luci didn’t want Dom to be right. How would Jill support her son? How would she get over another betrayal? Luci wanted everything to stay as it was, even if it meant she’d always be banned from the country club dining room and sniggered at by the other moms. At least everyone she loved would remain safe.
“Well, that’s why we have airplanes,” Jill said. “We can vacation somewhere warm.”
Already Jill saw herself and Warren as a couple. Not good. The guy was moving fast. Another sign of a con man. Dazzle and disappear before the stars in the mark’s eyes faded and she quite knew what had happened to her.
Jill stalked to the green garbage barrel by the parking lot and dumped her linen handkerchief.
That’s when Luci noticed the truck. Big, bold and Aggie burgundy. Obviously, her days as a sniper hyper-aware of her surroundings were long gone if she’d managed to miss a truck like that following her.
Luci tried her best to ignore Dom and his truck with its smoked glass, but her gaze kept drifting to the parking lot. Every sight of him would remind her of danger, of death, of everything she thought she’d left behind after Cole had died. Risk was no longer part of the equation of her life. She didn’t want it back.
But there was no point pretending Warren hadn’t already established a toehold in Jill’s life. The trick was making sure he didn’t get the rest of the foot in. She still had a few contacts. She’d verify what Dom had told her and make sure Jill wasn’t hurt.
“I
