“Somebody has to keep me in solid-gold sneakers.”
When she’d seen him sign the hat, she’d actually hoped he might be a dumb jock. It would have made her job so much easier. But, true to form, she could not catch a break. Wes was sharp. And funny. And capable of laughing at himself.
“Good to know. I’ll bring a five when I bring my hat.”
“Until then, maybe you’d like a shirt or a sticker.” He bent toward a box near his desk, and shallow, objectifying creature that she was, she admired the view. Wes knew how to wear a pair of jeans.
He handed her the promo items and she thanked him.
There was only one chair in the room and it was behind the desk. She didn’t know quite what to do so she stood near the window, pretending to look at the park while she gathered her thoughts.
Wes leaned on the desk at the front of the office, his long legs stretched in front of him and arms crossed on his chest. “My brother and I wanted to thank your mom for her efforts on behalf of the Fallon Foundation.” Apparently they were finished joking around. “The money she raised is going to make a difference to a lot of kids.”
She felt as if she was being lectured, but she reminded herself that he didn’t know anything. He might be suspicious—in fact, she was now fairly certain he was suspicious—but he didn’t know anything. Posy forced herself not to look at him. She was an innocent woman, admiring the view of the parking lot.
“My mom is a very kind person. I’m sure she’ll be thrilled to meet you. Unfortunately, she’s been called out of town.”
“So you brought the check?”
CHAPTER FOUR
S HE PULLED HERSELFtogether. He was good-looking, but she’d known that going in. If he was also sharp, that only meant she had to be even more on her game. What she cared about was keeping him distracted and semisatisfied until her mom returned.
“She wants to give you the money in person. She’s very eager to meet you and your brother.”
“In person, huh?” He straightened his back. “My brother said your mom’s been out of touch for a couple days. Is everything okay?”
“With my mother?” Posy pulled the strap of her bag tighter across her shoulder, praying her voice would hold steady. “She’s fine.”
“Oh, good to know. I thought she might be sick or having some other kind of trouble.”
“No.” She needed to give him the file she’d brought and get out of here. “She was called out of town unexpectedly to visit my aunt. She asked me to watch her store and dog-sit—and keep this appointment with you. She’ll be back in a few days and she really wants to meet you both.”
It was mostly the truth.
Her cell was in her bag. If only it would ring with a call from her mom to tell her the wire was going through.
“I read your website last night,” she blurted out. “I really admire the work you’re doing. Kirkland is lucky you guys are coming here.”
Wes raised his eyebrows and smiled, and she was surprised to find herself smiling back at him. She’d never actually experienced an infectious smile before.
“The foundation is all my brother. This is my first day on the job and all I’ve done so far is sign a hat.”
She was definitely going to have to watch out for this guy. Good-looking, charming and sure to file a police report if he found out what her mom had been up to with her checkbook in the back room of Wonders.
Time for phase two of her bluff.
She’d considered trying to skate along for the next few days without giving him any information, but then she’d decided a better plan would be to give him too much of the wrong sort. If she had any luck, he would be so overwhelmed by the thorough records her mom had kept that he wouldn’t care that she was a few days late with the check.
“My mom did make you a list of donors and all the amounts. Everything is categorized and you can see where and how they donated.” She handed Wes a one-inch binder stacked with printed pages. “She asked me to deliver this.”
“Thanks.” He opened the binder and flipped the pages, then glanced behind him at the one chair. “I’m not set up for meetings yet.” He ducked behind his desk and grabbed a basketball out of the bag on the floor. “There are tables outside near the court. How would you feel about moving this conversation outside?”
She would feel a heck of a lot better if they ended the conversation, instead.
“I’m not sure what we’d have to meet about, Wes.”
“We’re meeting about the foundation.” He tapped the binder. “All the money these people donated. I thought I’d get to thank your mom, but since she’s not here, looks like you’re on the hook.”
Wes dribbled the ball once, the long muscles in his arms flexing as he caught the ball again with unconscious skill. The smack of the ball on the tile floor echoed in the empty office. “You ready?”
She closed her mouth. Bluff. Hard. She had a job to do here and it had nothing to do with Wes’s many physical charms.
CHAPTER FIVE
“P EOPLE ARE AMAZING,” Wes said. “Look how many are for less than twenty bucks.” They’d spread Posy’s binder out on a picnic table under a tree that was covered in pink blossoms. The petals kept drifting down onto the paper. He brushed his hand across the page, knocking another blossom to the ground.
“It’s been a remarkable experience for my mom.” Her voice had lost the no-nonsense tone. There was something going on with Posy, he thought.
She’d had one foot out the door since they stepped into his office, but Wes wasn’t about to let her off that easy. For one thing, he didn’t think she was telling him everything she knew. Posy was all business when they were going over the details, but he’d seen a quick flash or two of uncertainty, mostly when he’d said anything touching on the subject of her mom.
She closed the binder and slid it across the table closer to him.
“What about the other blogger?” he asked, refusing to take her big hint that their meeting was over. “Chloe, right?”
“Chloe Chastain.”
“She and your mom are an unbeatable team. Do you know her?”
“We grew up together.”
“So Kirkland is the ultimate hometown—everybody helps everybody else.”
“I left a long time ago,” Posy said. “But don’t believe everything you hear.”
He’d assumed she lived in town. Why was she here, otherwise? “You don’t live in Kirkland?”
“Rochester. I’m a quality control inspector for the Hotel Marie chain.”
“Quality control? Now I’m imaging you checking in with a fake name and making all kinds of crazy requests to see if the staff is up to snuff.”
“We call them personas, not ‘fake names.’ And my requests are always reasonable.”
“Extra towels, not chocolate fountains?”
Had Wes ever ordered a chocolate fountain? Maybe with one of those beautiful women she’d seen in the pictures last night. She stared at a pink petal on the table next to her pinky.
“Look, Wes,” Posy said as she stood, “I’m staying at my mom’s house so I can watch her dog. I’m in charge of her store, and I really should at least check my work email while I’m here. You’ve got