Accidentally on Purpose (Heartbreaker Bay #3)(47)

Be calm, be calm . . . She sipped her tea to give herself a minute. But she clearly didn’t pull off the calm because Spence tossed his head back and laughed.

Elle crossed her arms. “You’re an ass.”

“Yes.” He was still grinning. “But come on, it’s been a long time coming.”

“That’s what we said!” Pru exclaimed.

Spence was still smiling at Elle, fully enjoying her discomfort. “So what do we know?” he asked the girls. “Facts only.”

They started talking at once and he held up a hand. They all promptly zipped it on command. Then he pointed at Willa.

“They were seen arguing,” Willa said. “In the courtyard. And then they moved to the alley.”

Elle stared at her. “How did you—”

Spence pointed at Pru, who continued where Willa left off by saying with glee, “They reportedly shoved each other up against the wall and went at each other.”

“That’s not fact,” Spence chided. “That’s speculation.”

“Okay, true,” Pru allowed. “But they definitely moved to the alley.”

“Oh!” Willa said. “And they broke her love seat! Luis dragged it to the Dumpster this morning.”

Elle felt her face flame.

“Hmm,” Spence said, stroking his chin, smiling at her. As their resident genius, nothing much got by him. Granted, he’d been adrift since selling his start-up last year, not yet having found his thing, but he was still present. As far as she knew, not one of them except herself—and undoubtedly Archer—knew Spence had bought this building. But sometimes he was too smart for his own good and she didn’t want to deal with his opinion of her and Archer because it didn’t matter. She and Archer weren’t a thing. Yes, they’d had a thing, a very momentary thing, but that was over now. Completely. One hundred percent.

At least, she was pretty sure that’s what she’d meant by stay the hell away from me. And anyway, he had. He’d vanished. And on that depressing thought, she headed to the door. “I’m out.”

“See,” Willa said excitedly. “It must be true, she’s leaving.”

“Leaving won’t stop us from talking about you!” Pru called after her.

Elle responded with a single finger gesture that had them all cracking up again. She pushed open the door to the courtyard, and as was her habit, which she never admitted to, her gaze automatically slid up to the second-floor walkway to Hunt Investigations.

Someone was coming out of Archer’s offices and she stilled because it wasn’t Archer.

Nope, it was worse. It was her sister.





Chapter 13





#OneOfTheseThingsIsNotLikeTheOther



Frozen in place by shock, Elle watched Morgan vanish into the elevator. What the hell? She found herself moving across the courtyard and got to the elevator just as it opened.

Morgan stepped out and then did a double take at the sight of Elle standing there.

Elle gave a short laugh. “See, now I know why I’m surprised to see you. But I have no idea why you’re surprised to see me since I work here.”

Morgan recovered quickly. “Look at that, you can string together more words than no and goodbye. Good to know.”

“Just tell me why you’re here, Morgan.”

Her sister settled her purse strap higher on her shoulder. “Because you’re so sure that I’m up to something, right?”

There was actually more than a little hurt in Morgan’s tone and it gave Elle pause. Morgan didn’t do vulnerabilities. Morgan didn’t do weaknesses.

Morgan didn’t do family.

So why then was her sister suddenly breathing a little too fast? Why were her eyes so suspiciously shiny, like she was on the very edge of a breakdown? Elle took a deep breath for calm. “Just talk to me.”

Morgan arched a brow. “You sure you don’t just want to slam your door on my nose again first?”

“I’ll decide after you tell me what you were doing in Archer’s office.”

At this, Morgan smiled. “Jealous?”

“Okay, forget it,” Elle said and she spun on her heel to walk off.

“Dammit, Elle, wait. Look, I’m a bitch when I’m up against the wall, and . . . well, I’m sorry, okay?”

Elle turned back. “You’re in trouble?”

Morgan blew out a breath. “Not like you’re thinking.”

Elle walked back to her. “Keep talking.”

“I’m sober,” Morgan said. “I’m going to school. I’m working on getting and keeping my shit together. I’m looking for a job and my own place, and I need references.”

“Been there, done that,” Elle said. “When we left Mom, remember? We lied about my age so I could sign the lease. Same with the credit cards we got to keep us going, the ones we put in my name to build and establish credit since you’d already trashed yours. And then you bailed on me. I was sixteen and alone and you up and vanished, leaving me holding the bag for twelve thousand dollars of debt that you’d racked up. And then you showed up two years later and we did a wash and repeat. And okay, that time was on me. Fool me once and all that. I was stupid for trusting you again.”