The Family You Make (Sunrise Cove #1)(49)

LEVI SPENT THE day in the back office at Cutler Sporting Goods. He purposely waited until everyone was busy to let himself into the stock room. He wanted to do an inventory check against what was in the system, because so far, as near as Levi could tell, Cal had dipped his fingers into just about every corner of the family business.

Levi needed to get the authorities involved so they could nail Cal’s ass, but he didn’t want to freak out his parents and Tess until he’d finished his audit. He wanted to have all the details before breaking all their hearts. And he was close.

But after last night’s date, his mission at the store today was more than just the inventory check. He wanted to ask Tess what the hell she’d been thinking befriending his pretend girlfriend.

But his sister came to him, poking her head into the back storage room. “What are you doing poking around back here?” she asked.

He leaned against a wall of shelving. “Seems to me you’re the one poking around in other people’s business.”

She blinked. Grimaced. And then came all the way into the room and leaned against the shelving unit opposite him. “You’ve got something to say?”

He resisted the urge to be the baby brother and come right out with it, because from experience he knew that would only make her defensive. No, the only way to get information out of Tess was to outwit, outlast, and outplay her. Ten years older than him, she’d been bossing him around since birth. On the other hand, she’d also been loving him since birth. He knew she’d been blindsided by her divorce and terribly hurt, all the while still managing to be there for his parents and her daughter. And him.

That’s why she interfered, he reminded himself. Because she loved him, in her own messed-up way. Still, he just stared at her, knowing the value of silence when it came to gaining any intel from her. She hated silence and always rushed to fill it. And she would, in three, two, one— “Fine,” she said. “Clearly Jane told you about our coincidental meet-up.”

Coincidental, his ass. “I don’t know how you figured out where she would be scheduled that day and what time she would take her break, but that was no coincidence, Tess.”

She shrugged. “So one of our regular customers happens to be an X-ray tech and knows her. It’s not my fault you won’t tell us anything about your girlfriend. Like the fact that she’s not your girlfriend.”

Never underestimate the depths of deception that an older bossy sister would sink to. That had been his first mistake. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Mistake number two, denial.

Tess smiled, knowing she had him. “She’s clearly single, Levi.”

“Or she isn’t into gossiping about her love life.”

“Is that the story you’re going to go with?”

Damn. He could compound his errors by continuing the pretense, but his sister was better than any lie detector in the land. Besides, maybe she could help him find a way out of this farce that he never should’ve started to begin with. “Okay,” he said. “So hypothetically, let’s say I do have a pretend girlfriend.”

Tess crossed her arms. “Uh-huh . . .”

“What if I wanted to make things real?”

“Let me guess,” she said. “You’re asking for a friend.”

“Sure,” he said. “Let’s say that.”

Tess looked at him for a beat. “Is your friend asking for advice to get into this woman’s pants, or is he genuinely seeking advice on how to get to know this person—because I don’t want to see her hurt, and you have a way of being effortlessly charming when you want to be and getting whatever you want.”

“I’m asking for a friend, remember?”

“Is your friend an idiot?” she countered.

He sighed. “Forget it. Forget I asked.”

The door opened and nearly hit his sister in the ass. Shirl Cutler came in, bouncing with joy. “Guess who I met today during my volunteer shift at the humane society!”

Levi turned and thunked his head against the steel shelving. “Why?”

“Don’t worry. I didn’t tell her who I was.”

Mateo came in behind Levi’s mom. “What did I miss?”

Levi sighed. “And you’re here why?”

His mom gasped. “What kind of way is that to speak to your oldest, bestest friend?”

Behind her back, Mateo grinned at Levi.

Levi very discreetly gave him the middle finger.

“And I invited him here,” his mom said. “Because we have all that leftover food from today’s birthday lunch for Dusty. Mateo’s just worked a bunch of days in a row and I bet he hasn’t eaten a good home-cooked meal in forever. I’m packing him up leftovers.”

Mateo was one of the best cooks Levi knew. The guy was actually a huge food snob. Even though Levi believed that Mateo had indeed worked a bunch of days in a row and was probably near dead from exhaustion, there was no way he hadn’t eaten.

“Come help me, Tess.” And with that, Levi’s mom and sister were gone.

Mateo plopped into one of the two chairs in the corner and rubbed his hands over his face.

“Long few days?” Levi asked.

“You could say that.”

Levi dropped into the other chair. “Want to tell me what’s going on?”