The One Who Loves You (Tickled Pink #1)(15)

“Dunno, Ms. Lightly. World might be a better place if you learn to be a better person.”

“I’m a very good person. I donate to charity. I give my assistant a Tiffany’s gift card every year on what I think is her birthday. I make my own mortgage payments, and I compliment even the ugliest babies on the street.” Okay, that’s a stretch. I don’t like babies. I don’t understand babies, and the idea of being responsible for a human being that can’t speak and randomly projects vomit Exorcist-style terrifies me. But if I liked babies, I would compliment even the ugliest babies.

His lips twitch behind that lumberjack beard. “Ten-thousand-dollar-a-plate charity dinners where most of the funding goes to keeping the board of directors traveling to the Hamptons in the name of getting token donations from their garden-club members?”

That’s entirely too close to home. “Someone’s been streaming too much Gossip Girl.”

“Why are you here, Ms. Lightly? You seem bloodthirsty enough to handle this all on your own.”

“If we were in New York, I’d have this done in an afternoon. But I’m in this godforsaken town, where I don’t know every tool at my disposal. Tools like making Gigi fall into a lake. I’m fully aware of my shortcomings, and after yesterday, I’m positive it’s a far better use of my time to contract out the plotting to someone who already has an innate sense of what will horrify my entire family the most.” I slap another mosquito trying to make breakfast out of me to emphasize my point. “I’ll leave this town willingly the minute my grandmother releases me from this ridiculous forced leave of absence. You don’t have to convince me to go, Mr. Miller. I’m willing to work with you, on two conditions. One, we agree falling in the lake is the worst I’ll have to do, and that’s already done. And two, you don’t harm a single hair on my grandmother’s head. Make her life unpleasant? Yes. Harm her? No. Are we agreed?”

And coffee.

I very much should insist he provide me with coffee.

Mostly because I’m about to leap at him to steal the cup he’s sipping from again while he supposedly contemplates my proposal, but I also know the minute I add the coffee to the list, he’ll use my desires against me.

I cross my arms and tap my fingers over my bicep when he doesn’t answer right away. “I have what’s sure to be an unpleasant family meeting to get to, Mr. Miller. I repeat: Are we agreed?”

His lips purse to one side, and then he gives a short nod. “Mostly.”

“Mostly?”

“Would look weird if you’re the only person in your family not being subjected to the best Tickled Pink can bring.”

I’m twitching. Again. The man has brought out the twitch in me. “I get warning if I’m to be humiliated.”

He hides his mouth behind his coffee mug again. “I’ll do my best, Ms. Lightly.”

The first item on my to-do list once Gigi releases us for the day is Find a new partner in crime. But for now, I stick a hand out. “Then we have a deal.”

His long fingers wrap all the way around and swallow my hand, hot and smooth, sending another shiver racing up my arm, over my shoulder, and down my chest.

I’ve made a deal with the devil.

Thank Oprah it’s not the first time, or I might be in trouble.





Chapter 5


Teague


Phoebe Lightly might be a pain in the ass, but she’s not afraid to get her hands dirty. I’ll give her that.

She made it up into my tree house, and she didn’t even ask me to pull her up.

I respect that.

Didn’t expect it out of her. She might be made of sterner stuff than I was inclined to give her credit for.

She still needs to leave, but maybe she’s only 80 percent princess.

And I’m looking forward to tormenting the hell out of that 80 percent.

First step?

Sneaking into the light booth in the theater at the school to watch the Lightly family’s first meeting go down, even though I’d rather be fishing. And I’m not alone.

“Anybody pulling hair yet?” I murmur to Ridhi Denning, Shiloh’s wife, as I join her at the glass. The six members of the Lightly family are spread out in the theater chairs. From what I hear, odds are just as good that they’re not sitting as a cohesive unit because they can’t stand each other as that it’s because most of the plush seats in the theater are broken, are stained, or otherwise have issues and it’s hard to find two in a row that work right.

“Not yet. Estelle barely got three sentences out about how she was clearly the inspiration for Pink Gold, despite it being filmed forty years before she choked on her dinner, before Carter Lightly yawned and scratched himself and asked if there was a CliffsNotes version for the test.”

“Fucking upper-crusters.”

“So long as they keep dropping money, they can stay.”

“No, they can’t.”

“The world won’t end if Tickled Pink welcomes a few more tourists, Teague. It’s good for us.”

“Normal tourists, yes. National attention? No.”

She tightens her mouth in a grim line, and it’s not because I’m being a ridiculous dick.

Not entirely.

She shifts her gaze back to Shiloh, who’s sitting with the family, and I don’t know why. “Day by day, okay? Let’s take the good while we have it and battle the bad if we have to.”