“But yousawmy kitchen up close on Saint Patrick’s Day. It was in tip-top shape.”
“And it was yesterday too, but I wasn’t crawling around your pantry looking for dead rodents either,” she snapped. “Besides, I couldn’t say anything to my …”Boss? No. Superior? No, Cliff most definitely wasn’t superior.“To my supervisor about the condition of your kitchen without admitting I had been in there. It’s a bad look, don’t you agree? Why do you think I couldn’t accept any kind of payment from you? As a government employee, I’m not allowed.Wasn’tallowed.Formergovernment employee.”Who would no longer draw a salary. God, what had she done? Blown her dream of a bookstore to smithereens, that’s what.
Two pairs of expectant eyes rested on her, so she pulled herself back together. “All that aside, he wouldn’t have listened to me anyway. He had a bee buzzing in his bonnet. I tried to slow him down, but it only seemed to add fuel to the fire, so I stopped pushing because I didn’t want to make it worse.”
“You knew this was going to happen when we were stuck on that pass, didn’t you?” he spat. “And you volunteered to help me out that night so you could get a closer look and alert your idiot of a boss.”
She flung out a hand. “No! I had no idea until right before we walked into your bar. This was something my idiot of a … He’s not my boss, er, hewasn’tmy boss. I washisboss, and then he did an end around, and then we were equals, only he kept trying to bemoreequal, and they let him, and …” She trailed off, realizing how ridiculous her babble sounded, reinforced by the confusion playing in Noah’s expression. She huffed out a breath. “I had no idea an inspection was coming until my idiot of acolleaguedecided to do this on his own.”After he met with Bruno Keating.“It was all decided last minute, without my input. I had no way to see it coming.”
“Why the hell would he do that?”
“I have no idea what motivates Cliff Meissner to do anything! No, that’s not true. Idoknow, and I suspect other reasons, but I need to do a little digging before I can go there.”
A storm brewed in his eyes. “You’re being evasive again, which is something you don’t pull off very well, but you do a lot of. Whatever the game was, you played along beautifully—at my expense.”
He stomped off, Chance on his heels, and though a few walls separated his office from the dining room, the slam of his office door reverberated through the restaurant.
“Well, that went well,” Hailey mumbled. Suddenly, she was overcome with the sensation she was as small and fragile as the china doll Dixie had compared her to. A tired sigh escaped her. “I appreciate you trying to mend fences, Dixie, but fences have two sides, andHis Nibsisn’t interested in doing any repairs to his side.” Would His Nibs be consoling himself with Ursula? Germaine? Some other beauty with an exotic name?
Dixie’s painted brows drew together in bewilderment.
Hailey flapped her good hand. “Never mind. My metaphor machine needs a tune-up. I better pack up and leave. I’m sure the owners of the Loose Moose would like their place back, not to mention the entire town will cheer when they see my taillights as I drive out of Fall River.”
“You bite your tongue, or I swear I will yank it out of your head, little girl! Hoochie mamas don’t feel sorry for themselves,” Dixie admonished in a tone that held absolutely no bite.
Hailey fought a lip quirk. “Then what do they do?”
“They get up and do the hoochie-coochie, of course!”
Hailey’s heart lifted, and so did her smile. “You’re not mad at me?”
Dixie squeezed Hailey’s lips together in a firm grasp, her long nails grazing Hailey’s cheek. “Don’t be so sure about that.”
“Ow, ow!”
“You’re hurting her!” Noah barked.
When hadhereappeared? He was as sneaky as Dixie.
Dixie released Hailey and sent a death glare his way. “Why are you back?”
“Because I … forgot something.” Head down, he shuffled to the bar, picked up a stack of towels, and disappeared again.
“Forgot something, my eye,” Dixie harrumphed after him. She wagged her head toward Hailey. “He forgot to sneak another look atyou, that’s what he forgot.”
The smile tugged at Hailey’s sore mouth. Damn, that barkeep was cute. And while she wished Dixie was right, she couldn’t get caught up in a pipe dream. She had a mission to accomplish. Noah might hate her, but she still had to make things right by him, and maybe, just maybe, she had a way to do that.
But first she needed to pull on her professional clothes and play inspector one last time—after troweling on a pound of concealer.
Chapter 23
Trapped in the Labyrinth of Hailey Bailey
“Stop beating yourself up,man. There wasn’t much you could do.” Though Wyatt couldn’t see him as he spoke, Noah nodded along anyway, even though he didn’t believe what his cousin said. Hecouldhave done something.Shouldhave done something. Exactly what that something was, though, eluded him.
After Mousegate two days ago, he had swallowed his pride, called his cousin, and dropped the bomb that Wyatt probably wasn’t getting his money back anytime soon—if ever.
“I’ll do everything I can to get you repaid.”
