07 It Had to Be You Read online

“Ali!” they cried at the sight of her and rushed over. Dropping her sign, Mimi grabbed Ali in close and hugged her tight. “Oh, Ali-gator! Did they violate any of your rights? Because honey, you have rights, lots of them.”

  “I’m fine, Mom. All my rights are still intact.”

  Mimi was wearing white capri leggings and a sparkly gold lamé top. Her gold hoop earrings matched the wide strip of bangle bracelets up one arm and was the same color as her spiked sandals. Her face was creased with worry as she tried to pat down Ali’s gone-wild hair.

  Ali pulled free and turned to Harper, who was wearing Daisy Dukes and a halter top, her hair and makeup bar-ready. She’d come straight from work and probably raced through the two-hour drive out here.

  “Zach called us,” Harper said. “Told us you might need moral support until he could get here.”

  “And moral support means picketing the courthouse?”

  “Hey, it works on TV,” Mimi said. She smiled up at Luke. “My baby has no manners. I’m Mimi Winters, Ali’s mama, and this here’s her sister, Harper.”

  Luke reached out to shake her hand. “Luke Hanover.”

  Because Mimi was looking at Luke with a speculative are-you-going-to-marry-my-daughter gaze, Ali quickly said, “Luke’s helping me out with a place to stay.”

  “Aw!” Mimi kissed him on the cheek. “Aren’t you the sweet one?”

  “Mom, I’m paying rent,” Ali said.

  Mimi cupped Ali’s cheek. “Of course you are.” She sent a look Luke’s way. “She’s stubborn, this one, can never accept a helping hand.” She looked around. “Where’s Teddy? I swear, I don’t care how hot he is, I’d like to castrate him. I’ve got a perfectly good pair of pliers in my purse to do it with too. Should’ve packed scissors, but the pliers’ll be more painful. I’m thinking one slow twist and his doodle will snap right off…” She mimed the motion.

  “Mom!” Ali quickly looked around. If a sticky note had constituted a threat, she couldn’t imagine what packing pliers with the intent to twist off a guy’s…doodle would mean.

  “Just sayin’,” Mimi murmured.

  “Well stop just saying,” Ali said. “And castration would mean cutting off his…other parts, not his…” She gestured vaguely, not daring to glance at Luke. “Doodle.”

  “Honey, he deserves to be castrated for accusing you of stealing money. You wouldn’t steal money. You wouldn’t steal anything.” Mimi lowered her voice to a whisper and leaned in close. “You don’t still steal lip gloss, right?”

  “No!” Good Lord. “And no castrating. I’ve got this handled. I’m sorry you made the drive out here, and I appreciate the support, but you should both go back to work. I’m fine.”

  “We were going to wait until dark and TP Teddy’s new place,” Harper said. “Where’s he living now?”

  “I don’t know,” Ali said, her second lie of the day. “But no TPing!” She was in enough trouble. “Everything’s going to be fine.”

  “You promise?” Mimi asked. “Do you swear by the tip jar, baby? Because we need you.”

  “Yes,” Ali said, crossing her fingers behind her back. “I swear by the tip jar that everything’s going to be fine.”

  Mimi hugged her again, and she smelled like her favorite body spritz and long-past, sweet memories. “Love you, Ali-gator.”

  Ali held on for an extra minute and closed her eyes. “Love you too, Mom.”

  Mimi kissed her cheek and then turned back to Luke. “It was very nice to meet you, Luke.”

  “You too, Mrs. Winters.”

  “Oh, please. Call me Mimi. When are you coming home, baby?” she asked Ali.

  As she’d been told not to leave town, she was pretty sure it wouldn’t be any time soon. “I’ll let you know.”

  “Next weekend? ’Cuz they’re filming a new reality show down the street. Something about men and their tools and the women who love them. You could help us get on TV.”

  “Would love to,” Ali said. “But I’m working.”

  “The weekend after then,” Mimi said. “For my surprise birthday party.”

  “Mom,” Harper said, exasperated. “You said you wanted it to be a surprise.”

  “I do. I want to be surprised by both my daughters throwing me a party with friends and flowers and balloons and lots of decorations.”

  “I don’t think you’re getting the concept of surprise,” Harper said.

  “And maybe a piñata,” Mimi went on, “but with good stuff in it. Too bad men can’t fit into piñatas…”

  “No men in piñatas,” Harper said. “That’s a different kind of party altogether.”

  “Fine,” Mimi said. “But I still want the balloons and flowers. And Ali.”

  “I’ll be there,” Ali promised, and watched them get into Harper’s car. The engine coughed, emitted a bunch of smoke, and then leaped into gear.

  “You crossed your fingers,” Luke said.

  “What?”

  “When you promised her that everything was going to be fine.”

  Ali turned away. “She needs to think that everything is going to be fine.”

  Luke pulled her back and looked at her for a long moment. “Cell phone.”

  “What?”

  “I need your cell phone.”

  She passed it over, watching as he programmed his number into it.

  “For the next time you’re faced with one phone call,” he said. Luke looked into her eyes and let out a long breath. “Look, don’t read more into this than it is. If you need me, you call.”

  “That simple?” she asked.

  He shrugged, which she took to mean that he really had no idea, but he’d still do it.

  “I wasn’t going to call you,” she said. “You’re on vacation.”

  “I’m also not getting involved, but neither is working out so well for me.”

  Her mind had been going one hundred miles per hour since the cops had shown up at the door that morning. The adrenaline was wearing off, leaving her exhausted and far too shaky and emotional to deal with this. Horrifyingly close to the edge, she chewed on her lower lip and ordered herself not to lose it. “Why did you come?” she asked.

  “You needed a ride.”

  Her chest squeezed even tighter. “You’re not worried I’m going to steal something from you?”

  “Stop,” he said, his voice far too gentle for her fragile state of mind. She swallowed the lump in her throat and told herself she was just tired. This was out of control. She was out of control. It was just that for once, she wanted her life to move in a direction that she directed. With a sigh, she looked away. Life around her appeared to be maintaining the status quo. There was the usual early evening, low-level traffic. People were just getting off work and heading to the gym, the grocery store, the pier…home.

  Ali had no idea where that would be for her tonight.

  All she wanted was a hot shower and then to go to bed and not wake up again until this whole unbelievable situation had resolved itself. Or until she was old and gray. Whichever came first.

  Luke was looking her over. She was still wearing her apron. She had a streak of dried clay across one arm and on one foot. And given the look Luke aimed at her face, she had some there as well. She lifted her chin.

  With a small twitch of his lips, he hitched his head in the direction of his truck. He opened the passenger door for her and waited until she pulled her seatbelt across her body before he hit the lock and shut the door. He walked around the front of the vehicle, his stride long-legged and easy. No rush.

  When he slid behind the wheel, he put the key in the ignition but didn’t start the engine. There was a beat of silence, and then he turned to her, one hand on the back of her head rest, the other on the dash.

  She did her best to appear as though she hadn’t just been sitting in an interrogation room for hours being questioned about a crime she hadn’t committed. But as it turned out, the pretense was far too much for her overloaded emotions, and she closed her eyes, tryin