“So you were searchin’ his shit last night to find somethin’ on him.”

“Yeah.”

His body visibly relaxed and I felt my body relax in response. I didn’t know his tension was making me tense and I didn’t know what to make of that. I decided not to think about it as I watched him nab another chunk of melon and throw it in his mouth.

“It’s covered,” he told me, mid chew.

I stared at him. “What?”

“I’ll get what Sissy needs.”

Yee ha!

“Really?” I breathed.

Yay! No more breaking and entering and stupid behavior, Good Ava shouted happily.

Damn, there goes all the fun, Bad Ava pouted.

“Really,” Luke said.

I couldn’t help it, I smiled at him. This was good, really good for Sissy. I imagined Luke knew what he was doing, considering the loft and the Porsche showed that people paid him a lot to do it.

His eyes dropped to my mouth and watched me smile. When they did this, his face, as usual, stayed hard but his eyes lost the shiny, dangerous anger and became soft and warm.

I ignored this because it made my knees wobble.

“What do I do?” I asked. “Do I go to the offices and talk to Shirleen? Set up an account?”

His eyes moved back to mine. “You aren’t gonna pay Nightingale Investigations.”

My smile widened and I had the happy thought that maybe there were good guys out there and Luke was one of them.

“No, that’s okay. I have money and Dom’s loaded. Once Sissy nails him, she’ll have more than enough to cover –”

“You aren’t payin’.”

“Luke, really, it’s cool,” I told him.

“I’ll rephrase. You aren’t payin’ in money.”

My smile died, my heart clenched and I feared that he was going to prove my earlier thought wrong about there being good guys out there.

“Excuse me?” I whispered.

“This means you owe me triple,” he told me.

“Excuse me?” I repeated.

“You owe me triple.”

My body stiffened.

Nope, there it was. No good guys. Of course he wouldn’t do something for nothing. Of course he wouldn’t do something just because he was a good guy.

Fucking hell.

“What does that mean?” I asked.

“I haven’t decided yet.”

“Okay then, what does that mean?” I pushed, my eyes narrowed on him and I found it kind of hard not to yell or cry or go out and buy an island for just me and my girlfriends; no men allowed.

He cut into thoughts of my Girls Only Island and said, “That means tonight, we’re havin’ dinner and I’m gonna find out what happened to the Ava I knew. Once I find that out, I’ll decide.”

Holy shit.

“Nothing happened to the old Ava,” I told him.

He shook his head. “The old Ava was funny, smart and sweet. The new Ava acts more like Marilyn and Sofia.”

It felt like he had slapped me across the face. I even felt myself flinch at his words. Seriously not a good guy and knowing this about Luke hurt more than his words.

“That wasn’t nice,” I whispered.

“No, it wasn’t, but it’s true.”

Damn, but he was honest. Still, he didn’t know what he was talking about. He didn’t know the half of it about Dom and he didn’t know anything about Rick, Dave and Noah. It wasn’t like I was being a bitch for the fun of it. I had reasons and he didn’t even bother to find out what they were before he made a judgment. I didn’t care about his offer of dinner so he could get my explanation. He knew, maybe more than anyone (except Sissy and my Dad), how much it would hurt to compare me to Marilyn and Sofia.

“A lot has happened since I last saw you,” I said not about to go into detail, never going to go into detail. He could blow for his explanation.

“Yeah, that’s obvious.”

Time for an evasive maneuver. This talk was beginning to sap my strength, suck my energy and make me want to stay in bed for a week eating rolls of chocolate chip cookie dough, bags of cheese puffs and tubs of ice cream (of all flavors).

“I can’t go to dinner tonight, I’m meeting some friends,” I told him.

“We’ll talk after you meet with your friends.”

I thought about Ally and The Hornet. I figured it was a taxi night for certain, considering nearly any time I had spent with Ally ended up with me being shitfaced and sleeping with a foot on the floor so the room would quit spinning. Not the disposition I wanted to be in for the next brutally honest third degree.

“It’s probably going to be a late night.”

“I’ll wait.”

“It might be a wild night.”

He gave me a half-grin. “That’ll work.”

Shit.

“Luke,” I said, sounding like I was putting a line under this conversation.

He ignored my line. “I’ll give you a remote for the garage and a key. You don’t come here after you’re done, I’ll find you. You make me find you, you owe me quadruple.”

This talk was not going my way in any way.

“Why can’t I just pay money for your services like normal people?”

“You aren’t normal people.”

“I am.”

“You’re Ava.”

“I’m that too.”

“I’ve known you since you were eight.”

“So?”

“I’ve liked you since you were eight,” he said.

Oh! I like him again, Good Ava told me.

Jump him! Rip his shorts off! Bad Ava urged.

Luke kept talking over Good Ava and Bad Ava’s blathering. “That makes you my people.”

Whoa.

Whoa, whoa, whoa.

Stop right there.

I needed time to bury that deep before I set myself up to start thinking he was a good guy again only to find out he wasn’t. To buy that time, I said quietly, “Luke.”

“We’re not talking about this anymore,” Luke told me.

“We are.”

“We’re not.”

I glared. “We are. Give me something to go on here, what’s triple payment mean?” I asked, sounding kind of bitchy.

“I told you, I haven’t decided.”

“Which way are you leaning? Maid service? Vacation planning? Darning your socks?”

He threw back his head and laughed. I crossed my arms on my chest.

“This isn’t funny,” I told him.