“Wow. That was pretty sneaky of you.”
“Don’t even start with me about being sneaky,” Matt warns.
He softens the blow by smiling at me. I missed that smile. I’m such a sucker.
“Are you going somewhere?” he asks, pointing to the bag flung over my shoulder.
“First, tell me why you’re here. If it’s to inform me what a horrible person I am, I already got that memo last weekend.”
He shoves his hands into the front pockets of his jeans and cocks his head. “You’re not a horrible person. I’m sorry for losing my temper at the diner and for being so shitty at the store. It was just . . . a lot to take in and I was confused and hurt.”
It takes everything in me not to reach out and touch him, not to wrap my arms around him and beg for his forgiveness. Even though I’ve been a sniveling mess since I screwed things up with him, and I miss him so much it hurts, I’m still me. Deep down I’m still the same strong, independent woman I found again after I left Andy, and I’m not about to put my heart on the line for someone until I know for sure the feelings are mutual. For all I know he just showed up here out of guilt for not giving me a chance to explain.
“I should have been honest with you. I just didn’t expect everything to go down the way it did. That day you showed up at the office asking to hire us to trail Melanie, I freaked out.”
Matt stares at me in confusion. “You were at the office that day?”
“Um, yeah. I was under Lorelei’s desk,” I admit sheepishly.
“So that’s why she kept shifting in her chair and coughing. I thought something was seriously wrong with her,” Matt says with a laugh. “Look, I’ve had some time to think about everything, and I get why you did what you did. Lorelei explained everything to me. Melanie hired you guys for some asinine reason and it was a conflict of interest for you to tell me anything when you met me. I should have never expected you to put your career or your friendships on the line for someone you just met.”
I silently make a promise to myself to get Lorelei the best pair of shoes money can buy as a thank-you present for having my back even if she doesn’t agree with what I’ve done.
Nodding my head, I move in closer to him in the doorway.
“I never meant to lie to you. Everything just snowballed so quickly. I wanted to tell you. As soon as you told me about her lawsuit and your father’s company, I knew I had to help you.”
Matt’s face softens. “Why didn’t you tell me about the whole modeling thing? I Googled you when I got home from the diner that night. Jesus Christ, Paige. You’re like Cindy Crawford famous. You must have thought I was a total loser when I didn’t know who you were.”
I reach for Matt’s hand, sliding my fingers through his.
“I never thought you were a loser, I swear. It’s just, for practically my entire life, people have looked at me and immediately wondered how they could use my looks for their benefit. No one ever saw the real me or realized I might want something more out of my life than sitting in front of a camera. You saw the real me, and it was amazing to just be plain old Paige and not ‘Paige McCarty, the model.’ I probably could have gone about this whole mess a little better, but I honestly didn’t know what to do without screwing over everyone I care about.”
The corner of Matt’s mouth tips up with a grin, and he takes another step closer to me until his chest is pressed right up against mine. “You make it so hard to stay mad at you. I have a thousand questions running through my head and all I can think about is kissing you again.”
Smiling back at him, I place the palm of my hand over his heart and smile back. “Well, I think you should just—”
“Paige Elizabeth, stop canoodling in the doorway in front of God and everyone.”
CHAPTER 13
I immediately pull back from Matt as my mother shoulders past us into my condo. “Do you have any Tums? My indigestion is flaring up.”
Matt laughs behind me and my mother shoots him a dirty look. He immediately stops laughing and clears his throat.
“Who is this yahoo, and why is he standing in your doorway? Did you stand him up for one night—is that what this is?” she demands.
“It’s ‘one-night stand,’ Mom, and no. This is my friend Matt. Matt, this is my mother, Margaret McCarty.”
Matt moves around me and extends his hand out to her. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Mrs. McCarty.”
My mother crosses her arms in front of her and glares at Matt. “It’s Miss, not Mrs. Are you one of the people who takes indecent pictures of my daughter?”
Here we go again.
I sigh as Matt slowly brings his arm back down to his side when he sees my mother has no intention of shaking his hand. “No, Mom. He’s not a photographer. And once again, they aren’t indecent pictures.”
“I saw your tush in the one you did for that Maximum magazine. Everyone in my needlepoint club saw your tush,” she complains.
“It’s called Maxim, Mom. And what were you doing reading Maxim magazine anyway?”
My mother shrugs and digs in her purse, finding a package of Kleenex and pulling one out. “I read it for the articles.”
Matt chuckles while my mother blows her nose, her eyes zeroing in on the bag still draped over my shoulder.
“Are you going somewhere?” she asks, crumpling up the Kleenex and shoving it back into her purse.
“Actually, yes. I was just heading out to do some work when Matt showed up.”
My mom purses her lips and crosses her arms over her chest again. “Are you doing nudie pictures again? No, don’t tell me. I want to make sure I show enough shock on my face when Eunice and Fran tell me they saw your bump-bump at the supermarket checkout next to Good Housekeeping.”
“Mom, I’m not doing nudie pictures or any pictures of any kind. I told you, I retired. I work full time at the private investigation firm,” I remind her.
“I don’t want to talk about your work as a prostitute.”
Why do I bother . . .
“Uh, is there something else you want to tell me?” Matt whispers in my ear.
“I am not a prostitute!” I raise my voice to bring my point home.
“You kiss a bunch of men and get paid to do it,” she reminds me.
“I’m an investigator, Mom. I’m paid to catch men who cheat on their wives.”
My mother turns her angry glare to Matt and walks toward him. “Has my daughter kissed you?”
Matt’s eyes widen in fear. He looks from my mother to me.
“Mom, cut it out.”
“I’m going to take that as a ‘yes,’” she tells Matt, completely ignoring my warning. “So you’re a cheater. You don’t look like a cheater. Andy looked like a cheater. I told Paige she should have never married that good-for-nothing.”
“Matt is NOT a cheater, Mom. Matt is a good guy, so leave him alone. I really need to get going. I have work to do. Why don’t I stop by next weekend for dinner?”
I slide my hand around her arm and gently steer her toward the door.
“I’ve got my bridge club next weekend, and Fran is making her Jell-O salad. I can’t miss Fran’s Jell-O salad. I’ll just come with you to work.”
I stop in my tracks and stare down at her. “You can’t come to work with me. I’m going on a stakeout. It could be dangerous.”
Yeah, not really. All I plan on doing is parking my car a block away from Vinnie DeMarco’s house to see if Melanie makes an appearance. The most dangerous thing that will happen is not being able to say no to the ice cream truck when it drives by ten times.
My mother reaches her hand into her purse and this time, instead of a Kleenex, her hand comes back out with a revolver.