“What’s up?” He paused in front of her, blocking her path.
“I decided to take Daisy for a walk.”
“Why this direction?”
“I saw your truck pass by the house and figured you’d be here. I was hoping to kill two birds with one stone—a doggie walk and a tour.”
“I’m only here to drop off flats of annuals and hostas.”
“Can’t you spare a few minutes to give your sister a quick peek?” She leaned sideways to look past him and raised her voice. “Hi, Kyle!”
“Hey, Laura.”
Jon didn’t turn around. “Not today. I have another errand to run, and I won’t be back until—”
“Jon!”
At the summons from Kyle, he shifted toward the man. His foreman motioned toward Ashley, who’d come out the front door and was descending the steps.
Talk about rotten timing.
But Kyle could handle her questions. His first priority was to hustle Laura out of here ASAP.
He refocused on his sister. “If we still have light after our trip to Shore Acres State Park tomorrow, I can try to work in a tour here and—”
“Is that Ashley?”
She leaned to his left again to peer at his client.
Tempted as he was to lie, that wasn’t his MO.
“Yes. She must have business to discuss. Why don’t you go on back to the house and—”
“I’ll wait.” She smiled around him at Ashley and waved.
No doubt Ashley had waved back.
Now what?
He could leave Laura standing here, but Ashley would ask about her. How would he explain his reluctance to introduce them?
With limited options, this was a lose-lose scenario all around.
He exhaled.
May as well suck it up and do what any normal person would do under the circumstances. At least if he was hovering over the two women, the situation couldn’t get too far out of hand.
He hoped.
“I’ll introduce you. Come on.”
Leaving Laura to follow in his wake, Jon dodged Daisy’s taut leash as his canine friend lunged forward.
Ashley smiled as they approached. “I didn’t mean to interrupt, but I had a few questions. If you’re busy, I can ask them later, or tomorrow.”
“I’m not too busy.” He did the introductions quickly.
“Welcome to Edgecliff.” Ashley swept a hand over the house and gardens as she addressed Laura. “Who’s your friend?” As she bent to give the dog a pat, the pooch snuggled close to her leg, then rolled over for a belly rub.
“This is Daisy, Jon’s housemate.” Laura dropped down and joined in the canine lovefest. “Isn’t she a charmer?”
“I’ll say.”
“I decided to take her for a walk, and since Jon had promised to give me a tour—”
“Ashley, you said you had some questions?” Jon nudged his sister, and she wobbled. When she grabbed the hand he offered, he pulled her up. Fast.
Ashley stood too. “Yes. I was going over the plans for the gazebo garden again, and I noticed—”
“Hey, boss!”
What now?
Jon pivoted toward one of the members of the landscaping crew assigned to the gazebo area. “Yes?”
“We have questions.”
More bad timing.
“Kyle, you want to handle that?”
“Can’t. They already ran their questions by me, and I said you’d have to answer them. An executive decision is required.”
“You go on, Jon. I’ll wait for you.” Laura petted Daisy again.
He faced her. “Or you could go back to the house. I’ll be busy the rest of the day.”
“What about my tour?” Before he could respond, Laura turned her charm on Ashley. “My big brother has been promising me a peek at the grounds, but I’m leaving Sunday and he hasn’t had a spare minute to show me around.”
Her ploy was obvious.
But angling for an invitation wasn’t going to work.
“I told you tomorrow may—”
“I’d be happy to show—”
As he and Ashley spoke simultaneously, Jon took his sister’s arm and locked onto her gaze. “Let’s plan on tomorrow. Ashley’s busy, and she and I have business to discuss.”
“Actually, I have a free hour and my business can wait. You have more urgent issues to deal with.” She motioned toward his landscaping crew waiting by the gazebo for direction.
Laura smirked at him. “Run along, dear brother. I can see I’m in excellent hands. And I know I’ll get a much better tour from Ashley than I would from you.”
“What about Daisy?” A lame, grasping-at-straws excuse to nix an Ashley-led tour, but nothing else came to mind.
“You can clip her leash to the porch railing while we’re inside, if you like.” Ashley tipped her head toward the house.
“That’ll work. See you back at the house later, Jon.”
Without giving him a chance to protest, she started toward the house. Ashley fell in beside her, the two women already chatting like old friends.
“They seem to have hit it off.” Kyle watched them ascend the steps.
Yes, they did.
Unfortunately.
Because if his sister clicked with Ashley, taming his sister’s sometimes unruly romantic streak during the remaining three days of her stay would be a full-time job.
14
“You want me to do what?” Rose stared at Ashley from her chair at the kitchen table in the main house as their daily briefing wound down. Surely she’d misunderstood.
Ashley shifted in her seat and twined her fingers into a tight knot on the table. “It was Marci’s idea, actually. The Herald editor. She brought it up while she was here today for the interview, and I thought it was inspired.”