Page 64 of You Found Me
Della relaxed a little. Rachel thought Della should know whoshewas, not the other way around.
“Well, hello, Rachel Parry. Are those for sale? They look great.” Della eyed the platter of cookies with interest. Maybe she was the local charity bake sale organizer? Or a church rep?
“For sale?” Rachel’s voice came out strangled.
The woman next to her made a high-pitched squeak.
Rachel cleared her throat, and her smile grew sharp around the edges. “Wesaw Donovan drive through town earlier and thought he must be headed to the house.”
The way she said Donovan tickled Della’s interest. It was intimate, and possessive. She’d bet anything Ward and Rachel had dated at some point.
“Oh. Wow. That’s, uh, nice.” She wasn’t sure what else she was supposed to say. The woman must have eagle eyes to see into a truck going above the speed limit at sunset.
Talk about a radar. Well, well, well. Wasn’t this interesting?
“Anyway,” Rachel continued in a loftier, devil-may-care tone, “we knew there wasn’t any food in the house, so we thought we’d drop by with a little welcome home present. Is he here?”
Rachel craned her neck as if trying to see past Della.
Della wasn’t used to someone looking past her like that. It was an odd feeling. She was used to being the center of attention, not the one in the way.
It didn’t feel great, she had to admit.
Somewhere, Piper was laughing her ass off and didn’t know why.
“Sorry, no.” An evil impulse seized her. “Donny’sat the store. I’ll be sure to tell him you stopped by though. Rachel, right? And…” Della turned her attention to the smaller woman.
“Oh,” the brunette glanced at Rachel, “I’m Gretchen. We?—”
“We’re school friends of…Donny,” Rachel interrupted. “Funny, he used tohatebeing called that.” Her words were laced with too much honey. Della knew that tone. Her sister used it on handsy roadies from time to time. “You don’t mind if we wait for him, do you? It’s been so long since we’ve seen him.”
Rachel brushed past Della with her tray of brownies and her attitude. She continued down the hallway like she knew the place. Intimately.
“I guess not,” Della told her retreating back.
Gretchen hesitated, giving Della a rueful look. “Do you mind if we drop these in the kitchen?”
“Would it matter if I did?” Della grinned at her to soften the words. Whoever these two were, she was absolutely certain they weren’t stalking her. Ward maybe, but not her. “I’m sure Donny would hate it if he missed seeing his friends. Come on in.”
Gretchen flashed an apologetic smile, then followed after Rachel.
Della glanced at the street, but there was no sign of life out there, so she shut the door and locked it before following her visitors.
She couldn’t wait to ask her warden about Rachel. Were they high-school sweethearts? Why did they break up? She sensed a country song in the making.
She found Rachel rummaging through the cabinet and Gretchen hovering next to the island looking sheepish.
Rachel pulled out a stack of plates and set them down next to the brownies. “I’m sorry, I don’t know where my manners went. I didn’t catch your name.”
“Oh.” A disconnected feeling circled through Della. She hadn’t had to introduce herself since she was a teenager. She was used to hearing her name screamed, chanted, or whispered everywhere she went. It felt odd to have to tell someone her name. Well, her fake name, anyway.
“I’m Lucy Carmichael.” Her transformation into small-town girl hadn’t felt real until she said her name out loud to people she’d never met.
Now there it was, out in the open.
She slid into the rest of the role she was supposed to play with a wicked grin. “Donny’s girlfriend.”
Chapter Twelve