“Yes, ma’am.” He sat and gestured outside, trying to buy himself a little time to think. “What is all this?”
“A fundraising gala for the Hero’s Help Alliance. We were hoping Cecily would come home for it, as the organization was her brainchild.”
“A bit late for that, isn’t it?” Reed asked, then wanted to bite his tongue as her brows rose.
“I beg your pardon?”
Well, he was in it now. “Y’all pretty neatly cut her out, so why would she want to come back and have her biggest failure thrown in her face?”
Mrs. Dixon looked truly shocked. “Failure? The Alliance wasn’t a failure.”
“She thinks it was. She thinks she let the whole family down because of what that—” Reed managed to cut the profanity short. “Of what her ex did.”
“We don’t blame her for the actions of that asshole.” This came from the doorway.
The speaker was a tall man with silver shot hair the same dark shade as Cecily’s. Her father, Reed figured. Beside him, a tall, willowy girl looked Reed up and down in blatant curiosity.
“She thinks you do,” Reed said quietly. “She’s spent the last few years working her tail off to become the best in her field because she wants to feel worthy of the family name again.”
Mr. Dixon stepped into the room. “I’m sorry, who are you?”
Reed rose and offered his hand to the other man, but before he could speak, the girl interrupted, “You’re him.”
“Sorry?”
“Bookstore guy. The reason she doesn’t want to leave Mississippi.”
“Blair?” he guessed.
She nodded.
“I’m Reed. And at the moment I’m the reason she did leave Mississippi. But she’s got bad information, and I have to talk to her. Do you know where she is?”
Blair shook her head. “I haven’t talked to her in several days. But when I did she was happy. What did you do?”
He absorbed the accusation as another woman came in with a coffee service. “Not what she thinks I did.” In his pocket, his phone began to ring. He pulled it out to check the read out and saw it was the bookstore. “I’m sorry, I need to take this.” Reed hit answer. “Is she back?”
There was a hesitation on the other end before Brenda said, “No, she’s not back. That’s not why I’m calling.”
“Then whatever it is can wait.”
“No it can’t. Did you get Dinah McClure to agree to a signing here?”
Reed blinked. “No. Why would you think that?”
“Because all our social media accounts say that she is. The streams are blowing up. Everybody’s telling everybody. There are people coming all the way from Jackson to attend the alleged signing. Tonight. The only person in the romance community who might stir up an even bigger fuss would be Nora Roberts.”
“This doesn’t make any sense. Have you checked Dinah McClure’s social media to see if there’s any corroboration?” Reed was aware of something shifting in the room behind him, but couldn’t stop to analyze it.
“She’s a well-known recluse. She doesn’t do social media.”
“Well, she’s not coming, so we need to take it down. It’s bad enough Becker had to cancel. If people think somebody as prestigious as Dinah McClure is taking his place and show up to nothing, they’re gonna be furious.”
“I can’t take it down,” Brenda said.
“Why not?”
“All the passwords have been changed. I’m locked out of the accounts entirely.”