“And you’re fishing,” Lucas told her. There was no heat in his accusation because, well, he’d been expecting this ever since he heard Maria’s mmm. He could hide a lot from everyone else, including his ex, but not his sister. “Besides, she’s married.” He hesitated, then realized that he’d have to tell Maria the truth eventually. “Or she was. Her husband’s one of mine now.”
A spark of recognition lit up her pale eyes. “Wait... that’s her? The outsider whose husband was found throttled in Bonnie’s inn?”
“How did you— no. Don’t tell me. I don’t want to know.”
Ever since her attack, Maria rarely left the house she’d spent years painstakingly turning into a bed and breakfast. She had a radio—Lucas insisted on it—so it wasn’t unusual for her to be involved in Hamlet’s gossip mill. He just never expected her to learn about Sullivan’s murder so quickly. The last thing he wanted was for Maria to have a setback because another outsider had died in Hamlet.
Lucas gave her a quick once-over, taking her in with his practiced doctor’s eye. His younger sister actually seemed excited at the news. Since Sullivan’s murder meant that she had Tessa Sullivan as her first guest in more than a year, he guessed she was allowed a little excitement.
It was his fault, too. He’d point blank refused to allow her to open Ophelia’s doors after what Turner put her through. And, there he was, insisting that s
he look after this new outsider. He had to. Otherwise, Tessa would be staying with Deputy Walsh and, well, that was just not going to happen.
Reaching out, he gave Maria a one-armed squeeze. “Thanks for doing this for me. You sure you don’t mind?”
“Not at all, Luc. It gets lonely here in this big house. You don’t stay hardly enough—”
Lucas snorted. Drawing his arm back, he moved around Maria, opening the cabinet above the rangehood. He took out a half-eaten box of cookies and shook it. “If I stayed here instead of at my place, you’d have to find a better hiding spot.”
Maria watched as Lucas opened the box and grabbed a handful of cookies. She held out her hand. He obediently placed two cookies against her waiting palm. “You’re lucky I love you enough to share my cookies.”
Because his mouth was stuffed, he only managed a nod in response. Lucas tried to blow her a kiss, spraying chewed up cookie crumbs on his shirt.
She kept a stack of napkins on the small two-seater table in the kitchen. “Here,” she said, handing him one. As Lucas knocked the crumbs to the floor—and she made a mental note to mop later—Maria brought the conversation back to Tessa Sullivan. “Tell me about the outsider. You only said to get one room ready, nothing else. How long will she be here?”
His hand clenched reflexively, his dirty napkin crumpling in his fist. “I’m not sure. Caity wants her to stick around. No surprise, she didn’t want to stay at the inn after what happened to her husband—no,” he said, cutting her off as she began to ask. “I won’t tell you what happened to him so don’t even start.”
“You’re no fun.”
Older brothers rarely were. He gave her another one of her cookies as a peace offering. Then he grabbed two more to munch on himself. “I don’t want you to worry, Maria. Caity might disregard it, but this Tessa, she has an alibi. She’s just another victim. I wouldn’t bring her here if I thought there was any danger in it. Trust me.”
“I’m not worried. Honest,” she insisted when her brother’s skeptical expression judged her without a word. “Besides, she’s such a small thing. I could break her in half if I had to. I don’t have to be afraid that she’ll— never mind that.”
“Turner should’ve suffered more for what he did to you,” Lucas muttered darkly.
“Tried to do. I fought him off, didn’t I?”
That didn’t make him feel any better. “That won’t ever happen again.”
“Of course not, Luc. You made sure of it.”
Lucas froze, the last of the cookies halfway to his mouth. “I did? How?”
“The locks,” Maria reminded him.
He thought about that, chewed on his cookie, nodded. “You’re right. Those locks were worth every penny I paid that outsider to install them. He ripped me off royally, but it was still worth it. Hey, you got some milk?”
“In the fridge. Cups are—”
“I know where they are. I’ll pour us each a glass. You take a seat.”
Though she immediately grabbed one of the two chairs, pulling it out in order to sit down at the table, Maria couldn’t keep back her protest.
“I have a guest, Lucas. I have to check on her, and start supper, and make sure she has everything she needs. If I’m starting over with Ophelia, everything has to be perfect. She’s an outsider. What if she tells her friends about my place? I could rent out the rest of the rooms, run my B&B again. This is what I’ve been waiting for.”
Lucas let his sister’s voice wash over him as he poured out the milk and brought the two glasses over to the table. She had a point. Though she never made any indication that Hamlet was too small for her, he knew that Maria’s dream was to run her successful boarding house. She loved her community and wanted to share it with the world.
It was Maria’s one downfall that she actually welcomed outsiders—apart from having a sudden desire to keep Deputy Walsh away from Tessa, he knew that Ophelia was probably the best place for her to stay. No one else in Hamlet would treat her as graciously as Maria De Angelis.