“An NDA.”
“A what?” Finn asks.
“Nondisclosure agreement,” Vaughn supplies.
There’s no mockery in Vaughn’s tone for once, but I sense Finn stiffen anyway. The man doesn’t have a lot of soft spots, but feeling dumb is one of them. Especially when compared to Vaughn.
“Mr. Walcott here’s already signed one,” she says, gesturing at Vaughn, who’s signed no such thing.
I, of course, have already signed it, but I sign this one as well, as Noah Maxwell.
“Sign it,” I snap at Finn. “It just says that you can’t tell anyone you saw her here.”
“Well, that sucks,” he mutters as he scribbles his name acr
oss the bottom of the paper.
“Perfect,” she says with a little wink for Finn. “You never saw me. Got it?”
Finn shrugs. “Sure.”
She gives me an expectant look, and I glare at her. “I’m stuck here with you, princess. Who’m I gonna tell, the mosquitos?”
“Well, you’ll have to leave the property at some point,” she says pragmatically. “Surely you get a day off. How do I know you won’t tell people at the local Piggly Wiggly or whatever?”
I glance at Vaughn. “Boss? Do I get time off?”
“Sure. Whatever. Two days off,” Vaughn says impatiently, obviously tiring of the game.
Time to wrap this up.
“I’ll need to go get some food,” I say. “You’re a day early, and we weren’t prepared.”
“I’m sorry about that,” she says, sounding genuinely contrite. “I emailed and then tried to call, asking if it was okay, but the call went straight to voicemail.”
“No service out here.”
I say that with no small amount of glee, expecting her to freak out, but she sighs in relief. “Perfect. That’s perfect. And I stopped at the store on the way. Plenty for both of us. I‘m assuming you‘re living in that little cottage? The one where the Eddingtons lived.”
That little cottage.
As in the caretaker’s cottage that I didn’t know existed, much less where it’s actually located.
The reality of my situation is setting in, and I come very close to calling a halt to my little charade, but then I remember the stubbornness on Yvonne’s face when I tried to tell her the wedding was off.
Over my dead body, Preston, she said.
Yeah, no. I’ll be taking my chances here with the Nashville princess, thanks.
Jenny tugs the NDA out of my hand with two pink fingernails before going to the car and putting the papers back in the passenger seat. She retrieves her yapping dog and a guitar case.
“It was lovely to meet you, Mr. Walcott,” she tells Vaughn with a smile. “You look nothing like your father, but you’re every bit as lovely.”
Finn snorts around his cigarette but covers with a cough when she turns her smile on him.
“Lovely to meet you as well, Mr. Reed. I’m sure Mr. Maxwell will be in touch if there are any further problems with the wiring.”
“Yes, ma’am,” he says, barely hiding a smile. The only thing Finn knows about wiring is how to hot-wire a car.