Sweet Heart (The Hearts of Sawyers Bend #2) - Ivy Layne Page 0,86

down. Didn't know if I wanted to.

Grams nodded, then hesitated. I braced. “Daisy,” she said slowly, “I talked to your father about the money you said you gave him. He said he didn't know what I was talking about. When I checked the account, it showed a transfer to you, but that was it.”

I just stared at her, puzzle pieces clicking into place inside my brain. “We had a contract. Of course, we had a contract. It's up in my apartment.”

My apartment that had been broken into. I went straight to the sink to strip off my gloves and wash my hands. Grams followed behind. I didn't want her to see the mess upstairs and worry more.

“I'll go get it and bring it back down,” I said, heading for the stairs.

Grams didn't follow, just watched me leave, her eyes sad.

Chapter Thirty-Four

Daisy

I was pretty sure what I would find when I opened my closet. I hadn't thought to check my file box earlier that morning. For the most part, it was full of bills, the paperwork on my car, and not much else. I'd forgotten about the contract.

The file box was shoved in the back of my closet since I didn't use it much. It was tipped on its side, papers strewn over the floor mixed with my shoes and the clothes that had been pulled off the hangers.

Everything else looked like it was there, but the contract was missing. Damn.

My mind raced. Now I had a suspect for the break-in. What was I supposed to do?

Call Royal. That was my first instinct.

Call West. Not something I wanted to do, but probably something I should do.

Think it over while you finish the cakes. That I could do.

I was mid-process on both and only an hour or two from finishing them. If my hunch was right and my dad had broken in to steal the contract, another hour or two wouldn't make a big difference. I wanted to go to Grams' house and check his room to see if the contract was there, but if I went rushing out my parents would be suspicious. Especially after I'd made such a big deal about finishing the cakes.

The last stages on my custom cakes felt like they took a million years. No one came back into the kitchen, leaving me to work in peace. I heard the two housekeepers from The Inn climb the stairs not long before I finished.

When I was done with the cakes, I stored them in the cooler, stopped at the laptop on the desk to sign out of my personal email and cloud account, and packed my favorite coffee mug and the rest of my things from the desk.

That done, I was ready to leave. I didn't bother going to the front to let them know. Better if they thought I was still back in the kitchen, working on the cakes. Before I headed to Grams' house, I went upstairs one more time.

The two housekeepers were young, just out of high school, fresh-faced, and not at all daunted by the disaster that was my apartment.

I recognized one of them. Chocolate silk pie and black coffee. She looked up and grinned. “Hey, Daisy! Sorry about this. Are you okay?”

“I'm good.” I faked a smile back. “Thanks for doing this. I really appreciate it.”

“No problem!” She grinned again. “I'm saving up for a new car, and Kristi wants to go to Cancun with her boyfriend, so we could both use the extra cash.”

A thought occurred to me. “Hey, when you do the bedroom and the bathroom, instead of putting my stuff away, could you pack it? I'm going to be moving, so it doesn't make sense to put it all back in the closet when I'm just going to take it back out again.”

“Sure, no problem! Moving in with Royal?” She shot me a wink. I tried to smile back.

“Maybe. I'm still deciding.”

I got out my suitcases and said a quick hello to Kristi, who'd already started in the bedroom. She was as enthusiastic and perky as the first girl, whose name I didn't remember. Promising she was on top of it, Kristi ushered me out and on my way. I was more than happy to go. I owed Royal big time for this.

I speed-walked to Grams' house. Now that I was on the move, I wanted this done. If he had taken the contract, he'd probably destroyed it. Unless he hadn't had a chance. Looking for it was the