Runaway Wolfes of Manhattan Three - Helen Hardt Page 0,20
me anything else about my fake brother.
I was thankful, but surprised. Matt wasn’t the type to give up on a quest for information. I’d already learned that in the two days I’d known him.
Blue returned to the counter.
“I guess I’ll take you back to the cabin,” Matt said.
I nodded, though I was saddened. I didn’t want to say goodbye to Matt. I had no idea when I’d see him next, if at all.
“Can we walk around town a little first?” I asked.
“Sure, but I have a job in a couple hours.”
“Oh?”
“Yeah. Just some handiwork for another resident. This one pays me.” He smiled.
“What do you need to do?”
“Replace a pipe under the sink in her kitchen.”
“Don’t you have a plumber in town?”
“We do, but he’s not always available, so I take the easier jobs.”
“Replacing a pipe is an easier job?”
“It’s pretty cut and dried, honey, and Leena pays me a hundred bucks for most odd jobs I do for her, so I rarely say no.”
“I see.” Leena? Sounded like a stripper’s name to me.
“But I only need to get to that before six, so I can take a few hours to show you around town. What do you want to see?”
I smiled. “Everything.”
He laughed. “Your wish is my command. Where do you want to start?”
“It’s your town. What should I see?”
“All right.” We walked out of his little shop and turned to view it from the street.
“The Silver Shoppe. Cute name.”
“My mom suggested it.”
“Oh? I’d love to meet your mom.”
“You can’t, honey.”
“Does she live somewhere else?”
“No. She’s dead.”
“Oh.” God, what an idiot I was. “I’m so sorry.”
“It’s okay. You didn’t know. She died when I was a teen. Her brother—my uncle—raised me after that.”
“What about your father?”
He cleared his throat. “Not in the picture.”
“I see.” Matt didn’t know how lucky he was. My mother was a bitch, but my father made her look like a saint. How I wished my father had never been in the picture.
I’d be a lot more whole if he hadn’t been.
“My uncle was a great guy. I think I told you I inherited the cabins from him. One gives me shelter and the other provides me with a nice income. All I have to do is pay the property taxes and insurance. And upkeep, of course.”
“But you do most of that yourself.”
“How did you know that?”
“You told me. You said you’d install a new garbage disposal when the one in the cabin finally died.”
He laughed. “That’s right. I did. No use paying a plumber for something I can do myself.”
“Not to get too personal, but did you work with silver as a teen? Because you said your mom suggested the name for the shop.”
He cleared his throat again. “She did, actually. It was always her dream to open up a shop, and that’s what she wanted to call it. She taught me everything I know. When I opened my shop, I wanted to pay her homage.”
“She was a silversmith too?”
“Yeah. A true artist, but she didn’t do it for a business. She had a kid to feed. She waited tables over at the truck stop in the next town. Lousy hours but good tips, so I spent a lot of time with my uncle anyway when Mom wasn’t around.”
“I’m sure you must miss her.”
“Always will.” He didn’t meet my gaze.
Was it hard for him to talk about his mother? It seemed to be.
“Here’s something you’ll like.” He held the door open to the little shop next to his. “All antiques. Bess has a great eye. Dealers from all over Montana come here to look at her offerings.”
I smiled. “I love antiques.” I followed Matt into the shop and—
Tripped like an idiot over a step I didn’t see.
“Honey, are you all right?”
“Just embarrassed.”
Matt pointed to the sign outside the door.
Watch your step.
Nice. Too bad I hadn’t bothered to read it.
My purse lay on the floor, and several things had fallen out. Shit. Matt picked up my compact, my change purse, and my pack of cigarettes, stuffed them back into my purse, and handed it to me.
“You smoke?” he asked.
“No. I mean…only sometimes. It relaxes me a little.”
“Oh.”
As much as I’d learned to be a proficient liar, thanks to Derek Wolfe, I’d never developed a taste for it.
I especially hated lying to Matt. Plus, I was really bad at it.
For some reason, I wanted to be ridiculously truthful with Matt. Which was a stupid idea, because if he knew every bit of truth about me, he’d go