Unforgettable
Page 23

What am I going to do?
I quickly dial the number Juliet gave me for her contractor brother-in-law, Ryland, and explain my situation. “Sure, I’ll be right over,” he says. “I’ve got some time today.”
“Thank you!” I cry, relieved. “Whatever you can do will be a huge help.”
Twenty minutes later, a tall, dark-haired man shows up on my doorstep with a toolbox—and some familiar faces in tow. “Juliet, Emerson!” I greet them, surprised. “And…” I stop. It’s the petite girl from the diner that day.
Ash’s sister.
“Tegan,” she reminds me, with a pixieish grin. “Ryland’s my better half, so when I heard you needed some help…”
“Wow, thanks. You’re all being so nice and helpful, I can’t believe it.” I blink. “When I locked my keys in my apartment in New York, all my neighbors ignored me sitting in the hallway for hours.”
“Well, we’re family here.” Juliet smiles. “Literally!”
“So where do you want me?” Ryland asks. I show them the crumbling portion of the roof, and where I didn’t risk climbing to paint the trim. Soon, he and Emerson are up a ladder, hammering and painting, and all sorts besides.
Ryland strips off his shirt and mops his brow.
“Not bad, huh?” Tegan says, catching me looking. I blush. Between him and Emerson, there’s no shortage of muscles and dark-eyed charm.
“Do you guys have something in the water here?” I ask, half-joking.
She and Juliet laugh. “We don’t complain. Anyway, what can we do to help?” Juliet turns to look at the house.
“You don’t have to do that,” I protest.
“We want to,” Tegan insists. “You need everything to be perfect for this Buffy woman.”
“Bunny,” I correct her. “And if you really mean it…”
We leave the men to their sweaty labor and head back inside. Juliet offers to go over the books for me, so I show her to the office files, then get to work with Tegan cleaning out the best room in the house. Nana and Kayla left everything spotless, but I don’t want to take any chances, so I strip the bed again and remake it with crisp new sheets, while Tegan polishes every surface in the room until it’s gleaming.
“Ash never told me how you guys met,” Tegan says, pausing to push her choppy bangs back from her face.
“It was a party, in New York,” I say vaguely. Just thinking about Ash makes me flush again: remembering my drunken paint-splattered proposition, and how he couldn’t run away fast enough.
“My brother, at a party? That doesn’t sound like him.” Tegan giggles.
“It was a charity fundraiser thing.” I pause, picturing him in that highway bandit mask, his dark eyes glittering under the city lights. “A masquerade.”
“Fun!” Tegan squirts Windex at the mirror. “He’s so mysterious all the time, I don’t know anything about his life. I never meet any of his friends. Or girlfriends.”
She shoots me a sideways look. I focus on making perfect hospital corners.
“What about you?” Tegan tries a different track. “Are you seeing anyone?”
“Nope,” I reply, casual. “I never had the time.”
“But you do now,” Tegan presses, still watching me. “That’s why you moved here, right? So you could relax, smell the roses, enjoy the life out of the rat race…”
“How do you know all that?” I ask, surprised.
She grins. “I’m very intuitive. And I got Juliet to spill,” she adds.
I relax. “It’s true. Although I didn’t figure on Bunny Vanderberg showing up to cast judgment on the place quite so soon.” I stand back and study the room: perfect. “Should we do the other rooms, too?” I ask, worried. “She might go snooping around.”
“Someone with a name like Bunny is definitely going to go snooping,” Tegan agrees. “Let’s play it safe.”
We move on to the rest of the guest suites. Luckily, the Petersons and Kellers are all out for the day, so they’re not around for our whirlwind cleaning mission. I scrub the already-clean bathroom floors until they’re shining, and Tegan sets fresh-cut flowers in every room.
We take a break, gulping icy lemonade in the kitchen. Tegan gets a text alert on her phone and checks it. Her face lights up. “Dex’s new single is in the Top Ten!”
“Dex?”
“Brother number two, you met him the other day.” Tegan explains, quickly tapping out a text. “Tall, dark, tattoos. He’s in The Reckless.”
“I’ve heard of them!” I exclaim. Even in my work-obsessed bubble, I know that they’re a pretty major rock band. “That’s amazing.”
“He pretends to be so over it,” Tegan smirks, “but I know he’s just itching to get that number one spot again.”
“So it’s just the three of you?” I ask, curious to learn more about Ash’s past.
“Four. The other one, Blake, is out in LA,” she explains. “But you’ve probably seen him glowering at you on a billboard somewhere. ‘Judgement Day is coming,’” she says dramatically. It takes me a moment to recognize the slogan from a big movie that’s just come out. There was a billboard right opposite my office, I would see him every day going into work.
“Wow, your parents must be insufferable,” I laugh, “bragging to all their friends about their famous kids.”