Dani frowned.
Aiden continued without thinking, “Everyone knows—Erica knew you were coming back. She made all her friends promise to be really nice to you. Only Julia’s the stick-in-the-mud. Kelley Lynn promised, but she thought you needed time to adjust being back home, so anyway, Kelley Lynn will only be too happy to help us. She’ll probably even help with decorations.”
“Decorations?”
“Yeah. Anything Robbie has won’t be good enough for Father Dearest.”
Aiden raced around a corner, and Dani grabbed the door handle to keep from falling. “Won’t your father think it’s weird that you give him your house and don’t stay there?’
“No. He’ll think I did it to spite him.” Aiden shrugged. “It’s something I’d do. The problem is,” Aiden continued, rambling to herself, “is that I need really rich stuff, but I can’t afford to buy it all.”
“What about your kids’ rooms and their stuff?”
“Oh, no. I’ll just tell him that they stay at the nanny’s house. He’ll believe that. He has no clue.”
Dani was taken aback.
“We’ll need bedding, a few rugs, probably a new set of dishes, um…what else, what else?”
“A chandelier?”
Aiden lit up. “Yes! Of course! Mae has one at the Grill! You think she’d let us borrow it?”
Dani frowned. Uh…what? She’d been joking.
“Okay. Okay. You explain it all to Mae. That’s your other job. Would Mae let us use some of her fancy dishes? You know the ones that she pulls out for the ‘hoity-toity’ crowd? She always says that.”
“Uh—” The truth was that she’d probably do it. And she’d definitely do it for a laugh at the expense of some of those ‘hoity-toity’ folk, but that meant Dani would have to talk to her aunt. The big emotional upheaval that her adoption talk would be hadn’t happened yet. She wasn’t ready to see her. “Why don’t you call Jonah and recruit him for that? I’ll be too busy handling Kelley Lynn, and you know she adores Jonah.”
“Hmm!” Aiden pointed at her, snapping her fingers. “That’s a good idea. You’re good at this.” Then her eyebrows bunched together in concentration again. “Okay. Plan of attack.” Then Aiden punched a button on her car. “Call Jonah.” A dial tone sounded through the speakers, but Aiden grabbed an earpiece and popped it in. Dani soon heard, “Hey, I need a favor…well, drop what you’re doing. I don’t care. This is ground zero time.”
Dani was in awe.
“Yeah—still not caring.” Aiden rushed over her brother’s protests. “Dad is staying at Robbie’s house tonight…yes—he’ll think it’s mine…shut up. You have to go and talk to Mae. Get her to let us borrow the chandelier and anything ritzy that would impress Dad.” Another moment and she interrupted again, “Not caring. You will do this, or you will not be eating at my house ever again.”
The call ended soon after that, and she beamed at Dani, parking at the same time. “Mission accomplished. Well, part of the mission.” She nodded to Robbie’s building. “This is DEFCON one to DEFCON zero. We’re going in.”
“Do you even know what that means?”
“No.”
Aiden smirked in triumph at Kelley Lynn’s offers to help with anything. Robbie took a little smooth talking, but after a quick word in private with Aiden, he offered anything and all that he owned to impress Daddy Warbucks.
Dani rode with Kelley Lynn to her own friends and family members. Impressive thread-count bedding was offered. Anything Kelley Lynn asked for, she got. She held everyone in the palm of her hand and Dani was experiencing acute déjà vu.
Erica had operated the same way.
She felt a weird sense of nostalgia, but disregarded it. That was ridiculous.
After they’d gotten added offers of a Jacuzzi and even a pool table, Kelley Lynn decided they got enough. She studied Dani a moment before starting her car. “You’ve been watching me. There’s watching and there’s watching and you’re watching.”
“People like to help you.”
Her hand let go of the keys. She still hadn’t turned the car on. “That’s not what this is about.”
“It’s not?” Dani itched for the door handle, but she stayed. She held firm because she was turning away from her running ways.
“This is about Erica.” Kelley Lynn leaned back in her seat.
Dani lied through her teeth, “I’m just amazed at how much you’ve gotten to help Aiden.”
“I’m not doing this for Aiden. Those people aren’t doing it for Aiden either, or me.” Kelley Lynn continued, “They’re doing this for Jonah.”
Not what Dani expected. “You, too?”
“I dated Jonah for a while, and I remembered him talking about his dad. A real piece of work, right?”
Dani frowned as a few raindrops splattered their windshield. “So, if Dave calls…?”
“Then I’m helping out an old friend.”
“And that’s Jonah? Or Aiden?”
“No.” Kelley Lynn shook her head. “You.”
She was stumped again. “Huh?”
“Dave’s a bit insecure when it comes to Jonah.”
That didn’t make sense either. “Just Jonah?”