Stand-In Wife by Karina Bliss Page B

trying to hide it. When I arrived Linda was taking the sampler down to burn it.”
    “What!”
    “She told me.”
    He huffed out a breath. “She really was a piece of work.”
    “So, you going to help me move this or what?”
    When he’d hauled it forward, Viv crouched down and slid her arm into the gap. “I can feel something…yes…it’s a frame.” She pulled out the sampler and held it out butRoss didn’t take it. “Don’t you dare feel guilty,” she said. “Meanness killed Linda.”
    His gaze met hers, for once unguarded. The anguish shocked her. “Should I tell Charlie?”
    “That his mother was a vindictive horrible woman? I wouldn’t,” she advised.
    His shoulders relaxed and he accepted the sampler. “Thank you,” he said gruffly. Smiled.
    “Don’t mention it.” Viv turned to pick up Linda’s accessories. Because her reaction to that smile was far from sisterly.
     
    “I’ M HUNGRY ,” T ILLY ANNOUNCED as she climbed into the backseat of Ross’s Range Rover.
    “Say hello to your uncle.” Viv dumped Tilly’s bag and morning’s drawings at her niece’s feet.
    “HelloUncleRoss.” She returned her attention to Viv. “Can we get McDonald’s on the way home?”
    “That’s only for treats, honey. If you’re hungry, eat what’s in your lunch box. Right now we’re going to choose flowers for Nana Lin.”
    Tilly gave her a meaningful look. “But you said I could have whatever I want, remember? ”
    “That’s not exactly what I said.” Viv laughed nervously, acutely conscious that Ross had slung an arm over the back of the driver’s seat and was also sending her a meaningful look. Oh, hell. “Anyway—” she leaned forward to help Tilly with her seat belt “—we’ll talk about it later, okay?” She launched a meaningful stare of her own.
    “But that’s not—”
    “You heard your mother, Attilla.” Ross ruffled his niece’s hair and faced the steering wheel. “Let it go now.”
    Tilly folded her arms and sat back, her mouth set in a mutinous line.
    “Good girl,” Viv encouraged. Shutting the door on her niece’s sulky face she returned to the front passenger seat, hot and sweaty under the coat she couldn’t take off. Crisis averted. Ross started the ignition and the SUV rumbled out of the school parking lot.
    “Tilly was helping out with the kindergarten class this morning,” Viv said brightly to Ross.
    “Yeah?” In the rearview mirror, he grinned at Tilly. “So what did you teach them?”
    “I read stories and said their drawings were good an’ stuff…. Uncle Ross, do you know my auntie Viv?”
    Viv stiffened. The little rat.
    “I met her at your mum and dad’s wedding but that was a long time ago. Why?”
    “Just wondered.”
    “Look.” Viv pointed. “A Prius. One of those eco-cars.”
    “McDonald’s recycles,” said Tilly.
    Ross laughed. “Nice try, kid.”
    “You can tell me all about it later, ” Viv stressed.
    “Did Auntie Viv look the same as Mum when you saw her, Uncle Ross?”
    Flipping down the passenger visor, Viv pretended to check her makeup in the inset mirror and glared at her niece. Tilly glared back.
    “Not at all.” Ross braked to allow a car waiting for a gap in the traffic to pull in front of him. “Her hair was white with pink streaks in it.”
    Even locked in a stare-off with Tilly, Viv heard the male speculation in his voice. “So you were tempted.”
    “What?” Ross said, confused.
    “Nothing.” Damn it. She’d blinked. And if Tilly’s smirk was anything to go by, she’d read that as victory.
    “McDonald’s is coming up, Mum, ” she said in a singsong voice. “Last chance to change your mi-i-ind.”
    “You know it’s the darndest thing—” Viv snapped the visor closed “—I know it’s only ten-thirty but I suddenly find myself craving chicken nuggets. Pull in, Ross.”
    “You’re giving in?”
    “Don’t miss the turn.”
    Shaking his head in disgust, he swung the car into McD’s drive-through