The Liar

“I’ll count on you right back. Well, look here, we’ve got us a handsome man come to call.”

“Miz Vi.” Matt walked over to the table, bent down to kiss her cheek. “Excuse the grunge. We just finished up for the day over at Bootlegger’s.”

“And how’s that coming?”

“We’ve got the footers in, ready for the inspector tomorrow. How are you, Shelby?”

“I’m good, thanks. Why don’t I go get you a cold drink?”

He lifted the bottle he carried. “Have Gatorade, will travel.”

“A glass with ice, then.”

“Real men don’t need glasses.” With a wink, he chugged straight from the bottle. “Emma Kate mentioned you wanted to talk to me. Just me.” Now he wiggled his eyebrows, made her laugh.

“I did, but I didn’t expect you to make time so soon. You’ve got a lot going on.”

“So do you. I heard you just headed off a string orchestra. Consider your feet kissed.”

“You sit on down,” Viola told him. “Take my chair,” she added as she rose. “I’m shuffling my tired feet home, and having myself a drink with more kick than tea. You behave yourself with my girl, Matthew.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“I’ll see you tomorrow, Granny. Love to Grandpa.”

“You have his,” Viola said as she went back inside.

“Is there anything else I should know about—now that we’ve avoided the cello?” Matt took a seat, stretched out his legs. Sighed. “God, that feels really good.”

“A man who works as hard as you ought to have Vonnie for a massage every week. Keep yourself loose and healthy.”

“Emma Kate’s always saying the same thing about yoga. I’d rather the massage than trying to twist myself into a pretzel.”

And he’d very likely rather be home now than sitting here waiting for her to get to the point.

“I didn’t expect to talk to you about this until after the party or I’d’ve had my thoughts more together on it. I was just talking to Granny about it. She and my mama are the only ones I’ve said anything to.”

“Not about the party, then.”

“No, not about that. That’s going to be just perfect, don’t worry. It’s . . .” She blew out a breath. “It’s that I’ve started to take some classes,” she began, and took him through it.

“Griff said you had an eye. You can’t always believe a man who’s got stars in his own, but I got a sample myself with what you did at our place. And it cost under two hundred to do it.”

“It was mostly just using what you already had in a different way.”

“It looks better. Fresher. And the idea of matting and framing her great-grandmother’s crocheted doilies? I wasn’t big on that—seemed too girly, too fussy, when she told me. But they look great.”

“Oh, they’re done?”

“She picked them up last night, and we hung them where you said. Even if I didn’t like it—and I do—the look on Emma Kate’s face once they were up would’ve been more than enough.”

“I’m so glad the idea worked, for both of you.”

“She’s itching to do something with the rest of the place now—I’d thank you for that, but it would be a lie. I’m trying to get her to hold off since we’re going to look at a piece of land Sunday afternoon.”

“You found something? Where?”

“Hardly more than a stone’s throw from Griff’s. Just under three acres, so not as much land as he’s got, but the same stream runs through it.”

“I bet it’s pretty. I didn’t think y’all wanted to move that far out of town.”

“Emma Kate’s a little nervous about it, but I think she’ll come around when she sees it. Maybe you could save your ideas for her until I start building.”

“Actually . . . I wanted to ask you—just you, Matt, not Griff, not Emma Kate—if you think, once I get my credentials, you could see your way clear to using me, if I seemed right and the job called for it. Or just mentioning my name to a client who maybe was thinking about using a decorator. I have two of my class projects right here on my phone.”

She pulled it out of her pocket. “It’s hard to see the details on the phone, but you’d see if you thought it worked overall.”

“You haven’t said anything to Griff?”

“No.” Once she’d found the projects, she handed Matt the phone. “He’d say yes because he wouldn’t want to tell me no, and so would Emma Kate. That’s not what I’m looking for, that’s not how I want to start out. I give you my word, if this doesn’t seem like something that you’d feel comfortable doing, I won’t say a thing to him or Emma Kate about it. I don’t want you to feel like I’m putting you in the middle of something.”

She took a breath while he studied her project, then flipped the screen to the second one.

“Your work, yours and Griff’s, is so good. And your reputation, even though you haven’t been around here all that long—not by Ridge standards—is already so solid. I think I could contribute to that. As an outside consultant.”

He flicked a glance up at her, then looked at the phone again. “You did these?”

“I did. There are written projects, too, but—”

“They’re good, Shelby. Really good.”

“Honestly?”

“Honestly and seriously. Griff does most of our design work, and he’ll step a toe into decorating if the client wants some guidance. You should show these to him.”