“Yeah. Is he serious? About insisting I’m really Andrew, I mean.”
“Sometimes it’s hard to tell with Pop,” she admitted. “He can carry on a joke for days without ever cracking a smile. But he can also get an idea in his head that you couldn’t shake with a jackhammer. If he’s really decided you’re Andrew, it would take the two of you standing side by side in front of him to convince him otherwise. And I’m not certain even that would do it,” she added with a rueful laugh.
Aaron laughed with her. “He reminds me a little of Vinnie D’Alessandro. He’s the grandfather of some of my cousins. Older than your Pop—Vinnie’s over ninety—but just as pigheaded.”
She stared fiercely out the windshield as she made the short drive to his cabin. “That, uh, crack my mom made. About me being like Pop?”
“I could tell that ticked you off.”
Had she been so transparent? She hadn’t even realized he was looking at her. “Anyway, I’m not imagining that there’s something strange about Terrence Landon. Maybe he’s not doing anything illegal, but he’s definitely weird.”
“You should probably not hang around staring at him unless you want him to disappear in the middle of the night or something. If he’s up to something illegal, he’ll bolt for fear that you’re onto him. If he’s not, he’ll take off because you’ve creeped him out. Now, maybe it’s your objective to get him to leave....”
She parked behind his car in the short driveway to his cabin. “No. I mean, if he’s not up to anything...well, nefarious, as you called it, then I don’t want to run off a paying customer.”
“So you’ll stop watching him and let me keep an eye out—maybe a bit more discreetly?”
“Actually, I’ve been thinking about that.”
She heard a faint sound that might have been a muffled groan, and she shot a quick, suspicious look at Aaron, but his expression was bland. “What have you been thinking?” he asked a little warily.
“Well, I can see where it would look odd if I keep hanging around your place for no apparent reason. Landon could think I’m watching him, and other people—well, they might wonder if I’m chasing after you or something. Which I’m totally not doing,” she assured him firmly.
Aaron nodded. His expression was still innocuous, but she thought she saw a new glint of amusement in his dark eyes, which only made her frown. “Anyway,” she continued doggedly, “maybe if you could flirt with me a little—you know, like you’re interested in me—I could act like I might be interested in return.”
“A summer flirtation.”
“Something like that,” she agreed. “It would probably be more believable if you were hitting on Maggie, or even Lori, but neither of them are interested in finding out what’s going on with Landon. Maggie thinks I’m letting my imagination run away with me and Lori just doesn’t care, so neither of them would go along with it. Not that I’d want them to, anyway. I’m the one who noticed something off with the guy, and I want to find out for myself if my instincts were right again.”
He followed her somewhat disjointed plan easily enough, apparently, though one comment seemed to particularly intrigue him. “Why would it be more believable if I was interested in your cousin or your sister? And by the way, I don’t hit on young college students, regardless.”
Nice to know, she thought. “Guys tend to notice Maggie. Well, when Hannah’s not around, anyway. Hannah’s the one who makes men walk into walls.”
“And what about you?” he asked, studying her face a little too closely.
Shelby shrugged. “I’m everyone’s pal. But just for the next few days, maybe you could pretend to flirt with me? That would give me a reason to hang around here some—if you don’t mind, that is?”
“I wouldn’t mind at all having you hang around me. And I don’t think it would be such a hardship to flirt with you.”
She giggled in response to his tone. “Thanks. I could probably use the practice. It’s been a while since...”
She shook her head. “Anyway, we could kill several birds with one stone this way. We can keep an eye on Landon and if I’m right that he’s using our resort for his own shady purposes, my family will have to admit that my instincts about people are better than they think. And I have to confess that having a good-looking guy like you flirting with me would be good for my ego. The family’s been worried that my last boyfriend broke my heart when he dum—er, when we broke up a few months ago.”
“Did he break your heart?”
Shelby sighed gustily. “No, he did not. Maybe he bruised my pride a little—I mean, I sort of selfishly wish I’d been the one to break it off first, but it was bound to happen eventually, anyway. Pete felt stifled by having my family around all the time, and he was impatient with my responsibilities to the resort, which keep me pretty busy. But if I spend a little time with you, and then politely break it off with you, they’ll see that I’m in no hurry to get hooked up with anyone else. That I’m perfectly content with my life the way it is for now. That makes sense, right?”
“So, you’re going to shoot me down in front of your family in order to convince them that you aren’t looking for a man in your life.”
She winced, but he seemed more amused than annoyed. “Well, yes. I guess that’s a lot to ask.”
“I’m starting to get used to it.” Sitting sideways in the passenger seat, one arm draped behind him as he watched her, Aaron cocked his head. “Is everything an elaborate scheme with you?”
She shifted uncomfortably in her seat. “Not everything.”
Looking away from his too-perceptive gaze, she saw the blinds twitch in the front window of Cabin Seven. “I think Landon is spying on us!” she said indignantly.
Aaron’s laugh held an edge of recklessness. “Then maybe we should give him something worth seeing.”