Read Online Prelude of Lies by Victoria Smith - Free Book Online

to see him smile. Even at his daughter’s wedding.” He stopped and reached into his pocket. “So, I have good news.”
    Daisy hoped he wasn’t going to breech her privacy. She didn’t want Sydney to know she’d asked him to help locate her father. She still didn’t know why she’d done that, but it’d been six months and nothing had turned up yet. Squashing the thread of hope, she waited.
    “Violet might have set the terms for these inspections, but Gramps had enough life in him to counteract her underhanded scheme. Think of it as a reward system for putting up with all the bullshit.” He handed the envelope to her, then got into his car.
    “Ten thousand dollars?” Daisy passed the check to Sydney.
    “Del wanted to make sure you had some financial backing. He knew Violet would make things difficult for you, and she has. These terms were set without her knowledge. Once her time runs out, you’ll get the rest of the money that was supposed to come with the place, even if you have to sell. Until then, every time you pass inspection, you’ll get a check similar to this.” Al leaned out of the car for them to kiss his cheek, then waved goodbye.
    Daisy turned to Sydney, both breaking out into a squeal as soon as Al turned his car around.
    They returned to the campground, recharged, beautiful and toting several bottles of wine. Not wanting to use Gramps’ money for personal indulgences, Daisy sprang for lunch and manicures and Sydney paid for haircuts and wine.
    Daisy didn’t remember when she’d had so much fun. Their day had been perfect. The gems she’d had glued to the top of her fingernails wouldn’t last through their planned campfire, but they were gorgeous now. She didn’t care. They’d fought Vile Violet for so long both sisters had neglected to take care of themselves.
    They’d told Marshal they wouldn’t accompany the crews tonight, much to his disappointment. Daisy looked forward to the evening plans. Sick of cooking over the fire, they’d grabbed take out from Sydney’s favorite chain restaurant.
    “I’ll start the fire. You get the wine.” Daisy tossed her purchases onto her bed and changed into jeans and a sweatshirt.
    “You got it. Which should we start with?” Sydney unloaded the various bottles of wine.
    “You pick. I’ll drink anything.” She stepped out the door, nearly crashing into Tucker.
    “Sure. Make the uneducated wine drinker pick. No complaints if it sucks,” Sydney yelled.
    “Hey. Heard you had a good inspection.” Tucker smiled, and Daisy resisted his charm. Kind of.
    “Yep. We’re celebrating. Sister night.” Hopefully that was enough to let him know he wasn’t welcome to hang out and share their campfire. What was he still doing here anyway?
    “Nice. Good for you guys. I waited around because I wanted to update you on our status. Sydney said you’re in charge of all the landscaping work.”
    Daisy would kill her. Sydney had done that on purpose, probably hoping to force them together enough to hook up again. Of course, Daisy knew when Sydney told him that, she hadn’t known what had happened between them.
    “What’s up?” She tried to hide her irritation. Tucker didn’t need to know how much he’d hurt her.
    “We’ll probably be another week or two on top of my original estimate. Does that screw you up?”
    She got stuck on the word “screw” and took a second longer than she should have to answer him. “Oh. No. That’s fine. You’re working in the middle section of sites now, right?”
    “Yeah. Except we broke one of the mowers. The part’s on backorder. Let me know if there’s a problem with us taking longer and I’ll do my best to get out of your hair sooner. I could probably borrow the equipment.” He glanced at the big green tractor parked in one of the bigger RV sites.
    “No. You’re fine. You won’t be in our way.” As mad as she was at him, she didn’t want him to finish and vanish from her life again.
    How stupid was