And I have every intention of telling Lark about his princess presents, but by the time Maggie, Grayson, and Lola leave, dinner is over—Lark, his sister-in-law, and even Grayson accepted a bowl of minestrone, and though Nina demurred, she got one anyway—Maisy’s bath is about an hour overdue, and I forget all about it.
So I’m surprised when I hear heavy footfalls in the hall outside my bedroom. They’re too fast to be Tyler’s. Maisy is splashing in my tub, singing “Sweet Georgia Brown,” Nanna’s favorite song, and I’m changing when the floor creaks down the hall—by Maisy’s room.
My heart climbs my throat. I grab my robe and throw it around me, knotting the ties as I open the door. Lark is midstride, heading away from Maisy’s room and toward the stairs. And he’s holding the princess paraphernalia.
“Oh gosh,” I stammer. “Sorry about that.”
Lark turns, and I watch the rapid sweep of his eyes along my body. I glance down at the deep V of my robe and quickly clutch the fabric. Beneath the satiny material, I’m just wearing my panties. And before I gripped that V, that fact might have been obvious.
“No, I’m sorry,” Lark says, taking two steps back, further into the shadows of the hall. The light in Maisy’s room is on, and my bedside lamp is lit, but other than that, the hallway is dark. ”It can wait until morning.”
He starts to go, plastic toys still in hand.
“Y-You can leave that. She shouldn’t have been in your room.”
Lark faces me again, his left brow arching high. “You knew?”
I shake my head. “I heard them upstairs. I forgot to say anything. I scolded Maisy for that. Did they leave a mess?”
He stares at me for a long moment like he’s trying to read something in my face. “It’s not what they left that’s the problem.”
My heart plummets. “What do you mean? What did they do?”
Something in his face relaxes. “You didn’t know.”
“Shit,” I mutter. “Tell me.”
His mouth quirks with the barest wry smile. “I called Maggie who interrogated Gray—” He holds up the toys. “Apparently, these are meant to be payment.”
My heart is racing. “For what? What did she take?”
The wry smile strengthens.“Theytook two gemstones.”
My eyes bug. “Gemstones?”
Lark nods. “I think Maisy might be in possession of a hefty chunk of turgite.”
“Turgite?” Apparently, I’m so embarrassed, all I can do is parrot his words.
Lark licks his lips and steps closer into the light. “Um, yeah, it’s an iridescent mineral composite found in the botryoidal habit of goethite.”
I blink once. Twice. “Huh?”
I watch Lark bite the corner of his smile. “It’s a rainbow-looking rock.”
“Oh.” I tilt up my chin, trying to maintain dignity where there’s none to be found. “A rainbow-looking rock sounds exactly like something Maisy would notice.”
“Yeah.” Lark’s eyes narrow on a nod. “I’d let her keep it, but it’s wor—”
He stops and shakes his head, seeming to change his mind mid-sentence. “Let her keep it.”
My heart now plunges to my navel. “No,” I gasp. “She took something that didn’t belong to her. She cannot keep it.”
Lark shrugs and holds up the toys. “At least she tried to pay for it.”
I sneer. “How much is it worth?”
He hesitates. “That one is about two hundred dollars.”