A blush crept up her neck. It was one thing to discuss her superbly failed marriage with other women, but rehashing the gory details with a man—a good-looking, single man—wasn’t something she was comfortable with.

“Maybe Chastity was trying to get something on you,” he continued. “Give herself something to fire back with in case you took her to task publicly.”

“Everyone in Last Chance already knows exactly what kind of person Chastity is. And besides, she’s not smart enough to prepare that way. Preston paid off her teachers to get her out of high school.”

“Smart and clever are two different things. I’ve known plenty of people who couldn’t add two and two but could screw you out of two hundred before you knew what was happening.”

“That’s true, but still, I don’t see where she’d have anything to gain. She already has leverage against me with Avery.”

“Okay, but I still think you should keep an eye on them. I haven’t been in Last Chance for very long, but it seems that most of the problems in this town all stem from the same place.”

Marina frowned. Was it really that simple? That one of the LeDoux had paid someone to get some dirt on her, just in case she protested her divorce or pursued charges against Chastity for stealing Avery’s clothes or some other unpleasantness they might be anticipating? It seemed too simple. And for whatever reason, she felt as if something more sinister was going on.

Then a horrible thought occurred to her and she sucked in a breath.

“Are you all right?” Luke asked.

“Yes, sorry.” She coughed to cover up her loss of control. “Sucked water down the wrong pipe.”

He stared at her silently for several seconds, almost as if he was studying her, and she began to feel somewhat uncomfortable with his scrutiny. What was he thinking? Was he sorry he’d given her his number? Or sorry he’d helped Avery? God knows, most people wouldn’t want to step into the middle of the mess she had going on and if he wanted to ghost her, she wouldn’t blame him.

“Uh, I was thinking,” he said. “I have this thing tomorrow night. A charity thing and it’s at the LeDoux estate. I can bring a guest so if you wanted to go with me, it might be an opportunity to see how they act around you. Maybe they’ll give something away.”

Marina stared, all ability to speak completely gone. Was he asking her out on a date?

She wasn’t even sure what that looked like anymore. Or felt like. Was she supposed to be this confused? This fearful? Of course, technically she was still married and had thought she was going to remain so until a few days ago, so there was that weighing in. And then there was all the current drama in her life. Why would Luke want to step further into that mess than he already had? And taking her to a party at the LeDoux estate would be jumping in naked and feet first. Besides, it wasn’t as though she was a hot-bodied twenty-year-old. She was an overweight, past-her-prime, jobless, essentially homeless woman with limited funds to her name.