Page 43 of Sugar Coated Secrets

I flinch at the unexpected interruption but quickly relax when I open my eyes to find Easton standing at the back door several feet away.

“It’s a bit early for murder,” I tease, because it’s never too early or late for a good Dateline episode. Lots of women feel this way. I’ve seen their social media posts about their love of real-life murder/crime shows and podcasts. It’s totally normal.

He strolls over and stops at the swing, halting the motion of it with his leg.

I bend to see where the wood frame hit him. Just below his knee on his upper shin. “Didn’t that hurt?”

He glances down, his wavy bangs falling over his eyes, and shrugs. When he looks up to meet my gaze, I notice his eyes are red.

“Did you sleep?”

He didn’t come home—that I’m aware of.

“A little.” He stares over my head at the trees on the side of the property and takes a deep breath. “Can we talk?”

“Yeah.” I straighten and hang both my legs over the edge, giving him room to join me. Not that it would have made a difference had I remained in my sideways, one knee bent up on the cushion position. The swing is big enough for four.

He lowers onto the thick mattress and leans against the pillows along the back. His clothes are the same ones he wore last night, with an added corduroy jacket to escape the morning chill. He looks like he’s been to a bar, but he doesn’t reek of liquor or cigarette smoke.

“Where were you?” It slips out. I don’t expect him to answer.

“A friend’s house.”

And by friend, I’m sure he means woman. Ugh. Before he brings up our kiss, which I’m certain is what he wants to talk about, I take over, hoping to extinguish the topic before things get more awkward, or worse, he feels the need to explain how it was an accident and regrets it happening.

“It’s okay. You don’t have to feel bad about kissing me. It didn’t mean anything. You were excited, and the moment got the better of you. Consider it erased from my mind. Like it never happened.” I pat his knee. There I fixed it. “We can go back to how we were. No harm done.” I pat his knee again, as if I need to touch him. I don’t. I touched him before we kissed plenty. This means nothing.

Silence stretches between us, and Easton’s features bunch as if he’s thinking real hard. For a response to my awkward dismissal of last night?

My gaze catches on a bright red bird on a tree on the other side of the deck. I latch on to it as a distraction from the lingering silence.

“Look. A cardinal.” I point and sit forward a little.

He blinks, looking even more confused by my sudden outburst. “What?”

“A cardinal. Did you see it?”

He follows my finger, but he still seems a bit dazed. “No.”

I shrug and sit back. “You probably see them all the time.”

“Sadie, I, uh…” He brushes his hair from his face, looking even more sexy and rugged with his thicker scruff and disheveled locks.

What lucky lady got to run her fingers through his hair last night?

His brows form a deep V, his torn expression making me curious as to what he’s struggling to say. He opens his mouth and turns at the waist toward me. His hand bumps my phone, which lies between us. The screen brightens with a picture of a half-naked man, stretching in the sun.

“What is this?” He picks up the phone. “New screensaver?”

I could be wrong, but it seems like he’s using the phone as a distraction from what he was about to say. Aren’t we a pair?

“It’s not a screen saver. I’m looking for a sexy man with brown hair and gray eyes.”

“That’s specific.” He hands me the phone, his tone clipped.

“It’s for a client. She wants a man who looks like her book character. The problem is this is the best I can find, and it’s crap. These guys are not attractive. They’re either too plain, too bulky, too skinny, or too feminine. It’s impossible to find an attractive man in stock photos unless I cut off his head, and she wants his face, so that’s not an option,” I vent and sigh. “I shouldn’t have taken the job.”

“It’s for a book cover?” He glances at the phone.

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